Alexey Eremenko spotlighted "teen weight-lifting wunderkind and ardent Communist" Maryana Naumova in a Tuesday item on NBCNews.com. Eremenko, NBC News's Moscow producer, played up how "sports is only part of Naumova's agenda. As a member of the youth arm of Russia's Communist Party...she tours schools and orphanages across Russia to promote weightlifting." However, the journalist never mentioned the brutality of Soviet-era communism.
Eremenko also noted Naumova's recent visit to the war-torn Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where she "toured rebel-held eastern Ukraine on a peace mission — and has no plans to stop there." He later pointed out that the teen athlete "has also traveled to North Korea with a similar mission," and quoted her defense of the totalitarian regime: "It wasn't as bad as they said, nobody took my phone or made me eat dog."
The NBC News producer led his article, "Maryana Naumova, 'Strongest Girl in the World,' Trades Weights for World Affairs," with his "strongest girl in the world" and "ardent Communist" labels of Naumova. He also included three separate mentions about how the teen recently met Arnold Schwarzenegger:
After setting a world record and earning a hug from Arnold Schwarzenegger in Ohio last month, teen weight-lifting wunderkind and ardent Communist Maryana Naumova toured rebel-held eastern Ukraine on a peace mission — and has no plans to stop there.
"I'm just visiting the local kids [in Ukraine] trying to distract them from the war," Naumova, 15, told NBC News in an exclusive interview in her home city of Khimki, Russia, last week.
Like many teens, Naumova's Instagram feed is filled with selfies and frequent snaps of her Starbucks order. Subsequent snapshots with Hulk Hogan and heavyweights like Schwarzenegger, though, show this teen's life is far from "normal."
The blond-haired champion billed as "the princess of the barbell" took to pumping iron at the tender age of 10 and has been on a roll ever since. She bench-pressed 330 pounds at the Arnold Classic tournament in March — earning that hug from Schwarzenegger and another title to add to her two dozen under-18 world records in weightlifting.
Eremenko continued by noting how Naumova is a "member of the youth arm of Russia's Communist Party — the Komsomol," and played up her apparent warm reception in the United States during her recent visit:
While she acknowledged tensions between Russia and the U.S. over the crisis in eastern Ukraine, Naumova said it hasn't had an impact on her recent appearances.
"When going to America, I thought people will dislike me or avoid me," she said. "But it was nothing like that, people were coming over all the time, saying: 'You from Russia? Cool!'"
The Moscow-based journalist did mention that "the Kremlin and the Communist Party — Russia's primary opposition party — both denounce Ukrainian troops fighting the separatists as 'fascists.'" However, he quickly added that "Naumova — who has been denounced by Ukrainian media as a terrorist sympathizer — tiptoes around the political side of the conflict. She insisted to NBC News that the main goal of her visit to Donbas was to support the ordinary people there who are struggling in a wartime economy."
Eremenko included the teen athlete's apologia for North Korea towards the end of his article. He also zeroed in on how Naumova "has concerns over whether she'll be granted a visa to travel to the U.S. for the Mr. Olympia competition in September, has not let potential political ramifications hamper her plans...[but] has not let potential political ramifications hamper her plans." The NBC News journalist underlined this last point in the final paragraphs of his item, and included one more reference to her communist political affiliation:
The teen's busy schedule — packed with competitions, her Communist party activities and looming school exams — leave Naumova little time for rest and none for a high school romance.
But Naumova says she has no regrets and in fact plans to ramp up her public profile, despite the weighty demands on her personal life.
"Look at all the places I get to travel to," she explained. "I think I've achieved everything there was to achieve in bench-pressing. My dream is to go to college, study international relations. I want to have a family and build a career — not sure in what, but journalism looks quite interesting."
If she does pursue a career in journalism, she will certainly encounter ideological fellow travelers in the western world.
