On December 27, the owner of the largest number of awards in history among female athletes, nine-time Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, Honored Coach of the USSR Larisa Semyonovna Latynina celebrates her birthday.
Larisa Latynina (nee Diry) won four gold, one silver and one bronze Olympic medals at the Games of the XVI Olympiad in Melbourne (Australia) in 1956, three gold, two silver and one bronze - at the Games of the XVII Olympiad in Rome (Italy) in 1960 and two gold, two silver and two bronze medals at the Games of the XVIII Olympiad in Tokyo (Japan) in 1964. At the same time, she twice became the Olympic champion in the absolute championship and three times in the team.
Until 2012, Larisa Semyonovna had the largest (by number) collection of Olympic medals in the history of sports - 9 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze medals. Only the "Baltimore Pool" - American swimmer Michael Phelps managed to surpass Latynin in the number of Olympic awards.
Latynina is also the owner of another record - at the 1957 European Championships, she won all the gold medals.
Larisa Semyonovna Latynina was born on December 27, 1934 in the city of Kherson in Ukraine. Father - Semyon Andreevich Diriy (1906-1943), a participant in the Great Patriotic War, died in the Battle of Stalingrad. Mother - Pelageya Anisimovna Barabanyuk (1902-1975), worked as a cleaner.
Larisa dreamed of ballet since childhood. When a choreographic studio was opened in the city House of Folk Art, her mother assigned Larisa to her for the last money. After the closing of the studio, she became interested in gymnastics, in 1950 she completed the first category and, as part of the national team of Ukrainian schoolchildren, got to the all-Union championship in Kazan. In the 9th grade, she fulfilled the standard of the master of sports. She became the first master of sports of the USSR in her hometown.
In 1953, Larisa graduated from school No. 14 in the city of Kherson with a gold medal and entered the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. At the All-Union training camp in Bratsevo, she successfully passed the qualifying tests for the World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest, where she received her first gold medals. She played for Burevestnik (Kyiv). In Kyiv, a student of the Electrical Engineering Faculty of the Polytechnic University Larisa continued training under the guidance of the Honored Trainer of the USSR Alexander Semenovich Mishakov. Sport has already dominated her and demanded more and more attention. From a simple hobby, he grew into a life's work. It became more and more clear to her that it was necessary to choose a path where the future profession would be connected with sports. And when it became obvious, she went to study at the Institute of Physical Culture. In 1954, at the World Championships, the USSR national team won first place, and Larisa Latynina (Diriy) received the first gold medal of the world champion in its composition.
Possessing all the titles that exist in world gymnastics, being a recognized prima in this sport, Larisa Latynina for many years could not win the domestic championship of her country - the competition among her friends and rivals was so great. But this tradition was put to an end: in 1961, and then in 1962, Larisa became the absolute champion of the USSR.
For more than 10 years, Larisa Latynina was the prima of Soviet gymnastics.
At the end of her sports career, Latynina became a coach. She was the coach of the USSR women's gymnastics team at the Olympic Games (1968, 1972 and 1976).
Big sports often - and big intrigues. This cup did not pass and Larisa Semyonovna. After Montreal, she was accused of the fact that our gymnasts lost the absolute championship to the Romanian athlete. They said: gymnastics is no longer the same, Latynina preaches femininity, but tricks, speed and complex elements are needed. In 1977, tired of undeserved reproaches coming from sports officials, Larisa Semyonovna, not seeing any further opportunity to work in such conditions, filed a letter of resignation from coaching.
For four years she worked in the Organizing Committee of the Olympics-80, where she oversaw the preparation and conduct of gymnastics competitions.
Then she worked in the Sports Committee of the city of Moscow, for ten years she was the head coach of the Moscow national gymnastics team. Over the years, gymnasts from the capital have won the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, the USSR Cup.
Larisa Semyonovna is a wonderful writer. Her first book, Sunny Youth, was published in Ukrainian in 1958. Then there were "Balance", "What is the name of this girl", "Gymnastics through the years", "Team". She was published in the magazines Ogonyok, Znamya, Theater, Physical Culture and Sports, Sports Life in Russia, and took part in television programs.
The name of Larisa Latynina is included in the unique list of athletes in New York - the Hall of Olympic Glory. In 2000, at the Olympic Ball in the nomination "The Best Athletes of Russia of the 20th Century", she was included in the "Magnificent Ten", and according to a survey of the world's leading sports journalists, Latynina, along with Alexander Karelin, was named among the 25 outstanding athletes of the century.
The ironic Latynina likes to call herself "the grandmother of Russian gymnastics." However, fresh thoughts about the social role of sports, about the ways of developing her favorite gymnastics, give the right to call Larisa Semyonovna a poet, a romantic of the beautiful world of movements.
The heroine of this article has one of the most interesting careers among athletes of the twentieth century. She was able to win at one time 18 Olympic awards, among which were gold (9), silver (5) and bronze (4). No one in this vast world has such a collection. If we add medals from the championships of the Soviet Union, Europe and the world to this list, then the list becomes even more impressive. So, let's get acquainted: Latynina Larisa Semenovna is the most titled athlete of our planet.
Only forward and only in sports!
Artistic gymnastics should say words of sincere gratitude for the fact that the great Larisa Latynina did not follow the path of a ballerina, because in her hometown - in Kherson - she attended classes in a choreographic circle for a long time and diligently. Unfortunately, all this did not last long: the circle stopped its work, and the ballet school, where a capable girl dreamed of studying, did not exist in this city.
Latynina Larisa Semyonovna had wonderful vocal abilities. But the first gymnastics coach prevented her from becoming a singer. He asked the head of the choir and asked him to tell the girl that she had no data. It so happened that a wise fate made a huge gift to world sport.
Childhood
Latynina Larisa Semenovna, whose biography is an amazing mixture of perseverance, work, victories and many hours of training, was born on December 27, 1934. She had to grow up in the post-war years in Kherson. Without a dad. Then she was Larisa Diriy.
From an early age, the girl was engaged in a choreographic circle. But she connected her life with gymnastics only in the fifth grade. In the year of her sixteenth birthday, Larisa becomes a first-class student and, as one of the members of the national team of Ukrainian schoolchildren, goes to Kazan for the All-Union Championship. But there she fails.
It throws the girl off track. But at the same time with confusion, Latynina Larisa Semenovna begins to train twice a day. Already in the fall, they and the coach begin work on a program for masters. Such hard work does not go unnoticed. Latynina in her city becomes the first master of sports. She takes fourth place for participation in the adult championship of the republic (Kharkov city). But the girl resolutely refuses to move somewhere.
Institute and sports
The year 1954 is coming. The biography of Latynina Larisa, whose victories will remain in the annals of the history of Soviet sports for many decades, is painted with new paint: she graduates from school with a gold medal and becomes a student at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
Once she had to take chemistry a little later than her fellow students. The teacher who took the exam asked the reason for this situation. Larisa replied that this was due to her trip to France in order to perform at a gymnastic tournament. The old woman was indignant with righteous anger, reprimanding her with the words that one should study diligently around the clock at that institute, and not wander around abroad.
The following year, Latynina Larisa Semyonovna, whose biography sometimes seems like some kind of fairy tale, and sometimes - the dear amazingly talented woman, already crossed the threshold of the Kyiv infizkult.
And here you are, Rome!
June 1955 Larisa (then still Diry) is going as one of the representatives of the Soviet Union national team to the thirteenth World Championship in Rome. The fight was very difficult and unpredictable, because many participants showed excellent results. But the Soviet team withstood everything and won. Latynina failed to smoothly pass all the necessary sports equipment. In the all-around, she had to stay far behind the top three.
Favorite free...
But floor exercises changed the whole picture of what was happening. Later, speaking about her performance, it was noted that the audience saw everything shown by the gymnast quite rarely. All this was an amazing acrobatic work of a girl, in which the skills of a ballet school and a subtle musical flair were woven into. And the bouquet of these components provided magical harmony in fairly complex exercises. Experts unanimously claimed that Latynina demonstrated world-class skills. So the girl for the first time in her life became the world champion.
Waiting for the spark of God
In the Ukrainian capital, the city of Kyiv, Mishakov became Latynina's coach. At each training session, he taught his wards to think soberly, think, try to independently solve all the problems that one way or another arose. Yes, he could recognize and agree with the improvisation of the gymnasts, but only in very small quantities and within tight boundaries. He always believed that it would be right to learn and repeat all the given material, and then wait for God's spark and invent something on his own. Mishakov very rarely and reservedly praised his wards. He could look at them for a long time, squint, but smiled very rarely.
It is difficult not only to win, but also to stay in place
In the spring of 1956, Latynina Larisa, whose sports biography is riddled with references to high-profile victories, wins in Kyiv at major international competitions against three strong athletes: Muratova, Shamrai and Manina. She leaves Keleti and Bosakova far behind. In this fight, Latynina was able to win on three shells and in the all-around. But the coach was still not satisfied with her result, because he really wanted Larisa to overtake Eva Bosakova in floor exercises.
Everything was decided on the third day of December 1956. Then there were gymnastics competitions in the famous Melbourne. Of the entire composition of the team of the Soviet Union on the 54th, three girls remained: Latynina, Muratova and Manina.
At a certain stage, the national team of the country of the Soviets takes the first place and wins more points, which was a significant help in sports in competitions. In the all-around, the first place was taken by the athlete Elena Leushtyanu, the second - by Sonya Muratova, and the third - by Larisa Latynina. Only thousandths of such an important score for each of them separated the contenders for victory.
Excitement and mantra
Latynina recalled that on that day she was not at all worried. All thanks to the wise Mishakov. The coach explained to her that for her to be in third place is a great opportunity to establish herself as a strong athlete. But it's important to stay where you are. And instead of worrying, Larisa thought about how she should do it right.
On the pages of her literary work called “Equilibrium”, the gymnast described her condition in those days, hours and minutes. Like a spell, she repeated to herself the words that everything must be done, as she had already done. Then they explained to her that the girl had a fairly high automatism of the skill. But at the moment of the jump, she did not remember anything except landing in the boards. Much later, Larisa found out that on that day her mark was the highest.
When all the participants of these competitions finished their jumps, it became clear that Latynina won the gold award.
It was there, in Melbourne, that the competition for medals for exercises took place for the last time in parallel with the battle to get the title of absolute champion. Latynina Larisa Semyonovna has not yet felt her first triumph. It's time for floor exercises. She and Agnes Keleti had the highest and absolutely equal sums of points. At first, Latynina rejoiced at her victory, not fully realizing it. And then I took it as a personal achievement and an advantage in using a unique style.
Required nine points
After the break, she performed surprisingly easily and freely on the uneven bars, eventually receiving the highest score for all the past days in Melbourne for women - 9.6 points. In total, she gave Larisa the silver medal after Agnes Keleti. And in the afternoon, the girls changed places: Keleti finished her performance, and Larisa continued such important persecution for her. True, she realized this only when it was time to perform with the last projectile. To become the absolute champion of the Olympic Games, Latynina would have needed only nine points (two other participants from the Soviet team had slightly more - 9.5 and 9.8). Therefore, this task was the easiest for her.
Unforgettable ninety seconds
It was at that moment when it was necessary to maintain balance on a log, calmness left Latynina. She suddenly felt like a robot with mechanical movements. But in a moment everything was fine. The movements regained their former ease, but she kept thinking about how to stay on this log. It seemed to her that it lasted a whole day, and not just ninety seconds. But what she experienced in those fifteen minutes, Latynina has not forgotten to this day.
She had not yet had time to come to her senses after completing the program, and her teammates were already in a hurry to congratulate her on her victory.
The fact that Latynina is a gymnast with a very high level of skill was shown by the first European Championship, where the strongest athletes arrived. From the first exercise Larisa Semyonovna took the lead, having achieved a serious victory in individual exercises and all-around.
One medal for two
December 1957 Larisa loses the championship of the Secular Union to another gymnast - Muratova. But already in the next, 1958, she easily performs at the world championship, being already pregnant. The audience will remember this performance for a long time. Larisa Semyonovna Latynina, Honored Master of Sports, won the all-around championship and won what rightfully belonged to her on the uneven bars and in her daughter Tatyana was born on time and a completely healthy girl. Many years later, as an adult, she showed her mother's 1958 medal, saying with a smile that they had won it together.
After the birth of her daughter, it seemed to many around that all the victories of Latynina were already behind. The leaders began to read another gymnast - Astakhova. But it was not there. Could not just give up Latynina Larisa Semenovna. Her house was always full of friends who often remembered that day of unconditional victory. She did not forget how to compete even after the appearance of her daughter. Remembering Rome six years ago, Latynina could not afford to lose.
Those one and a half minutes of beautiful music and smooth movements are probably not enough to impress the audience. But put together, they can make you feel a lot. After all, everything depends only on the athlete, who should not think about how to perform everything technically, but about what exactly he wants to tell with his every movement and turn of his head. Latynina started and finished the exercise in one breath. For the first time in her life, she listened with such impatience to the noise of applause and waited for the judges' assessments. But even before the scores were announced - 9.9, she knew that she had won.
In Tokyo, Larisa Semenovna for the last time became the captain of the Soviet gymnastics team, which turned out to be the winner of the Olympics. But for several years, the athlete stayed in the team, remaining on the sidelines of the newcomers, teaching the girls to win.
Latynina Larisa Semyonovna, whose personal life back in Soviet times was of interest to fans of her talent, for ten years was the head coach of the women's team of the Soviet Union. It was under her strict guidance that this team won Olympic gold in 1968, 1972 and 1976. For five years she was a member of the Organizing Committee of the Olympics-80, and then controlled the development of gymnastics in the Moscow Sports Committee.
Life after sports
At his dacha, which is located in Semenovsky, above Latynina, he has a farm. She has pigs, sheep, rabbits. She always loved pets, but life developed in such a way that it was not possible to have a fluffy pet. Now, being retired, she enjoys the opportunity.
The athlete was very fond of housekeeping, but while in her youth there were trips, training, performances, there was not much time to do this. And today, with great pleasure, despite her venerable age (she recently turned 81), she performs her purely feminine duties. And Latynina Larisa Semyonovna feels absolutely happy. The husbands of this wonderful woman always spoke only kind words about her. She broke up with her first husband, Ivan Latynin, whose last name she still bears. And with her third husband (she never talks about the second) - Yuri Feldman, with whom she now spends most of her time (he is one of the leaders of the capital JSC Dynamo, and in the past - a master of sports in racing on the track), they met back in 1985, when we were in the Voronovo rest house near Moscow.
In her life, in which there were many bright streaks, and not so much, Latynina Larisa Semenovna faced one serious loss: her son Andrei died. This is her great pain. Her great misfortune. Therefore, despite the fact that many years have passed, she does not raise this topic, especially with journalists.
Yes, a part of the heart ceased to live, because Latynina Larisa Semenovna experienced great maternal love for her child. The son died, but the daughter Tatyana remained. She did not become a gymnast like her mother. The girl graduated from school with the ensemble of Igor Moiseev, with the famous "Birch" traveled the whole world. When the ensemble was on tour in Venezuela, she met her future husband, Rostislav Ordovsky-Tanaevsky Blanco, a businessman (he opened the Rostiks restaurant chain). Now they have two wonderful children: Konstantin and Vadim. The famous grandmother gladly helps her daughter - cooks, irons, cleans. And it is not a burden for her, because she does all this for her beloved family.
There are many Olympic champions in the world. But only one woman has won gold at the Olympics - nine times! Gymnast, record holder Larisa Latynina, nee Diry (born December 27, 1934 in Kherson) held an absolute record for most of her life. Indeed, until 2012, she was the most titled Olympic athlete in history and still maintains leadership among athletes. And this amazing woman won all her victories only thanks to her work and talents.
Eight-year-old Larisa became an orphan when her father died during the Great Patriotic War. The mother worked two jobs as a stoker and a cleaner, but still managed to get money to study the girl in a choreographic studio. However, the studio (the only one in the city) closed: for Larisa, who dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina, it was a blow. I had to go to the gymnastics studio. The nine-time Olympic champion got into the sport almost by accident ...
At the age of fifteen, Larisa took part in the all-Union championship for schoolchildren - and lost these competitions miserably. But failure tempered the future champion.
In the ninth grade, the girl became a master of sports, the only master of sports in Kherson. And at the age of eighteen she won the first international awards (gold) at the youth festival in Bucharest. The next year, 1954, was Rome: Larisa Diriy (she would become Latynina only after her first marriage) became the world champion for the first time.
During performances, Larisa demonstrated not only technique, but also excellent artistry. The coaches even reproached the girl for being "". One way or another, the failed ballerina defeated the rest of the gymnasts over and over again. From the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, Larisa took away a whole scattering of medals: four golds (in the absolute and team championships, in vault and floor exercises), silver (bars) and bronze (team exercises with an object). When the team returned on the liner to Vladivostok and traveled by train to Moscow (long-distance flights were still rare at that time), people greeted the gymnasts at every station and half-station.
In 1957, Larisa triumphantly completed the European Championship, winning gold medals in absolutely all categories. However, next year the girl could have left the sport: the fact is that Latynina was preparing to become a mother. Not being sure of her sporting future, Larisa hid her pregnancy, went to the World Championships and won first place there. Surprisingly, she did this on the advice of a doctor. The daughter was born a completely healthy child, later became a dancer, fulfilling her mother's unfulfilled dream. Now Latynina already has two adult grandchildren.
Childbirth is a big test for a gymnast. Nevertheless, Larisa managed to fully recover and continued her career as a winner. She won gold, silver and bronze at both the 1960 Rome Olympics and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Latynina completed sports performances at the age of 31: a rare “longevity” for a gymnast.
However, Larisa was not used to sitting idle and immediately began a new, no less successful career. Latynina was the head coach of Soviet Olympic gymnasts in Mexico City (1968), Munich (1972), and Montreal (1976). The Soviet team during this period was the world leader.
However, despite all the merits, Larisa was dismissed from her post in 1977. Later, she was a member of the organizing committee of the Moscow Olympics, in the 80s she coached the Moscow national team, and in the 90s she was deputy director of the Physical Education and Health Foundation. Nine-time Olympic champion and now takes an active part in the sports and social life of the country. Looking at this woman, you can’t say that she is already over eighty!
Latynina is the most titled athlete on the planet! She won 18 Olympic medals, of which 9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze. She is a two-time absolute champion of the Olympics, the world, Europe and the USSR.
Latynina admitted that she does not like to train. She said that she did not like everything that only precedes gymnastics, but that in itself is not gymnastics. She loved to perform. Probably many famous athletes think the same way. But only Latynina admitted this, spoke out loud. She has such a difficult character - to think and speak without prejudice. And in the end, this always helped her to establish herself in the infallibility of her choice, to creatively analyze her every step on the way to the intended goal.
Larisa Semenovna Latynina was born on December 27, 1934. She grew up in post-war Kherson without a father. At that time her name was Larisa Diriy. In early childhood, Larisa was engaged in a choreographic circle. I started gymnastics in the fifth grade. Her first coach was Mikhail Afanasyevich Sotnichenko. In 1950, Diry became a first-class student and, as part of the national team of Ukrainian schoolchildren, went to the All-Union Championship in Kazan. However, in the capital of Tatarstan, she performed unsuccessfully.
After that failure, Larisa trained twice a day. In the fall, he and Sotnichenko moved on to work on a program for masters. Pretty soon she became the first master of sports in her hometown. Speaking already according to the updated program at the adult championship of the republic in Kharkov, Larisa took fourth place. Larisa refused all tempting offers to move to another city.
She graduated from school with a gold medal and in 1954 entered the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Once, due to a trip to the competition, I passed chemistry later. An elderly teacher asked: “Why didn’t you come to the test along with everyone else?” Hearing that the student performed at the gymnastic tournament in Paris, she was indignant: “Girl, this is the Order of Lenin Polytechnic Institute! Here you need to study day and night, and not tumble around abroad!
The following year, Larisa was already studying at the Kiev infizkult. In June of the same year, Diriy went to Rome as part of the USSR national team for the next, thirteenth world championship. The team won a tough fight. Larisa was not able to pass all the shells exactly and remained in the all-around far beyond the line of winners. Another thing is floor exercises. The famous German gymnast G. Dickhut wrote: “What the young Larisa Diriy showed us, we see very rarely ... It was the purest acrobatic work, in which both an excellent ballet school and a wonderful musical flair were manifested, which ensures harmony in complex exercises. This is an exemplary demonstration of world-class craftsmanship.” So she became the world champion for the first time.
In Kyiv, Larisa trained with Mishakov. Semenych taught his wards to think, independently solve problems that arise at each training session. However, he recognized improvisation within very narrow limits. “You first learn, repeat, and then wait for the spark of God,” he said. Mishakov was very stingy with praise. He peered, squinted, and seldom smiled. In March 1956, Larisa won major international competitions in Kyiv against Tamara Manina, Sonya Muratova, and Gali Shamray. Behind were Eva Bosakova and Agnes Keleti. In addition to the all-around, Larisa also won on three shells. But Semenych was dissatisfied: it was necessary to win floor exercises from Bosakova!
And then came December 3, 1956 - the opening of gymnastics competitions in Olympic Melbourne. From the team of the fifty-fourth year, three remained: Muratova, Manina and Latynina.
Before the rest day, the USSR team came out on top and won more points. In the all-around, Romanian Elena Leushteanu was in first place, Sonya Muratova was in second place, and Larisa was in third. The leaders were separated by thousandths of a point. Larisa, oddly enough, was not worried. And why? “Third place is very good for you,” the subtle psychologist Mishakov told her, “but you still have to hold on.” And she thought about how to hold on.
In her book Balance, Latynina wrote:
“Do everything as you have already done,” I repeated to myself before the jump. I don’t know if it was the high automaticity of the skill, as I was told later, or something else, but from the whole jump, I only remembered landing on the boards. The fact that the score was the highest of the day, I found out later. Also later, when all the participants had already jumped, it became clear that I had a gold, and Tamara had a silver Olympic medal. In Melbourne, we last contested medals for exercises at the same time as the fight for the title of absolute champion.
And I must say that with this system, I did not fully feel the first victory. But then the freestyle went, and Agnes Keleti, and I have the largest and equal amounts. I rejoiced at this victory then still unconsciously, and then I already realized it as a personal achievement, as an advantage of style.
Apparently, during these hours I believed in myself, after a break on the uneven bars I performed easily, calmly and received the highest mark for all days in Melbourne for women - 9.6. It also gave me a total of second place behind Keleti and a silver medal. Now in the afternoon we switched places: Agnes finished performing, and I led a kind of pursuit. However, I must say quite frankly that it became clear to me only before the last shell. It would be enough for me to get 9 points, and I became the absolute champion of the Olympic Games. Sonya would need 9.5 for this, and Tamara, by Melbourne standards, had to get a completely fantastic score - 9.8. So, the most realistic thing was to solve the problem for me. But... didn't Keleti consider her task in Rome just as unrealistic? I knew that the Hungarian gymnasts were following us now, just as we had once followed Agnes's jumps. Did they expect accidents? Perhaps, if there were no accidents, surprises, sport would not be sport, gymnastics would not be gymnastics.
So, balance on a log. That was the moment of the 16th Olympic Games when the calm left me. At first, I felt like a enslaved mannequin on a log, and then, when the movements nevertheless gained ease, I thought: do not break, do not break. This is a very bad refrain. Under it you forget about everything else. Well, can an actor ... ignite the viewer if, during a monologue, he repeats to himself: "Do not forget, do not forget." He will not forget, but he will be quickly forgotten. After Melbourne, I managed to get rid of such a refrain. It seemed that not a minute and a half, but an hour and a half passed, until I jumped off the log. Here is the score. I don’t have time to perceive it yet, but I understand that if both Lina and Lida kiss and hug me and all the girls run to me, it’s a victory!
After the Olympics, at a government reception in the Kremlin in the presence of Khrushchev and Voroshilov, Larisa shocked everyone by making a toast on behalf of the champions: “Do you know why we fought so hard in the Olympic arenas? We were afraid that if we lose, Nikita Sergeevich will sow all the stadiums with corn.
Another evidence of the highest level of Latynina's skill was the first European Championship, which brought together virtually all the strongest gymnasts. Larisa was in the lead from the very first exercise and achieved a convincing victory in the all-around and in individual exercises.
In December 1957, Latynina lost the USSR championship to Muratova. But this was not what bothered Larisa. She was expecting a baby. In July 1958, the pregnant Latynina, as if nothing had happened, performed at the world championship, being in her fifth month. But how! She not only excelled in the all-around, but also took the "gold" in the vault and on the uneven bars. The girl, who was named Tatyana, was born on time and healthy. Years later, the daughter, showing the medal of 1958, will smile: “We won it together with my mother.”
After the birth of a child, it seemed to many that Larisa would no longer be able to win in the gymnastics arena. And Polina Astakhova began to be read as the new leaders of Soviet gymnastics.
“Now, when I return to the games in Rome, I clearly understand,” Latynina recalled, “that it is simply impossible to talk about our competitions there and not talk about my duel with Lina ...
We performed in the evening, and there was a whole day of worries. The team is the strongest, they said about us that they should worry. Indeed, we won more than four points against Czech gymnasts.
And jump again. I jumped onto the platform with a ball. Do you think you've forgotten how to compete? My score is 9,433, and I win back almost everything that she accumulated during the first day in one event from Lina. But the next view is the bars, where Polina was then, of course, unsurpassed. Here she returns her tenth. Then the log. In front of him, I remembered Rome, heated six years ago, and one moment that deprived Tamara Manina of hopes for the title of world champion, and her bewildered face. Yes, all this was a long time ago. And now - forward. And, as always, don't think about evaluation, don't think about danger, don't think about rivals. Think about how best to perform, showing everything that you can do, spiritualizing the skill with feeling.
But after the projectile, emotions are emotions, and the fight is a fight. Practical language - 9.7. I knew it was high praise. Sonya got 9.66 after me. If Polina had received a grade equal to mine, I would not have been able to catch up with her; if equal to Sonina - before the last view, she would be ahead of me by one tenth. I believed that I could win it back - ahead of the free. I'm talking about these two assessments. For more, it was necessary to take risks, as Eva Bosakova did in the morning, who received 9.766. But Eve could afford the risk; she did not claim absolute superiority, beam exercises were her only chance for a medal. Lina, on the other hand, was thinking about another medal, and when the struggle intensified, she apparently trembled a little. A little bit. It cost her a lot. And Polina did not have enough balance. She fell and was eliminated with a score of 8.733 from the fight for the championship.
One and a half minutes of music, as well as ninety seconds of movement, is probably not enough to leave a very deep impression. And yet, merged together, they have a lot to say. In these moments, everything depends on you. Do not think about how to pass the diagonal and get into the rack, do not spend the last minutes repeating the flasks. Think about one thing - how best to convey everything that you want to say with your movements, what each of them serves. Then, in Rome, I knew it. I really wanted these freestyles to become an event not only for me. I started and finished them in the same breath. Perhaps for the first time in my life, I captiously listened to the noise of applause. And even before the evaluation of the judges - 9.9 - I knew: I did what I had planned.
And here are the results of the absolute championship: I am the first, Sonya Muratova is the second, Lina is the third, Rita Nikolaeva is the fourth, Lida Ivanova is the seventh. A zero mark on the balance beam threw Tamara Lyukhina far away, but she also receives a gold medal for the team victory. As a team, we beat the Czech girls by almost nine points, and the day of the finals was our day.”
“Soviet gymnasts,” wrote Gianni Rodari in Paese Sera, “gave the most beautiful picture of the Olympic Games on television. We have never seen anything more beautiful than this spectacle of beauty, grace and harmony ... "
The USSR national team went to the Olympics-64 in a strongly updated line-up. According to Latynina, the coaches had to bet on one gymnast: either on her or on Astakhova. Then there was a real chance to win the medal of the absolute champion.
Back in 1963, Latynina managed to win the pre-Olympic competitions from Chaslavskaya in the framework of the Japanese Open Championship. But ... Larisa performed exactly, almost the same as in Rome: the uneven bars - the second place, the balance beam - the second, the jump - the third, the freestyle - the first. Successfully, evenly, but lacked the brilliance, the external effect, what a real champion should always have.
However, Latynina simply did not have the right to end the Olympic path with a defeat. And as always, brilliantly, she performed her favorite freestyle.
In Tokyo, Latynina was the last time the captain of the Soviet gymnastic team - the winner of the Olympics. But she remained in the team for several more years, went on the platform next to the newcomers, lost to them, resignedly playing supporting roles in the play, where she shone as a soloist for so many seasons, she taught the girls to win.
It is natural that Larisa Latynina became the head coach of the USSR women's team, and she was for ten whole years. Under her leadership, our team won Olympic gold medals three times in 1968, 1972, 1976. For five years, Latynina was a member of the Olympics-80 Organizing Committee, then she was responsible for the development of gymnastics at the Moscow Sports Committee.
Today, at her dacha - near the famous architectural monument of the 18th century "Joy" in Semenovsky over the Lopasnya River - Larisa Semyonovna set up a whole farm: rabbits, pigs, sheep ...
“Since childhood, I have loved pets very much,” says Larisa Semyonovna. - But life has developed in such a way that I have always been far from them. And now I am a pensioner, and when the opportunity arose to start this farm, I took the opportunity with pleasure. And then, it's not pampering ...
All my life, while I was performing, coaching, while going to training camps and competitions, I had no time to take care of my house, apartment. And now I am fulfilling my purely feminine duties with such pleasure. Cooking, waiting for Yura from work - this is my husband. The Lord sent me a wonderful person, with him I experience real female happiness. Next to me is a beloved and loving person, not far from us lives my daughter with two grandchildren. I am happy to help them: cook, clean, iron. It doesn't bother me at all. On the contrary, I feel some pleasure from it. So, as you can see, retirement life can be happy too.”
Daughter Tanya did not become a gymnast. After graduating from school with the ensemble of Igor Moiseev, she entered the famous "Birch", with which she traveled all over the world. On tour in Venezuela, she met her future husband. The son-in-law, who has Russian roots, is called Rostislav, it is not surprising that the network of restaurants he opened is called Rostik.
Latynina Larisa Semyonovna
Honored Master of Sports of the USSR
Honored Coach
Honored Worker of Physical Culture of the Russian Federation
Nine-time Olympic champion
Winner of eighteen Olympic medals
Two-time absolute world champion
Multiple World Champion, European Champion
USSR Cup Winner
Absolute champion of the USSR, Japan
Cavalier of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" III and IV degrees
Father - Diry Semyon Andreevich (1906-1943), a participant in the Great Patriotic War, died in the Battle of Stalingrad.Mother - Pelageya Anisimovna Barabanyuk (1902-1975). Spouse - Feldman Yuri Izrailovich (born in 1938), Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Russian and International Academy of Electrotechnical Sciences, in the past - President, General Director of Dynamo Joint-Stock Electrotechnical Company. Daughter - Tatyana Ivanovna Latynina (born in 1958), danced for 15 years in the Beryozka choreographic ensemble. Grandchildren: Konstantin (born in 1981), Vadim (born in 1994).
The hard years of enemy occupation and post-war devastation fell on the lot of Larisa and her mother. To feed the family, my mother had to work day and night as a cleaner and stoker. Nevertheless, her unshakable principle - a daughter should be brought up no worse than people - acted under any circumstances.
Larisa Semyonovna recalls: “I will never forget the war. And no one from my generation will forget her. Among the families of my peers, there is not a single one that would not have been touched by the troubles of wartime. Somewhere in the region of the great Battle of Stalingrad, in a land littered with fragments and soaked with gunpowder, my father is buried.
Larisa dreamed of ballet since childhood. The girl clearly imagined the huge stage of the Bolshoi Theater, the multi-tiered hall and stormy applause addressed to the ballerina Larisa Diriy, dancing on the stage easily, confidently, naturally. One day, after school, Larisa saw an announcement that a choreographic studio had opened in the House of Folk Art. Education in it cost 50 rubles a month, which was a significant part of my mother's salary, but my mother gave this money without hesitation. If in
At the same time, some other paid school was opened somewhere - for example, playing the piano, then the last money would have been given there.
... The day came when we, sniffling with excitement, began to study the great wisdom of the ancient and wonderful art of ballet. Our leader, Nikolai Vasilyevich Stesso, seemed to us the direct closest heir to Petipa, and we often wondered: why is he messing with us in Kherson, and not commanding soloists and corps de ballet ranks on the stages of Moscow or Leningrad? Under the patronage of our leader, we got to the performance of the great dancer Lepeshinskaya, who had toured with us for only one day. If in the first minutes the question “Can I do this?” still arose subconsciously, then he retreated, as everything around him receded and faded, except for the stage. Then for the first time I really saw what is now commonly called the words "wonderful world of movements." Yes, it was a new, beautiful, dazzling world, and when the performance ended, we could not even believe that one person had taken us there.
Soon the studio closed - there were not enough parental shares. N.V. Stesso invited Larisa and another girl to continue their studies in the circle, which he led in one of the clubs. There, the girlfriends got into almost adult club life: they were “put on numbers”, they danced at amateur performances, went to evening movie shows. And yet the atmosphere was no longer the same, and Larisa decided to part with dancing. This is not to say that this decision was easy for her. This did not mean that she parted with the dream. After all, she already had gymnastics ...
I really liked gymnastics, as any child likes movements and as any girl likes the art of beautiful movements. I used to climb trees and attics and pull myself up on makeshift pipe bars, run along stone parapets and jump rope. In the end of my dancing career, the decisive role was played by the fact that the seemingly parallel courses of ballet and gymnastics nevertheless crossed. “Leave gymnastics, Larisa, it will coarsen you, stiffen your muscles, and in general it’s not art, except perhaps closer to the circus,” Nikolai Vasilyevich Stesso told me politely, wringing his hands picturesquely. “Give up, Laura, your hopak,” my first coach Mikhail Afanasyevich Sotnichenko said angrily. - It's not a serious matter. It only hinders the sport. And in gymnastics, something began to work out for you.
Mom, dad and Larisa. 1940
Champion of the USSR among schoolchildren. 1951
Something worked with hopak. But I believed Mikhail Afanasyevich. Childhood and youth quickly catch falsehood and truth. And every word of my first coach, a school teacher, was always true.
Gymnastics was becoming more and more part of Larisa's life. In 1950, she completed the first category and, as part of the national team of Ukrainian schoolchildren, went to the All-Union Championship in Kazan. However, the performance was unsuccessful: the young gymnast got a zero on the crossbar and then worried for a long time, bursting into tears alone. It was then that Larisa learned one firm rule: laugh with everyone, cry alone.
After Kazan, Larisa trained with redoubled energy and already in the 9th grade she fulfilled the standard of a master of sports. In Kherson, at the city stadium, she was solemnly awarded a badge and a certificate. She became the first master of sports of the USSR in her hometown. In 1953, Larisa graduated from school with a gold medal and was going to go to Kyiv to enter the Polytechnic Institute. Almost simultaneously, she was sent a call from Moscow to an all-Union gathering in Bratsevo, where the USSR national team was preparing, leaving for the World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest. She passed the decisive control qualifying competitions with dignity and soon received the coveted blue woolen suit with a white "Olympic" strip around the neck and the letters "USSR".
In the capital of Romania, the first gold medals in Larisa Diriy's sports career were won at international competitions.
Workout…
In training with Alexander Semyonovich Mishakov
Bucharest.
For the first time in the USSR national team.
L. Latynina, T. Manina.
1953
Warsaw. Student games. 1955
In Kyiv, a student of the Electrical Engineering Faculty of the Polytechnic University, Larisa, continued training under the guidance of the Honored Trainer of the USSR Alexander Semenovich Mishakov. For a capable girl, sport grew from a simple hobby into a matter of life and required more and more attention. It became more and more clear to her that it was necessary to choose a path where the future profession would be connected with sports. And when it became obvious, she went to study at the Institute of Physical Culture.
Time passed, and one day in June 1954 we found ourselves in the Eternal City - Rome. The thirteenth world championship, and for the Soviet gymnasts - the first. And it took place in unprecedented conditions: under the open sky, in the shade, the thermometer showed more than forty degrees, it was scary to approach the shells.
Fortunately, we started with floor exercises. I remember the feeling of unexpected ease with which I stepped onto the mat and started my run. Turns, high jumps, a jump with a turn - everything worked out, and it worked out quite well. I finished the exercise and heard applause.
The competition continued with balance beam exercises. My lips were completely dry, and it seemed that sweat would surely pour into my eyes, and the sultry air seemed like a thick fog. I whispered to myself: I won’t fall, I won’t fall, and instantly forgot that I had performed with such ease just recently. Dismount. Completely exhausted, I thought: no, you can’t perform like that. Meanwhile, Sonya Muratova dropped out of the fight, got a dislocation of the elbow joint. Maria Gorokhovskaya was in the lead, Tamara Manina, who jumped well, followed her, and Galina Shamrai and I took places nearby. The excitement was very great.
After the first day of the competition, we read in the evening papers: “Russia has an undeniable advantage. Soviet gymnasts are calm, cool-headed, have excellent style and have an absolute superiority over their rivals in the performance of exercises according to the compulsory program. If only the author of these lines knew what each performance cost our girls.
In the morning I decided: the worst is over. This time we started at ten o'clock, and the stands of the stadium were filled with spectators who protected themselves from the sun in a variety of ways. We were applauded in advance, even before the performance. And our freemen sparkled, began to play. Later, I was shown a translation of an article by the famous German gymnast G. Diekhut, which included the following lines: “What young Larisa Diry showed us, we see very rarely ... It was the purest acrobatic work, which manifested itself both an excellent ballet school and a wonderful musical flair, which ensures harmony in complex exercises. This is an exemplary demonstration of world-class craftsmanship.”
Tamara Manina taught the highest score in the free program, the highest score and the gold medal of the world champion. Tamara is the world champion. I believed and did not believe in it, and rejoiced at the success of my friend, was surprised and drove away the thought that I could also perform well, because I was in the group of leaders. However, the heavy burden of leadership then was clearly beyond my strength. Fell off the bars! Quite rightly, the losses were estimated at two points. Both Tamara Manina and the most experienced Maria Gorokhovskaya failed. Fortunately, Galya Shamray withstood all the exhausting vicissitudes of the struggle and boldly attacked the peak, which, to tell the truth, we were afraid to think about.
Moscow. USSR Championship. 1964
The USSR national team won the first place, and Larisa Latynina (Diriy) in its composition received the first gold medal of the world champion.
Two years remained before the Olympics in Melbourne. Larisa and her coach Alexander Semenovich Mishakov were looking for a special style where sport would be in harmony with artistry. The search was not easy. Sometimes I had to hear reproaches: “You drag ballet into gymnastics, but here you don’t need to show feelings.”
Semenych taught us to think, to solve something on our own at every training session. However, he recognized improvisation at that time within very definite limits. “You first learn, repeat, and then wait for the spark of God,” he told me. And I taught and repeated dozens and hundreds of times.
The best gymnasts of the world: L. Latynina, B. Shakhlin, Y. Titov.
1962
In March 1956, Larisa won major international competitions in Kyiv, defeating Tamara Manina, Sofya Muratova and Galina Shamray. Moreover, she won the all-around and won on three shells, leaving behind the Czech Eva Bosakova and the Hungarian Agnes Keleti. In May, L. Latynina won the USSR Cup in Baku. This was followed by the USSR championship and two gold awards for the jump and floor exercises. This meant that the corporate style of Larisa was to the liking of the judges.
And then came December 3, 1956. For the first time, P. Astakhova, L. Kalinina, L. Latynina, T. Manina, S. Muratova, L. Egorova entered the Melbourne gymnastic platform as part of the Soviet Union team. All are Olympic debutantes.
Rival friends.
L. Ivanova, L. Latynina, T. Manina.
1958
“Do everything as you can, as you have already done, and you will perform well,” Alexander Semenovich told me. Previously, these words would have sowed many doubts in me, but now experience has already suggested: yes, perhaps this is true. I saw in training that I do a lot no worse than recognized masters. After two shells, the best of us, Sonya Muratova, is in third place, and I am in sixth. After the jumps, we come out as a team in first place and win more points. Now you can calmly figure out your personal chances - there is a whole day of rest ahead.
So, in the all-around in the first place, the Romanian Elena Leushtyanu. Agnes Keleti, as we expected, summed up the jumps - she is in fourth place ... Sonya is in second place, and I am in third. There are thousandths of points between us and the leader, and Tamara, who is in fifth place, loses a little to Keleti. So everything is ahead. “Third place is very good for you,” Mishakov told me, “but you still have to hold on.” “Do everything as you have already done,” I repeated to myself before the jump. I don’t know if it was the high automatism of the skill, as I was told later, or something else, but from the whole jump, I only remembered landing in the “board”.
The fact that the score was the highest of the day, I found out later. But now the floor exercises have passed: both Agnes Keleti and I have the largest and equal amounts. I rejoiced at this victory then still unconsciously, and then I already realized it as a personal achievement, as an advantage of style. Apparently, during these hours I believed in myself, after a break on the uneven bars I performed easily, calmly and received the highest mark for all days in Melbourne for women - 9.6. It also gave me second place in total and a silver medal.
So, balance on a log. It was that moment of the 16th Olympic Games when the calm left me. At first, I felt like a enslaved mannequin on a log, and then, when the movements nevertheless gained ease, I thought: “Do not break, do not break.” This is a very bad refrain. Under it you forget about everything else. It is unlikely that an actor will be able to ignite the viewer if, during a monologue, he repeats to himself: "Do not forget, do not forget." He will not forget, but he will be quickly forgotten. After Melbourne, I managed to get rid of such a refrain. It seemed that not a minute and a half, but an hour and a half passed, until I jumped off the log. Here is the score. I don’t have time to perceive it yet, but I understand that if Lina and Lida are kissing and hugging me and all the girls are running towards me - victory!
Ship "Georgia".
P. Astakhova, L. Kalinina, L. Latynina, T. Manina, S. Muratova, L. Egorova. 1956
On the ship "Georgia", when we returned home, I was given a badge and a certificate of the Honored Master of Sports of the USSR and a cake. Both were supposed to be in our delegation for gold medals. The badge is individual, cakes are for everyone who enters the cabin. ... I remember many meetings in my homeland, but this one - the first after my first Olympic Games - was especially unexpected. Until those minutes, until we descended onto the snow-covered Vladivostok coast, we all lived in the world of sports. Whether in the Olympic mixture of peoples, or in our delegation, or in a hall full of spectators, we were still in the familiar environment of people who knew the value of sports, victories and defeats. And only here we realized how many people, seemingly uninvolved in sports, were waiting for us, waiting for victory, watching and worrying, rejoicing and upset. People met our train from Vladivostok at all stations and at such hours when it was time for us and those who met us to sleep. The train ran for more than 8 days, and all this time in our compartments, on the platforms of the stations, even where the train passed half-stations and sidings, we felt something incomparably more than benevolent curiosity and attention. We felt recognition, recognition of the people, recognition of a great country.
In 1957, Larisa Latynina won the European Cup and won all four exercises. In an equal struggle, her new style is affirmed.
Moscow Palace of Sports. Here, in 1958, the opening of the World Championship is being prepared, the second in a row, in which Latynina was to start. But unlike the first start in 1954, she had to defend the right to be called the best gymnast on the planet. The fight for this title began in December 1957 at the USSR Championship. Larisa loses to Sofya Muratova in the competition for the absolute championship. Wins only in floor exercises.
There are things in a woman's life that the magic of sports, or the arts, or the ability to build dams and fly planes recede. Everything recedes. I'm expecting a baby. It seems that I have just entered here, into the white-and-green house of the clinic on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard. In front of me is a calm gray-haired professor.
What are your plans, girl?
What are my plans now? What you say, I will do.
- When I didn’t wait, I was going to perform at the World Championships in July.
“In July…” the professor thought for a moment and said calmly: “Well, speak up!”
- In July?
- In July, and only not a word to anyone. Commissions, councils will begin, they themselves will be frightened and will frighten you.
“But isn’t it dangerous, doctor?”
“Listen to me, girl! I understand gymnastics worse than you, of course, but in ballet, let's say, I'm a well-known midwife. And in medicine I already understand much better than in ballet and gymnastics. I tell you: if you are a brave person, speak out. The child will be healthy, the mother will be happy, the professor will be happy. What else? If you are a coward, sit down, start dying of fear right now.
- Professor?!
– Do you know what doctor Anton Chekhov said? “Where art is, where talent is, there is no old age, no loneliness, no illness, and half death itself.” Risk? And I tell you that this is only your risk.
I went out and laughed out loud: it was heard on the whole boulevard. I could now shout over the bells that rang on the nearby five-domed church.
“Only you risk,” the professor told me then. But is it? There is a huge personal risk. It's scary to think about misfortune. But there is a risk of another kind: I am the leader of the team, I will be the last to perform - this is recognition of the class, recognition of my ability to win. And this is a trust that you will think about more than once or twice.
“To her title of absolute champion of the Olympic Games, Larisa Latynina, of course, wants to add the title of world champion,” they write in Soviet Sport. And who doesn't want to? Now, if only in one copy of the newspaper they wrote how to do it.
... And here I am standing on the podium. I am awarded the gold medal of the absolute world champion. No, this is not a night, not a dream, not a dream: this is reality. There are still finals on shells ahead. As a team, we won the championship confidently and with a big advantage. I remember how the stands chanted: “Congratulations to Laura, congratulations!” This is not the rumble of someone else's hall, where you need to win support, sympathy. These are their own, native walls, native people. It's good to perform at home!
I remember the happy face of Alexander Semenovich Mishakov - the day before, Boris Shakhlin became the absolute world champion. Two absolute world champions - students of the same coach - this has never happened in world gymnastics! I managed to win first places in jumps and uneven bars. Congratulating Tamara, who became the world champion in beam exercises, she whispered to her:
- Tamar, but I'm expecting a baby.
“Ah,” Tamara waved her hand, “you always come up with something outrageous.
The professor turned out to be right: my Tanya was born a healthy, mobile girl. Ten days have passed since her birth, I turned 24 years old. I was a happy mom. What more could you want? I had the highest titles in gymnastics ... But all this has already taken place. And again I waited, counting on my fingers, how much time would pass when I could again truly plunge headlong into our seething beautiful world of sports. Feet themselves led to the gym.
Commemorative postcard issued in Kyiv. 1957
Spring has come, I said goodbye to the institute. I will not hide, I was pleased with the diploma with honors. Ahead was preparation for the II Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. I was returning. Let it be difficult, painful, but returned. And now the meeting of the coaching council, there are no special reasons for excitement: the Ukrainian team is six people, I should find a place there. I found a place, but I also heard such comments: - For the entire camp, I did not make a single combination to the end. Well, in Moscow, Mishakov will have to play for her ?!
Polina Astakhova was very strong in the USSR national team, Lida Ivanova-Kalinina, who became the champion of the USSR in 1958, was on the rise. Then, after the championship, a comic impromptu sounded: "We wish Kalinina to win under Latynina." Well, now with me it’s easy to win. Both Tamara and Sonya are ready to win. Or maybe someone else. Here in Voronezh, Tamara Lyukhina grew up - a thin, miniature, chiseled girl.
Moscow, Spartakiad. And I'm fourth again. Not a single gold medal. One silver - in jumps. But I'm happy. Still, I returned. Nothing that today the absolute champion of the USSR Lina Astakhova is much stronger than me. It's nothing that ahead of me are old rivals and girlfriends. I did not let the Ukrainian team down - the second behind Lina. Fourth in the Union, which means - again in the team. So, in the year that separates the Spartakiad from the Olympic Games, I will not be able to add?
"It will be a very difficult year," Semyonitch said thoughtfully to me at the time.
“It seemed to many that Larisa would no longer be able to return to trophies in the gymnastics arena,” these are the words from the newspaper. They were written after the Olympic Games in Rome. But they were said before the start of the Games. The Roman Olympics was marked by the most intense rivalry between two outstanding Soviet gymnasts - Larisa Latynina and Polina Astakhova.
We started with jumps. Sony's best score is 9,566. I have 9.533. Lina gets 9,466. After the second type, where Lina, having brilliantly completed the entire combination on the uneven bars, gets 9.8, and I 9.7, she becomes the leader. Neither before Rome, nor in Rome, nor after Rome, I have never been engaged in calculations of my own and other people's marks during the competition. If Semenych planned something for himself, he showed me all the notes after the competition: it worked, it didn't work. But when they called the amount of the leader and my next, there was nothing to count - I was losing thirty-three thousandths. And very calmly, I went to perform on the balance beam. Here I was "shaken", and quite rightly followed by "deductions" and the result - 9.366. Then - an excellent performance by Lina - 9.5. After we got equal marks for freestyle, it turned out that Astakhova was ahead of me by 177 thousandths, almost two tenths. Is it a lot or a little?
Rome. Olympic Games. After the pedestal. 1960
Meanwhile, Boris Shakhlin won another title of absolute Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics. I congratulated Boris and Semenych.
- Well, - Alexander Semenovich told me, - tomorrow we will congratulate you.
- Do you still believe?
- I believe? Yes, I have written in the plan - two absolute Olympic champions. Do you know how plans are made and then approved? Show? So you won the world championship in Moscow, which means that now you can’t do less.
... And again jumping. Score - 9.433, in one form I win back from Lina almost everything that she has accumulated during the first day. But the next view is the bars, where Polina was then unsurpassed. Here she returns her one-tenth. Then the log. Boldly forward. And, as always, don't think about evaluation, don't think about danger, don't think about rivals. Think about how best to perform, showing everything that you can do, spiritualizing the skill with feeling. The result turned out according to the mood - 9.7.
Polina could not keep her balance. She fell and with a score of 8.733 dropped out of the fight for the championship. Many years later, I say again that I would be truly happy in Rome if we fought with her for absolute primacy on an equal footing to the end. This did not happen, and many were quick to declare that, if not for the fall, Astakhova would have become an Olympic champion. I can say: yes, it is very possible, it would have happened. But it may very well be that everything would have been decided in the last form.
I was preparing for the free, and before my eyes stood the face of Polina, crying on the bench. Many years later, in a very unpleasant conversation, they told me: "Sport has made you cruel." Cruel? I will never agree with this. Sport has made us adamant - that's right. After a moment of weakness, Polina enters the platform and brilliantly performs freestyle. They applauded and shouted in all the stands. The spotlights illuminating the platform shone in a new way. And at that moment, preparing for my exit, I again did not think about the assessment, I knew: only an accident can now deprive me of the title of absolute champion. An accident is possible, but I don’t even think to be insured and cautious. I had to show everything that I can, express everything that I feel.
One and a half minutes of music, as well as ninety seconds of movement, is probably not enough to leave a very deep impression. And yet, merged together, they have a lot to say. In these moments, everything depends on you. Do not think about how to pass the diagonal and get into the rack, do not spend the last minutes repeating the flasks. Think about one thing: how best to convey everything you want to say with your movements, what each of them serves. Then, in Rome, I knew it. I really wanted these freestyles to become an event not only for me. I started and finished them in the same breath. Perhaps for the first time in my life, I captiously listened to the noise of applause. And even before the evaluation of the judges - 9.9 - she knew: she did what she had planned.
And here are the results of the absolute championship: I am the first, Sonya Muratova is the second, Lina Astakhova is the third, Rita Nikolaeva is the fourth, Lida Ivanova is the seventh. A zero mark on the balance beam threw Tamara Lyukhina far away, but she also receives a gold medal for the team victory. As a team, we beat the Czech girls by almost nine points, and the day of the finals was our day.
The world press was full of enthusiastic responses: “Russian girls collected handfuls of Olympic medals in Thermae (Messagero newspaper), “Russian gymnasts are amazing” (Stockholm newspaper Svenska Dagbladet). “German Olympic Newspaper”, on the front page: “Russian gymnasts, as it was already in Helsinki, Melbourne, turned out to be invincible in Rome. After success in the team event and a triumph in the individual event in gymnastic all-around, Russian girls won 11 of the 12 Olympic medals in the final competitions on individual apparatus. English newspapers: The "calm gymnasts" of the Soviet Union "dominated the Olympic competitions." “Soviet gymnasts,” wrote Gianni Rodari in Paee Sera, “gave the most beautiful picture of the Olympic Games on television. We have never seen anything more beautiful than this spectacle of beauty, grace and harmony.”
A television commentator said: “Soviet gymnasts swept away all opponents. They took everything that could be taken away and stunned everyone ... For the third time in a row, the Soviet Union dominates gymnastics at the Olympics. Gymnastics is a festival of the USSR.”
“Look,” one effusive fan told me that evening, “it was phenomenal. Medals rained down on you from the sky, as in a good starfall.
“No, sir,” I answered, “we take every medal from the sky ourselves. "Everyone has their own stars."
Possessing all the titles that exist in world gymnastics, being a recognized prima in this sport, L. Latynina for many years could not win the domestic championship of her country - the competition among her friends and rivals was so great. But this situation was soon successfully resolved: in 1961 and 1962, Larisa became the absolute champion of the USSR.
In 1961, the grandiose exhibition hall of the city of Leipzig hosted the European Championship, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world in those years. L. Latynina won the European Cup and floor exercises. For the rest of my life, sports happiness and its ornament remained in my memory: a rumbling thunderstorm, the lights that went out during the performance and red-crimson roses that were presented to the winners in Leipzig.
1962 Prague is hosting the World Cup. The very fact of holding the largest gymnastic forum in the capital of Czechoslovakia testified to the international recognition of the success of the gymnasts of this country, and above all Eva Bosakova and Vera Chaslavskaya - the main rivals of Larisa Latynina and her teammates. For Latynina, this was the third world-class championship. It was necessary to prove the priority of the Soviet gymnastic school in the most acute struggle.
Before the start of tedious minutes. Five of our girls in front of me will pass the projectile. I am the leader of the team, the last one is the sixth. The first knows in advance: no chance for personal success, work only for the team. And the second, they believe, does not have much chance, and the third. That's why after the coach's reflections, before the competition, we already know their opinion exactly by the numbers: who is who in the team.
Sofia. Europe championship.
A. Chervyakova (coach),
L. Latynina, L. Petrik. 1965
Finally the first day is over. I am in the lead, I win two and a half tenths. In a day, in the evening, the palace of many thousands will support the leader of the Czechoslovak team with all their might. It will be hot, it will be hot. Will my gold melt into silver in this heat? When my freestyle ended, I saw a mark of 9.9 and quickly looked at Evsey Gdalevich Vevrik, our composer-accompanist, who composed music especially for my performance. He sat at the instrument, tired, hunched over, and smiling.
The Prague championship entered the history of world gymnastics as another triumph of Latynina: she is the absolute world champion, already twice, and is still invincible in her favorite floor exercises. The USSR team once again confirmed its superiority, but the fact became just as obvious: Vera Chaslavska can be the strongest rival for our gymnasts at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
“You know, they are talking about me,” A.S. once said to me in an undertone. Mishakov, - that my ideas are outdated, I represent yesterday's gymnastics and that I am already a grandfather.
- Well, I am the grandmother of our gymnastics.
At the next Spartakiad, I lost three tenths to Sonya Muratova in the all-around. And she did not win a single gold medal in the shells. The Spartakiad had just ended, and already it was necessary to get ready for a long journey. In Brazil, in the city of Porto Allegro, the World Universiade. Let for someone I am the grandmother of Russian gymnastics, but I am not yet twenty-nine years old, I am a graduate student and must perform at student competitions.
After the Universiade, they dissuade me from going to Japan. Our doctor Michal Mikhalych is leaning anxiously over my cardiogram. Extrasystole. In Russian: interruptions of the heart. It's not the first time I've experienced them. Before the European Cup, I went for a consultation with Professor Letunov.
“I have to go to the hospital for a month,” Serafim Petrovich looked at me through thick glasses very angrily. He knew very well that I would not go to the hospital. We agreed: it will be enough to drink calcium chloride every day. I left a large bottle of this drug in a Moscow hotel. And now again this extrasystole.
- Go for a consultation!
“I go to the third (“decisive”) floor of the Central Council and say: “It will be a big mistake if, a year before the Olympic Games, we leave rivals in Tokyo without competition!”
- Offers?
- Go to Tokyo!
And I'm going to the open championship of Japan. And the extrasystole does not prevent me from winning the all-around, freestyle and balance beam. I become the absolute champion of the Land of the Rising Sun. However, all thoughts are about the Olympics, which will take place here, in Tokyo, but in a year.
Later, when they showed me the recordings of the workloads of 1964, it turned out that before Tokyo I had done almost twice as much work as usual. But fitness has never been measured by fitness alone. The psychological climate in front of Tokyo created a mood: you need to catch up. It seemed why? After all, I was the leader. Vera Chaslavska has not yet won a single competition against me, including the last one in Japan.
Before the start of the competition, the definition of the order of our performance in apparatus clearly stated: the coaches believe that there are two leaders in the team - Lina Astakhova and me. The time has passed when the struggle for superiority was our internal affair. It was useless to fight the rival in tandem: we just lacked those hundredths that add up to tenths, and we lost six of them, which are given to one, only one leader.
Once again I want to say that either Lina or I could be such a leader. Who exactly - the coaches had to decide. Some of us would certainly be offended. But someone, perhaps, could win the medal of the absolute champion. After all, even with the alignment of forces that was adopted, we lost a little. In the absolute championship, this time we were prepared for the second and third places.
Yes, we lost to Vera Cheslavskaya. And lost to a worthy opponent.
On the pedestal, every step is honorable. I was able to perform almost exactly the same as in Rome on all apparatuses: uneven bars - the second, beam - the second, jump - the third.
Polina Astakhova became the Olympic champion on uneven bars. In front of the freemen, which took place on the last day, I knew: here, too, everything will be decided “a little bit”.
Let someone reproach me for insincerity, but thinking about the victory, I did not think about the gold medal. After all, I have already won it and the most honorable one - together with the team. But I needed a victory: I simply did not have the right to end the Olympic path with a defeat. And not only for me: before the last hours of the competition, we were still behind the American delegation in the unofficial team standings by eleven and a half points. Points, medals: the boring arithmetic of sports. But because it is boring to someone from the outside, you cannot abolish it. Then it turned out that after our medals with Polina, the victory of boxer Boris Lagutin in the final was required, and the delegation came out on top.
The Times wrote in those days: “In the life of every person there are some moments of such beauty that they cause tears and chest tightness. It could be a sunset in the mountains, a painting, some piece of music, it could be one of those rare moments when a sport suddenly becomes an art form. We experienced one such moment here in Tokyo, when Latynina charmed us with her floor exercises.
At this point, she was not just a great gymnast. She was the embodiment of youth, beauty and brilliance”; “Latynina remains in my memory. Now she is 29 years old, we may never see her like this again. But it's moments like the ones she gave us this evening that give rise to eternal hope."
Tokyo. Olympic Games. Finalists
in exercises
on the bars.
1964
Dortmund. World Championship. 1966 L. Petrik, L. Latynina, N. Kuchinskaya, O. Karasyova, S. Muratova (coach), Z. Druzhinina, P. Astakhova
Larisa Latynina is the only gymnast who managed to win gold medals in floor exercise at three Olympics in a row - in Melbourne (1956), in Rome (1960) and in Tokyo (1964), and the only winner in the history of the Olympic Games to win 18 Olympic medals, from of which 9 are gold.
And then the moment came when my hopes became less and less associated with big gymnastics. Back in 1962, in front of Prague, I, laughing, drove away the thought of parting with sports, thinking that oh, how far, far away until the moment of farewell. No one in our team had such an idea.
But now 1964 has passed, and our miracle team is gone. Lida Ivanova and Ira Pervushina also left for Tokyo (both had knee injuries). After Tokyo, Sonya Muratova, Tamara Manina, Tamara Lyukhina said goodbye to gymnastics. And what is absolutely strange, those young people who diluted our team in Tokyo, Lusya Gromova and Lena Volchetskaya, also left gymnastics.
On a January day in 1965, I was waiting in front of the Sports Palace for Alexander Semenovich, and my thoughts were completely unhappy. Recently, I lost the USSR championship here to a 15-year-old girl, Larisa Petrik. And surprisingly, I'm twice her age.
I'm getting ready to compete at the 1965 European Championship. And it brings me second places. Five silver medals. I won against Larisa Petrik, as predicted by Mishakov, and the first place was won again by Chaslavskaya. And this time without any "buts". She's stronger, that's all. Then the autumn of the same year in Mexico City, when I finally realized that I could not make it to the Olympics.
With her husband I. Latynin. Visiting the sculptor
Larisa Latynina-coach
And if so, it was necessary to outline their last frontier. And I outlined it: September 1966, the world championship in Dortmund.
I have been asked more than once the questions: “Have you ever wanted to leave earlier, undefeated, or in the opeole of your last success in Tokyo?”
And I, without hesitation, answered: “No. I have never associated my gymnastics only with victories. If a strong opponent had appeared earlier and beat me in 1960 or 1962, would I have to leave? Did those whom I beat leave?
When an athlete tries to leave undefeated, although he can still give something to the sport, to people, he retreats. Outwardly, this courage - left in the prime of life. In essence, it is cowardice: afraid to lose. I lost both in Tokyo and in Sofia. I knew very well that I would not win in Dortmund, but I also knew something else: I would have enough strength to perform for the team! Unfortunately, in a stubborn struggle, we lost only thirty-eight thousandths to the Czechoslovak team! Sport teaches not only to win... It also teaches to lose.
In the absolute championship, Vera Chaslavska and Natalia Kuchinskaya fought for the victory. However, here the Czechoslovak gymnast turned out to be stronger. In some events, the score has already changed in favor of Kuchinskaya - she won three gold medals. No one before her had known such a phenomenal rise in gymnastics at the age of seventeen.
Mexico City. Olympic Games.
L. Latynina-team coach. 1968
In 1966, Larisa Latynina finally ended her gymnast career, and the following year she received an offer to become the head coach of the USSR national team.
The beginning of her coaching work coincided with the difficult times of Soviet women's gymnastics: positions in the team and absolute championship were lost, there was a painful process of becoming essentially a new team. It included four gymnasts who performed in Dortmund: Natalya Kuchinskaya, Larisa Petrik, Zinaida Voronina and Olga Karaseva (Kharlova). With them, already "sniffing gunpowder" of international competitions, the main hopes were pinned. However, the team also included very young gymnasts: 16-year-old Lyudmila Turishcheva and 15-year-old Lyubov Burda. They were seen on the platforms of Leningrad, Gorky, Budapest, Bucharest, Paris ... And everywhere Czechoslovakian gymnasts remained their main rivals.
With daughter Tanya. 1961
Before the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968, the task was set: to achieve victory in the team competition. The struggle turned out to be difficult, the debutantes of the national team made mistakes. But the task was solved - a slight advantage was won in the compulsory program. Happy Mexico! Six girls from the Soviet Union are returning the title of champions of the Olympic Games to our country. We won, and then not very many in the delegation could say that. I was congratulated, they talked about the youngest winning team in the history of gymnastics. Yes, the average age of our team is eighteen years old. You can think about a long-term perspective, about what each one will add in skill, and the whole team will cement itself after Mexico City, harden even more ...
It seemed that there was every reason to build on the success achieved at the Olympics next year. However, the illness of N. Kuchinskaya, the forced breaks in training of L. Petrik and Z. Voronina again put the USSR national team in difficult conditions. As a result, at the European Championships in Landskrona, the GDR athletes took the championship, and 17-year-old Karin Janz confidently took the place of the new leader in European gymnastics. She won four of the five gold medals. Comparing with this the achievements of O. Karaseva (gold and silver medals) and L. Turishcheva (bronze medals), one could come to pessimistic conclusions.
However, Larisa Latynina believed in her wards. She could not agree with the opinion of experts, who hastened to declare Janz's performance the style to which the future belongs. Her impeccable technical perfection, accentuated by the complexity of the program, according to Larisa Semyonovna, still could not serve as a model, and the statements that "Jants will soon and very soon be unattainable" were too categorical. The leadership of the Soviet national team was convinced that the team had taken the right course and that soon our gymnasts would enter the cohort of the strongest.
After Mexico City, the Soviet team actually became the strongest in the world. Formally, it was necessary to return the title of champions at the next world championship in Ljubljana. By this time, Lyudmila Turishcheva and Lyubov Burda had advanced to the positions of leaders in the team, and 16-year-old Tamara Lazakovich became the only addition to the team. Zinaida Voronina also continued to perform.
The gymnasts were given a fundamentally important task: to return the absolute primacy. Events showed that she was on the shoulder of the new team leader - Lyudmila Turishcheva. She won in a bitter rivalry with famous German gymnasts Karin Janz and Erika Zuchold. Zinaida Voronina also performed well, taking third place in the all-around, uneven bars and floor exercises.
In 1971, at the European Championships in Minsk, yesterday's debutant of the national team Tamara Lazakovich took the first position in domestic, European and world gymnastics. Together with Lyudmila Turishcheva, they shared all the gold and silver medals of the championship.
On the eve of the XX Olympic Games in Munich, the USSR national team was replenished with young forces. According to the results of the qualifying competitions, experienced Larisa Petrik, Zinaida Voronina and Olga Karaseva retreated before the onslaught of young Olga Korbut, Antonina Koshel and Elvira Saadi. These changes were clearly beneficial: the Soviet team won team gold, Lyudmila Turishcheva became the absolute champion, and the same L. Turishcheva, as well as T. Lazakovich and O. Korbut, reigned supreme in the apparatus exercises.
In 1974, at the World Championships in Varna (Bulgaria), the team performed brilliantly: 14 medals were won. Of them - 5 gold (team, all-around, beam exercises and floor exercises - L. Turishcheva, jump - O. Korbut), 5 silver (4 - O. Korbut and one - L. Turishcheva) and 4 bronze (L. Turi - Scheva, N. Kim, E. Saadi, R. Sikharulidze).
G. Leselidze.
USSR national team.
T. Shchegolkova, L. Burda,
T. Lazakovich, L. Turishcheva, Z. Voronina, O. Korbut, R. Sikharulidze,
E. Saadi, O. Karaseva
During the 1973-1974 competitions, we were constantly waiting for an attack on the leadership positions. Anyone who analyzes the development of world gymnastics must be aware that leaders who have gone far ahead are catching up with redoubled perseverance. Fashion in the art of gymnastics is dictated by those who are not satisfied with today's examples. A clear evidence of this was the tenth European Championship in Norway. These competitions were marked by a major success for the young Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Unfortunately, Lyudmila Turishcheva turned out to be unprepared for a sharp fight. However, it would be highly unreasonable to speak of Comaneci's victory as an accident. The achievements of the Romanian gymnast are the result of thoughtful and very purposeful preparation. Despite her incomplete 14 years, it was she who said a new word in gymnastics in 1975.
At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, the rivalry between the gymnasts was sharper than ever. For the USSR national team, of course, the main task was to continue the tradition of victories in the team championship. Having won in Montreal, the team of Soviet gymnasts set a kind of unofficial record for the Olympic Games. The fact is that not a single team in any sport managed to win seven times in a row in the post-war Olympic cycle. Nadia Comaneci became the Olympic champion in the all-around.
Under the conditions of standings in apparatus exercises then, Soviet gymnasts scored about 74 percent of possible credit points and won 8 medals out of 12 possible: 3 gold - one team, two - from N. Kim (jump, floor exercises), 4 silver - L. Turishcheva (jump, floor exercises), O. Korbut (beam exercises), N. Kim (all-around), bronze - L. Turishcheva (all-around). Undoubted success.
But… Big sport is often big intrigues. This cup did not pass and Larisa Semyonovna. After Montreal, she was accused of the fact that the Soviet gymnasts lost the absolute championship to the Romanian athlete. They said: they say, gymnastics is no longer the same, Latynina preaches femininity, but tricks, speed and complex elements are needed ... In 1977, tired of undeserved reproaches coming from sports officials, Larisa Semenovna, not seeing any further opportunity to work in such conditions, filed an application about leaving coaching.
For four years, L.S. Latynina worked in the Organizing Committee of the Olympics-80, where she oversaw the preparation and conduct of gymnastics competitions. After the usual coaching work, she mastered a new field for herself: she dealt with the construction and equipment of gyms, providing athletes with uniforms and necessary equipment, etc., represented the organizing committee at all major international gymnastics competitions held in those years, including championships world and Europe. Then she worked in the Sports Committee of the city of Moscow, for 10 years she was the head coach of the Moscow national gymnastics team. Over the years, gymnasts from the capital have won the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, the USSR Cup.
In 1990 L.S. Latynina worked at the Physical Culture and Health Charity Fund, which was headed by the Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, three-time Olympic champion Tamara Press. Until 1992, Larisa Semyonovna was the Deputy Director of the Fund. In 1997–1999, she worked as Deputy General Director of the Russian-German joint venture Gefest. From 1991 to the present, she has been a member of the bureau of the Union of Athletes of Russia.
L.S. Latynina - Honored Master of Sports, Honored Coach of the USSR, Honored Worker of Physical Culture of the Russian Federation. She was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II, III and IV degrees, Orders of Honor, Lenin, Friendship of Peoples, three Orders of the Badge of Honor, the Order of St. Olga, III degree, and medals. For outstanding services, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, presented L.S. Latynina in 1991 the Silver Order of the International Olympic Committee. The "Children's" branch of UNESCO-UNICEF awarded Latynina with the "Golden Tuning Fork".
The name of Larisa Latynina is included in the unique list of athletes in New York - the Hall of Olympic Glory. In 2000, at the Olympic Ball in the nomination "The Best Athletes of Russia of the 20th Century", she was included in this magnificent ten, and according to a survey of the world's leading sports journalists, Latynina, along with Alexander Karelin, was named among the 25 outstanding athletes of the century.
After the ceremony of determining the athletes of the century with her husband Yuri Feldman. 1999
Peru L.S. Latynina owns the books “Sunny Youth” (in Ukrainian), “Equilibrium”, “What is the name of this girl”, “Gymnastics through the years”, “Team”. She was published in the magazines Ogonyok, Znamya, Theater, Physical Culture and Sports, Sports Life in Russia, and took part in television programs.
I've been through a lot. Was married twice. But in the end I was lucky, I met Yura.
Yuri Izrailovich Feldman - Doctor of Science, professor, academician, worked as the general director of the Dynamo plant. We have complete mutual understanding and common interests. For example, all my life I loved to deal with flowers. When the house was built, it became possible to create a winter garden. And my husband also fell ill with this passion. He will go to a flower shop, see some handsome man with silky leaves and take him home.
Once I was in the hospital. Yura bought a palm tree, put it in the winter garden, took a picture and brought it to me: “So that I don’t get bored at home ...” And we met thanks to the same sport. Yura, a former cyclist, raced at the same time as the Olympic champion of Rome, Viktor Kapitonov. It so happened that in 1985 we rested together in the Moscow region, in the Voronovo rest house. My future husband invited me to play tennis somehow, and when he found out that I couldn’t hold a racket in my hands, he suggested that I learn this game and train with him on the tennis court. Since then, tennis has become a serious hobby for both of us.
A family
We got married in the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin on the territory of the Dynamo plant. In the restoration of this church, Yura, while still being the chief engineer of the plant, took an active part.
The married couple Larisa Latynina and Yuri Feldman have another common hobby. From her youth, Larisa Semyonovna loves to sing, and Yuri Izrailovich in his student years was a soloist in the popular vocal and instrumental ensemble "Searchers". Now they sing a duet, more often romances, which bring them unspeakable joy. For several years they have been playing tennis and billiards together.
In the early 1990s, L. Latynina and Y. Feldman received a plot of land of 12 acres and began building their own house. Subsequently, they were lucky enough to rent almost 3 more hectares. Now there is everything you need for life and what you could only dream of before: a man-made pond, a tennis court, greenhouses and a homestead, where their numerous pets live - the cow Malyshka, the Bourgeois bull, Mike's heifer, horses Nochka and Zvezdochka, goats , turkeys, chickens, cats, a huge Caucasian shepherd named Lott ... The couple planted an orchard, and recently laid a whole pine forest. Larisa Semyonovna breeds flowers, does not shy away from any work in the garden and vegetable garden that she has been accustomed to since childhood, and takes care of animals. They are helped in this by family friends - Anatoly and his wife Valentina.
Together with them, the son of Yu.I. Feldman Sergey with his wife Irina and grandson Yura, as well as her husband's brother Yakov Izrailevich.
Once I had an idea to send my daughter Tanya to ballet. But she didn't decide. Tanyusha attended the rhythmic gymnastics section for two months, then went in for diving, and not bad, until she “earned” inflammation of the middle ear. In the end, I sent her to the “Moiseev” school. After graduating from it, Tanya danced for 15 years in the Beryozka ensemble. She traveled all over the world, and on tour in Venezuela she met her future husband, Rostislav Ordovsky-Tanaevsky Blanco.
At first I was totally against it. Husband is a foreigner! But did they ask me. One thing was reassuring, that Rostislav has Russian roots. His great-grandfather was the governor of Tobolsk. In 1918 he left for Yugoslavia with his family. Rostislav's father was born there, who, despite the fact that he lived far from his homeland, was fluent in Russian, knew our history and literature. He also taught his son his native language, although Rostislav is half Spaniard and was born in Venezuela.
The ironic Larisa Semyonovna likes to call herself "the grandmother of Russian gymnastics." However, fresh thoughts about the social role of sports, about the ways of developing her favorite gymnastics give the right to call Latynina a romantic of the beautiful world of movements. She was recently named to the Board of Trustees of the Latin American Dance World Cup.
In 2008, in the city of Obninsk, Kaluga Region, the construction of a specialized children's and youth school of the Olympic reserve in artistic gymnastics by Larisa Latynina was completed. This school has become a good base for holding Russian and international competitions. And the Kaluga boys and girls have a real opportunity to achieve high results in big-time sports.
L.S. Latynina is akin in spirit, in thought to the poetry of Sergei Yesenin, Fyodor Tyutchev, Joseph Brodsky. She prefers Rachmaninov's music. Highlights outstanding ballet masters - M. Plisetskaya, U. Lopatkina, R. Nureyev, M. Baryshnikov.
For more than 30 years, she has been friends with the soloists of the ballet theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko by Galina Savarina and Mikhail Salop. Her other hobbies include painting and theater.
She is a fan of the work of T. Shmyga, O. Ostroumova, L. Guzeeva, V. Gaft, A. Mironov. His favorite films are "Cruel Romance" and "Gone with the Wind".
with the chairman
International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge
With the most titled athlete in the world Michael Phelps
gymnasts,
became Olympic champions, world and European champions
under the guidance of the head coach of the USSR national team
L.S. Latynina
(from 1967 to 1976)
Burda Love
Antonin's purse
Voronina Zinaida
Lazakovich Tamara
Grozdova Svetlana
Petrik Larisa
Dronova Nina
Saadi Elvira
Karaseva Olga
Sikharulidze Rusudan
Kim Nelly
Turishcheva Ludmila
Kuchinskaya Natalia
Filatova Maria
Korbut Olga
In total, these gymnasts won 30 gold medals.
School history
Larisa Latynina is an active person, not indifferent, addicted, thinking like a state. Knowing these qualities of the great gymnast, Olga Korkach, director of the children's sports school in the city of Obninsk, Kaluga Region, turned to her. The proposal was to create on its basis a specialized children's and youth school of the Olympic reserve in artistic gymnastics. And there was one more request: "Our children and coaches would like the Obninsk gymnastics school to bear your name, we know so much about you."
It was about creating a modern sports complex of all-Russian importance, which will be used for holding Russian and international competitions.
Larisa Semyonovna came to Obninsk, took part in the competition, met the kids, coaches and, believing in them, agreed. Inspired by the opportunity to open a fundamentally new center for artistic gymnastics, she set to work with all thoroughness and enlisted the support of the Minister of Sports V.A. Fetisov and the Governor of the Kaluga Region A.D. Artamonov.
The result of the great work of a team of people who devoted themselves to educating the younger generation, under the patronage of Larisa Latynina, was the discovery in
2007 of the modern school of artistic gymnastics, which has no analogues in Russia.
The complex of the specialized sports gymnastics school for sports gymnastics Larisa Latynina, built in Obninsk, is a special pride of the modern Russian gymnastic school.
The best hall in the country, equipped with the latest technology using the latest technologies, materials and equipment, impresses with its size (its area is 1650 square meters) and its functionality.
The capabilities of the new complex allow not only full-fledged training, but also training camps for junior and youth teams, major Russian and international competitions.
But the main thing in the School of Larisa Latynina is people. The principal of the school, Olga Gennadievna Korkach, loves her job wholeheartedly, delves into every little thing. A unique team rallied around her.
These are not just coaches, they are comrades-in-arms who understand and support each other. Parents of young gymnasts trust the coaches very much, and solve all problems together with them as like-minded people. Trainers and students of the school lovingly call Larisa Semyonovna herself "patroness".
SDUSHOR is not just a place where children go in for sports, but also a school where they are brought up. And coaches remember that they are also teachers, and that the upbringing of not only athletes, but also highly moral people depends on them. Of course, not all pupils of the Latynina School will become champions in the future, but in any case, sport will be an excellent training for them, it disciplines, forms character.
The School plans to open a boarding school for talented children from other cities. Accommodation and meals in this boarding school will be free.
The gymnastics school of Larisa Latynina has more than a thousand students. It has 24 trainers, groups of developing gymnastics for children from 3 years old, initial training, training and sports improvement groups.
Artistic gymnastics in our country has a great history, which should have a worthy continuation. From artistic gymnastics, new big names and victories are expected on the world sports arena, at the Olympic Games. These hopes are largely associated with the specialized children's and youth school of the Olympic reserve of Larisa Latynina.
Russia is reviving, national self-respect is reviving, and pride in the victories of our athletes is the best incentive for this.
One of the main directions in the development of modern sports is the preservation of the best of the accumulated experience and the creation of modern conditions for the training of worthy, physically strong citizens of New Russia.
The importance of mass children's sports and sports of the highest achievements is very great, and this proves and emphasizes the attention of the President of the country to athletes and coaches.
The creation of such atypical yet forms as the School of Larisa Semenovna Latynina is a worthy example for replication, an example of creating conditions for practicing a wonderful and spectacular sport - artistic gymnastics, an example for raising good people and Great Champions.
Gymnast of the century Latynina Larisa Semyonovna
Gold medals won by Larisa Latynina at the largest tournaments
1951
Lvov, USSR Championship among schoolchildren
1952
Bucharest (Romania),
International Festival of Youth and Students (two gold medals on shells)
1954
Rome, Italy),
World Championship (team championship); Budapest, Hungary),
XII World Student Games (team championship)
1955
Warsaw Poland),
V World Festival of Youth and Students (all-around, jump);
Baku, USSR Cup (all-around)
1956
USSR Championship (jump, floor exercises); Melbourne (Australia), XVI Olympic Games (team championship, all-around, jump, floor exercises)
1957
Moscow, VI World Youth Festival
and students (3 gold medals
in various exercises)
European Championship (all-around, jump, uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercises)
1958
USSR Championship (floor exercise)
1959
USSR Championship (jump, balance beam, floor exercises);
World Championship (team championship,
all-around, jump, bars)
1960
USSR Championship (jump); Rome (Italy), XVII Olympic Games
(team championship, all-around, floor exercises)
1961
USSR Championship (all-around, uneven bars); European Championship (all-around,
floor exercise);
Moscow, USSR Cup (all-around)
1962
USSR Championship (all-around, uneven bars); World Championship (team championship, all-around, floor exercise)
1963
World Universiade (team championship, all-around, floor exercises)
1964
USSR Championship (bars);
Tokyo, XVIII Olympic Games
(team championship, floor exercises)