Astakhova Polina: Ukrainian Legend of World Gymnastics Gymnastics

This year, in August, it will be 20 years old as Pauline Astakhov, a legend of Soviet and Ukrainian gymnastics, passed away.

Astakhova is a five -time Olympic champion, which is a phenomenal achievement. Among Ukrainian athletes, only her gymnasts are only in her gymnasts: Larissa Latinina (9 Golden Olympic Medals), Victor Chukarin and Boris Shakhlin (7).

It would be incorrect to argue that Astakhov Polina was not well known and forgotten. She was written about it – especially after her death. But she is really worthy of mentioning her more often.

The way to Olympus

It would seem that Polina Astakhova is not a character of ancient times from a distant diaspora, but still there are several contradictory information about her biography.

She was born on October 30, 1936 in Zaporozhye. Some sources are for some reason called the place of its birth Dnipropetrovsk (now the Dnieper. – Ed.). Yes, there are only 70 km between these cities, but still. As a native of Zaporozhye, I have no doubt that the legendary gymnast was born there.

According to one version, the Astakhov family moved from Zaporozhye to Stalin (Donetsk) on the eve of the German-Soviet War. And after another, more likely, – Astakhov moved in 1950, when the girl was 14 years old. During the war, the family was evacuated in the cities of Teberd, Circassian, Severoural. The girl was diagnosed with a severe open form of tuberculosis, she began to subtract the legs. However, she overcame the disease and became interested in sports: figure skating, basketball, volleyball …

When Astakhov returned to Stalin, Pauline entered the technical school of physical culture. She became interested in sports gymnastics, seeing a competition on this sport, and since 1952 she began to engage in the Shakhtar Palace at Vladimir Smirnov, who became the only trainer in her whole career.

« I was so dawn, God forbid! We lived with Mom Nadhod.

Already in 1954, Polina made her debut at the USSR Championship. She took a place at the end of the third ten, but did not drop her hands, began to work even more, and in 1955, already in the rank of master of sports, she made his way into the union team. The gymnast mentioned that when she brought home the first state scholarship, and they were decent at that time 800 rubles, my mother burst into tears, and then began to scold – did not believe that this money was given for sports performances.

In 1956, as part of the USSR national team, Polina Astakhova went to her first Olympics to Melbourne (Australia).

Olympic heroine

Despite the media thesis that 20-year-old Astakhov was the youngest participant in the Soviet gymnastic team at the OI-1956, this is not the case. Lydia Ivanova, Moscow Dynamo, was younger a year. The oldest on the team was experienced 27-year-old Sofia Muratov.

Pauline won gold as part of the team and bronze in team exercises with the subject at her debut Olympiad (Soviet gymnasts performed the ball). The stars of those games were 35-year-old Hungary Agniesha and 22-year-old Ukrainian Larisa Latinin, who won gold in all-around (Astakhova took 17th place).

Games took place in December – when in Australia, the edges of antipodes, summer. Later, our heroine remembered how the Soviet delegation returned to the Union at the Georgia’s ship. And the New Year they met in the train Vladivostok – Moscow, which was traveling for two weeks. Athletes at each station were greeted by crowds of fans who handed over baskets of pies and pickles and a bottle with moonshine to the Olympians.

After the success of Astakhova at the Melbourne Olympiad, her coach was awarded the Medal for Labor Distinction, and the specialist was awarded the title « Honored Coach of the USSR ». The champions gave the medal « For Labor Valor » and allocated a two -bedroom apartment in Donetsk, where she spoke for Shakhtar sports society.

In the interval between the two Olympics, Pauline Astakhova won two gold medals at the 1958 World Cup in Moscow (team, bars), won the USSR Championship in 1959 in all -around and two gold medals of the European Championship 1959 in Krakow (team, free).

At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Astakhov was ready to fight for the absolute championship with Latin. But she was not lucky in the right on her favorite projectile – the deck: she fell and finished only in the third ten. This failure did not allow Pauline in all -around to rise above the bronze (Sophia Muratov won silver). She took gold on the bars and in the team and still silver in free exercises.

It was in Rome that the Ukrainian gymnast of Pauline Astakhov, sophisticated and graceful that journalists called « Russian Berzka ». Of course, this is the same As Ivan Poddubny was « Russian Bogatyr ».

And the Italian press called our champion Madonna – because of the undoubted beauty of the charming blonde woman. As for the « birch » grace, colleagues mentioned – Pauline, unlike team friends, had absolutely no problem with weight, so she could eat anything at a time when all the girls were sitting on a strict diet. But she was a disciplined and responsible professional, and she did not abuse such a happy opportunity.

In the same 1960, « Berezka » moved from Donetsk to Kiev, where she was given a three-room apartment on Brest-Litovsky Avenue. Until 1963, Astakhova advocated the Avangard Society and then, until the end of his career (1972) – for Kiev SKA.

The Order of the Red Banner was awarded for the successes in Rome. After the Roman Olympiad, Vladimir Smirnov became a well -deserved coach of the USSR. He received his second medal « For Labor Distinction » after the Tokyo Olympiad.

In the next inter -Olympic cycle, Astakhov shed at the 1961 European Championship in Leipzig (gold on bars and deck, bronze in all -around and free exercises). At the 1962 World Cup in Prague, she took gold in the team.

Interesting at the 1964 Olympic Games, Tokyo Pauline has completely repeated its result of Rome: two gold (team and bars), silver in free exercises and bronze in all -around (after Vira of Stalaslavskaya from Czechoslovakia and Larissa Latinina).

Polina Astakhova (left), Larisa Latinin (in the center), Tokyo-1964

Getty Images

At the age of 30, Astakhova took the silver of the 1966 World Cup in Dortmund in a team. Despite his respectable age, she was preparing to speak at her fourth Olympiad-Mexico City 1968. However, he was not destined to draw up a company 16-year-old Lyudmila Turishcheva, as well as 19-year-old Natalia Kuchinskaya and Larisa Petryk. At the USSR Cup in Leningrad (it was a qualifying tournament for OI-1968), just before starting competitions in free exercises, Pauline suffered a heart attack. Without waiting for help from doctors, she went out on the carpet and completed the competition in third place, which allowed her to be selected to the Olympics. However, Astakhova realized that the state of health does not allow her to compete for new Olympic awards …

« To pass three Olympiads, it is necessary to have iron health. So personal life has not happened because everything was never. So my fate – just gymnastics, » once said Pauline Astakhova. « I did not belong to the talented athletes, but my strength was a professional attitude.

Polina Astakhova, 1966

After triumphs

In 1969, Paulina Astakhova graduated from the Kiev State Institute of Physical Culture with a specialty trainer.

In 1972 she completed his sports career as a gymnast and started working as a coach. During 1972-1990 she was a senior coach of the national team of the USSR, in 1972-1980-the senior coach of the USSR national team, in 1991-1996-the senior coach of the national team of Ukraine. As the coach won two Olympic gold medals in the team champion at the 1972 Olympic Games (Munich) and the 1980 Olympic Games (Moscow).

Pauline Astakhova with students

Among the wards of Astakhova were such stars of sports gymnastics as Nelley Kim, Stella Zakharov, Lilia Podkopayev. In 1973 she became a judge of the international category.

In 1996, Polina Grigorivna retired. In the mid-1990s, the pensions were scanty. The last years of large gymnast’s life have become quite harsh: the lack of funds has come for a time of deterioration of health and the arrival of serious illnesses. Particularly stirred bronchial asthma in severe form, which required the use of a special expensive breathing apparatus.

Some sources (especially Russian) taste information that the old champion was forced to sell their awards, cups, valuable things because of poverty. In an interview, she somehow asked for help to the sports committee, but she was refused. Everything is possible. Polina Grigorivna lived in her apartment on Avenue (then Victory) together with her daughter Elena (born in 1970), grandson Sergiy and son -in -law Yuri. She also complained in an interview that only alcoholics in the yard communicate with her. Of course, this period of her life was too sharply different from the times when she was applauded by Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev when Cuban leader Fidel Castro gave her bags of crocodile skin when she was invited to shoot in the movies when she was released in her honor…

However, she was not forgotten and abandoned. In 2002, Astakhov was awarded the Order of Princess Olga of the 3rd degree, in the same year she was brought to the International Hall of Glory of Sports Gymnastics in Oklahoma City, USA (2002).

With money for a trip to America, she was helped by patrons: the main support of the legendary athlete in the last years of her life was carried out by her student Lilia Podkopayev with her then husband Timothy Nagorny, the head of the Charitable Foundation « Health of generations ». They, with the help of FC Shakhtar, organized the funeral of Paulina Astakhova in the Baykovo Cemetery after her death on August 5, 2005 as a result of a heart attack.

We will be objective: forgotten people do not hide in the fable cemetery; They are not escorted to the last path of the stars of Ukrainian sports – from Nina Bocharova and Viktor Tsybulenko to Elbrus Tedyev and Valery Goncharov; The central media are not written about them. Everything was decent – as Pauline Astakhova deserved for that.

In October 2011, a memorial plaque was erected on the wall of the Shakhtar Palace in Donetsk in honor of the fact that Polina Astakhova (1952-1963) trained there at one time. For several years there was a junior tournament of her name.

« It was our favorite, our best athlete », Said Astakhov’s Seven Olympic Champion Boris Shakhlin.