Name: Irina Rodnina

Age: 68 years old

Place of Birth: Moscow

Growth: 152 cm

The weight: 57 kg

Activity: figure skater

Family status: divorced

Irina Rodnina - biography

The famous figure skater was many times the champion of the country and the world. She was the pride of the Soviet Union and is considered her in today's Russia.

Childhood, family

On the autumn day of the post-war 49 years, a Jewish family was born one whose biography did not begin as an Olympic champion, athlete and activist. Ira was very often sick, doctors treated the girl for pneumonia 11 times. Both the parents, the officer and the nurse, were concerned about their daughter's health. Irina's mother and father met at the front, had a lot of military orders and medals. To harden the child's body, the girl was placed in a figure skating school. But not only the hardening of the whole organism took place, but the will of the baby became strong.

The makings of a real athlete began to appear: Irina strove to win competitions at all costs. At the very beginning, she mastered single skating with her coach Yakov Smushkin. A little later, the coaching staff changed, and Irina began performing with a partner in pair dances Oleg Vlasov. From the first youth competition, the couple returned with third place.

The new coach Stanislav Alekseevich Zhuk replaced Irina's partner. Now Alexei Ulanov was dancing with Rodnina. After several years of joint work, the World Championship was marked by the victory of the created pair.

The European Championship that followed next again pleased the athletes and fans with the prize-winning place earned by the couple. More than once, the star couple brought gold to the country, but Ulanov decided to change his partner by marrying another athlete. Rodnina, in desperation, decided to leave figure skating, but on her way there was a little-known figure skater Alexander Zaitsev, who completely changed Irina's biography.

We trained a lot, helped each other, sharing our experience. This exhausting work gave its positive results - gold medals in competitions. This pair has become the most talented and focused on winning. This is evidenced by the closure that occurred in Bratislava at the World Championships, which turned off the music during the performance of Alexander and Irina. But the athletes heard the music in their souls and were able to conquer the jury. Their pair won the victory. Rodnina studied at the Central Institute of Physical Culture.

New coach

It was easy for Irina to conquer the audience, because along with her modesty and tenderness, she has incredible stamina and fortitude. And her open friendly smile and bright eyes accompanied this. But the time came when the beloved coach could no longer give Rodnina more than what he had already given in terms of figure skating skills. A pair of skaters, who were made family by joint work, became part of the pets of Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova. The young energetic coach introduced new elements into the skaters' program, the numbers became lyrical, bright and artistically expressive.

From that moment on, the partners began to create a new joint biography. And the first significant events were the marriage of Irina with Alexander and the birth of Sasha's son. Under the guidance of a new coach, the couple again won another gold. Irina became the champion ten times, the third Olympics - and the third gold in a row. The Soviet figure skater is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

No matter how familiar and pleasant successes and victories are, the athlete has a desire to leave the stage of big sport. She worked as a mentor, she taught, but something went wrong.

Irina Rodnina - biography of personal life

Irina married her figure skating partner Alexander Zaitsev. She gave birth to a boy and, having recovered after childbirth, continued to perform on the ice of competitions. After the decision to leave and a long search for herself outside the sport, Rodnina broke up with her husband. But fate sometimes throws surprises, and Irina fell in love. Businessman and producer Leonid Minkovsky turned the life of the famous athlete upside down. The family leaves for the USA, where Rodnina begins to work as a coach. There were difficulties in the work, overcoming which, Irina gives birth to a daughter.

Her children Sasha and Alena were always there, they did not allow to despair. The son and daughter always supported their mother, but did not follow in her footsteps. Alexander chose the profession of an artist, and Alena became a TV presenter. Rodnina got better at work, she herself bought a skating rink in Los Angeles, while working as a coach at the figure skating center. The athlete often came to Moscow and created a school in the capital to teach figure skating.

Rodnina now

Currently, Irina Konstantinovna conducts extensive social and political activities. For the 1972 Olympics, the athlete was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. She is a member of the United Russia party, is a State Duma deputy of 5-6 convocations.

lit olympic fire in Sochi at the opening of the Olympic Games in winter, has the title of Honored Master of Sports of the Soviet Union. Now Rodnina is a member of the Presidential Council for Physical Education and Sports.

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Name: Irina Rodnina

middle name: Konstantinovna

Place of Birth: Moscow city

Growth: 152 cm

The weight: 57 kg

Zodiac sign: Virgo

Eastern horoscope: Bull

Activity: figure skater, coach, politician

Irina Konstantinovna Rodnina is a great Soviet athlete who became famous for a long series of triumphant victories in European and world figure skating competitions, which raised the sport of Russia to an unprecedented height. She became a 3-time Olympic champion, received 24 international gold medals, without losing a single competition from 1969 to 1980.

At the end of an incredible sports career, Irina worked in the Central Committee of the Komsomol, as a coach, teacher, radio host, and was engaged in social and state activities.

At the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the sports star, those present wanted to learn from her the mysterious secret of the eternal youth of Macropolus, which Irina probably knows, since she, as before, remains a young soul, has an active life position, full of strength, positive and soulfulness. Rodnina herself perceived a decent date as her usual highest score of 6:0.

The future great figure skater was born in Moscow on September 12, 1949 in the family of a soldier and a nurse. My father was from the Vologda village of Yanino, my mother was a native of Ukraine. To improve the health of their daughter, who had had pneumonia 11 times by the age of 5, her parents chose ice skating.

First, they took their child to the skating rink in the Taganka Children's Park. N.N. Pryamikova, then - to the garden. Zhdanov in Sormovo. Irina's first teacher was Yakov Smushkin, who at that time was a figure skater himself. Under his strict guidance, she mastered the technique of sliding, the first spirals, jumps, spins and other mandatory elements on ice.

The girl became physically healthier and fell in love with skates. Having successfully passed the preview, the diligent and capable student entered CSKA. From the very beginning she was a single skater, then she skated with Oleg Vlasov.

In 1964, Stanislav Zhuk was the mentor of the 15-year-old athlete, and Alexey Ulanov was the partner. After 2 years, they already successfully performed at international competitions. In 1969, at the European Championships in Germany, the skaters became winners, despite the fact that they arrived at the tournament without their coach, since his trip abroad was banned.

At the World Championships, 5 years later, they again became the first, having earned approval, in the form of the maximum score, from all the judges. The next year was less successful for the athletes - mistakes were made at the national championship. However, thanks to the chic performance of the free part of the program, they retained their leadership.

In subsequent years, the couple continued to be the undisputed leader, in 1972 she received gold Olympic Games in Sapporo.

On the eve of the 1972 World Cup in Canada, during training, Rodnina fell from high support. She suffered a severe head injury, but showed real courage by performing despite feeling unwell and winning first place.

But after the incident, the couple broke up - according to rumors, Ulanov allegedly dropped his partner on purpose, because he was married to Lyudmila Smirnova and wanted to perform with her, which he did in the future.

Having recovered from the injury, Irina began to ride with a new partner, Alexander Zaitsev from Leningrad. The figure skater noted the incredible feeling of reliability of the partner, and the judges - the unity of their actions and amazing consistency. At the European Championship in 1973, they won, beating, by the way, a pair of Smirnov-Ulanov.

At the World Cup of the same year, a pair of Rodnina-Zaitsev were again in the lead. Moreover, they performed in extreme conditions - in the middle of the program, musical accompaniment was turned off for technical reasons.

In 1974, the skater graduated from the State Central Institute of Physical Education. In October, the famous couple had a coach change. There were several versions of what happened - from the growth of the independence of the figure skater to the unwillingness to endure the behavior of Stanislav Zhuk.

Together with the new mentor Tatyana Tarasova, who brought more creative imagination to the performance of the masters, Rodnina and Zaitsev won the 1975 World Cup.

At the Olympic Games a year later, they again won gold medals. Season 1978-79 the skaters missed, for family reasons: in February 1979, they had a son.

But soon the couple started training again. Irina's third Olympic victory in 1980 was very memorable and moved the audience, because of the tears that she could not hold back during the performance of the anthem of the Soviet Union at the medal ceremony.

After finishing the performances, the athlete for some time was an employee of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, was busy with coaching and teaching activities.

In the period from 1990 to 2002, at the invitation of the International Figure Skating Center, Irina worked in America. There she, despite her problems associated with a divorce from her second spouse, was able to gain a reputation as an excellent specialist. This circumstance became especially noticeable when her pupils - Kovarzhikova-Navotny - became world champions.

Arriving again in Moscow, the figure skater took part in various television programs, was active in social activities - she was a member of the presidium of the League of Health of the Nation, head of the All-Russian Voluntary Society Sports Russia».

In 2003 and a year later, Irina wanted to become a deputy of the State Duma, but she was defeated in the elections. Two years later, she took a seat in the Public Chamber of Russia.

In 2007, Irina became a deputy of the State Duma of the 5th convocation from United Russia, taking the post of deputy chairman of the education committee. After another 4 years, she again became a member of the State Duma, becoming a member of the Committee on CIS Affairs.

For the first time, Irina Rodnina married her figure skating partner Alexander Zaitsev. Since 1972, they began to train together, and after winning the 1975 World Cup, young people legalized their relationship. Moreover, even American television arrived at the grandiose wedding of athletes.

In their marriage on February 23, 1979, Alexander Jr. was born, who later became an artist. Until 1997, he lived and worked in America, and then came to Moscow. In 2008, the son gave his famous parents a granddaughter Sofia.

Irina and Alexander were together for 8 years and maintained friendly relations. However, the couple broke up after the end of their sports career. Everyone had their own vision of the future.

Irina's second husband was Leonid Minkovsky, a businessman from Dnepropetrovsk, a film producer. Their daughter Alena was born in 1986. She is not married. Lives in Washington, is a correspondent.

The couple moved to America, since in Russia there was no work for Irina after the decree, and in the States she was able to train new "champions".

Irina said that, living in the USA with her husband and two children, she always experienced a lack of communication, language and culture. A few years after the move, they broke up. As noted in some media, the husband went to her friend.

Rodnina is included in the Guinness Book of Records as a figure skater who has never lost in international competitions. She has a large number of awards, including the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, "For Merit to the Fatherland."

Earlier, Rodnina said that she did not plan to marry again. But more recently, her friendship with Dr. Pavel Niderman has grown into a strong feeling.

In 2010, the famous and most famous figure skater in the world, according to a VTsIOM survey, entered the top 10 idols of the twentieth century in Russia - along with such outstanding personalities as Gagarin, Solzhenitsyn, Vysotsky.

She is a member of the Council for Physical Culture and Sports under the President, oversees a number of sports projects.

Working in the State Duma, she is engaged in children's and youth sports, leads a large number of specialized projects, making trips to all corners of the country. In 2013, she opened the season in the Omsk Ice Palace named after her, where local residents from 3 years old train.

She often appears on television, including in the programs “My Hero”, the film “Irina Rodnina. Invincible”, created using newsreels from her personal archives, as a captain together with Lev Leshchenko of the “Made in the USSR” team in the “Battle of the Continents” sports and entertainment show “Big Races”.

At the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sochi, Irina Rodnina, together with Vladislav Tretiak, lit the fire of the event in 2014.

On September 16, 2015, at a meeting of the State Duma, the leader of the LDPR faction, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, insulted Rodnina during a speech and, instead of apologizing, left the hall (along with members of his party). The reason for this behavior, his associates consider the unacceptable remarks of the figure skater, which she, it seems, allows to throw at the deputies speaking on the parliamentary tribune, being in the front row. Irina Konstantinovna stated that “rudeness” should be punished, accordingly she filed a complaint with the State Duma Commission on Ethics.

Irina Rodnina is the most titled athlete in the history of figure skating.

Her sports biography is as follows: she won the world championship 10 times and triumphed at the Olympic Games three times, won the USSR championship six times. How did it happen that she became a deputy of the State Duma?

Childhood

Irina Konstantinovna Rodnina was born on September 12, 1949 in the capital of the USSR. Her father served as an officer and was from near Vologda, her mother worked as a nurse, she was originally from Ukraine.

As a child, Irina had pneumonia more than 10 times. The doctors advised her parents to send the child outdoors more often to improve her health, they sent her to the skating rink, and this was the beginning of the hobby for the “figurine”.

The first children's coach of Irina Rodnina was Yakov Alekseevich Smushkin. Later, a talented schoolgirl was taken to the section at CSKA. The screening was successful, and until the age of 15, Irina Rodnina performed mainly in singles.

Everything changed when Czech specialists began working with the young figure skater, who worked with the army team under a contract. Under their leadership, Rodnina, together with Oleg Vlasov, won the first medal. It was the bronze of the all-Union youth competitions. It was 1963.

First change of coach

Already in 1964, Stanislav Zhuk undertook to train Irina Rodnina. Now he is one of the most famous names in the world of “figures”, and then he only recently ended his sports career and switched to coaching. Zhuk, together with his wife Nina, specialized in pair skating and even took bronze three times at the European Championship.

Starting to work with Irina Rodnina, Zhuk made her a partner with Alexei Ulanov. Already in 1968, Irina and Alexei won third place in the championship of the Union.

In the sixth year of their joint work, Rodnina and Ulanov win first places at the European Championship. The 1969 tournament was very difficult for the couple: Zhuk was not released from the USSR, they came to the competition without a coach, they took only second place in the compulsory program, leaving behind Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov, but everything was decided in the free program. Elements of high complexity brought the pair an overall victory. For her, the athlete received the title of ZMS.

At the 1969 World Championships, Irina and Alexei won outright, taking first place in both types of programs. These were the times when the Soviet school of figure skating was far ahead of all rivals. Irina and her partner won all the major international competitions (World Cup and European Championship) until 1972, when the white Olympic Games were held in Sapporo, Japan. Not everything went smoothly for the skaters: in the short program, Ulanov made an ordinary salchow, although he needed a double one, and in the free program, the world champion herself made a mistake - in the cascade of jumps. However, in the end, Irina and Alexei were ahead of another Soviet couple (Lyudmila Smirnova and Andrei Suraykin).

Concussion and music stop

Ulanov and Rodnina were ahead of Smirnov and Suraykina at the 1972 World Cup, which was already after the Olympics. That success was a triumph of overcoming, as the day before the tournament, the athlete fell from support during training and ended up in the hospital. The doctors diagnosed her with a concussion, but Irina decided to go on the ice. And if the partners skated flawlessly in the short program, then in the free program, freshly baked Olympic champion felt unwell and ended the performance in a semi-fainting state.

The victory at the 1972 World Cup was for Irina and Alexei the last one won together. Ulanov decided to combine his personal life with sports and decided to skate with Suraikina, whom he was already married to by that time. There were rumors that the fall of Rodnina in training before the World Cup was set up by Ulanov himself.

Irina Rodnina then, according to Wikipedia, had a desire to leave the sport altogether. She missed the national championship, watching it as a spectator. Zhuk saved the situation by offering her to create a couple with the young Alexander Zaitsev.

Zaitsev's advantage was a good jumping technique and a quick learner. With a new partner, Rodnina won both the European Championship and the World Championship in 1973. At the World Championships in Bratislava, there was a famous incident that went down in the annals of history: during the performance of Soviet athletes, the music turned off, but the skaters did not leave the ice, but continued to skate in complete silence. The hall met this performance with applause. Subsequently, it turned out that these were the intrigues of the representative of Czechoslovakia, who was avenging the events of the Prague Spring, which had happened five years earlier.

Despite the mistakes, Irina and Alexander won the next World Cup. Although the audience was disappointed, the judges gave credit to a set of very difficult elements that day, giving them high marks.

Rodnina and Tarasova

In 1974, the couple changed coaches. From Zhuk Rodnin and Zaitsev moved to Tatyana Tarasova. The results didn't go down. The couple won the 1975 World Cup, and then Irina Rodnina took the second gold of the Olympics. It happened in Montreal in 1976.

Following the Olympic gold, there were victories at the 1976 and 1977 World Championships. The last world championship was overshadowed by the fact that the couple received a score of 6.0 only from the Soviet referee Valentin Piseev (later head of the FFKKR). A scandal began in the ISU in the spirit of “how long can this be tolerated?”, And the Soviet judges were suspended from work for the next season. However, in it, Soviet skaters won gold medals at the World Championships.

The couple missed the 1979 World Cup due to family reasons (due to the birth of a son, at that moment the partners were already married). That World Cup was won by the Americans Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, after which their compatriots, according to Wikipedia, began to criticize Soviet athletes for using prohibited elements.

However, the decisions at the Lake Placid Olympics were applied by the judges, who considered that the Soviet couple was doing everything within the rules. As a result, in 1980, Irina Rodnina won the third award of the highest standard and became the most titled figure skater in pair skating in the history of the Olympic Games.

Out of ice

After the Olympics in Lake Placid, Irina Rodnina, who was already over 30, ended her figure skater career. On the one hand, she was very tired, on the other hand, age was already making itself felt, on the third hand, no one else had as many victories as she had. After the end of her career, she got a job at the Central Committee of the Komsomol, then, according to Wikipedia, she was a teacher at the Institute of Physical Culture.

Before the collapse of the USSR (in 1990), Irina Rodnina, who was a member of the CPSU, left for permanent residence in America. There he got a job in an international center near Los Angeles. Subsequently, in an interview, Rodnina said that the contract was for two years, but everything was delayed.

Her first coaching medal came in 1995. Then the Czechs Radka Kovarzhikova and Rene Novotny became world champions, for which the coach was even given honorary citizenship of the Czech Republic. Rodnina also helped train Americans Michelle Kwan and Angela Nikodinov. The first eventually won two Olympic medals (silver in Nagano, bronze in Salt Lake City).

Homeland and politics

In 2002, Irina Rodnina returned to Moscow. She put forward her candidacy in the elections to the State Duma in 2003, but she could not be elected, having lost. Did not bring her success and by-elections, arranged a year later.

Only on the third attempt, Irina Rodnina managed to get into the State Duma. In 2007, she passed the list of "United Russia" from the Omsk region. In that convocation of the Duma, she served as deputy chairman of the education committee. Since then, Rodnina has been re-elected twice (in 2011 and 2016).

In "ER" she is engaged in such projects as "School Sports" and "Yard Coach". Also, Rodnina at one time (in 2006) was a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. Now she is a member of the President's Council for Physical Education.

The former athlete was often criticized by the liberal public for her activities as a deputy. In 2012, Irina Rodnina voted for "Dima Yakovlev's law", which prohibits giving Russian children to foreign families, and in 2018, for raising the retirement age (up to 60 and 65 years, respectively).

In 2018, Irina gave a long interview to Sports.ru, in which she spoke about her political views. She noted that she considers the Sergei Magnitsky law a political continuation of the Jackson-Vanik act, and the sanctions imposed in connection with the annexation of Crimea in 2014 are illegal. Speaking about the Dima Yakovlev law, the United Russia representative also admitted that it was a kind of response to the Magnitsky law.

Rodnina also spoke to the opposition politician Alexei Navalny. She said that she considers him a major swindler who draws schoolchildren into politics.

Speaking of support for Vladimir Putin on the eve of the March 2018 elections, Irina noted that he looks like the most realistic candidate.

Scandals with Rodnina

The first scandal with Rodnina happened in 2005. Then her signature was under the appeal in support of the sentence to the owners of Yukos. Four years later, Rodnina stated that she did not sign this letter.

There is in the biography of Irina Rodnina and the fact of accusations of racism. In 2013, Rodnina posted a collage on her Twitter account, where US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were depicted next to a banana.

The representative of "United Russia" at first referred to the freedom of speech, but after some time she deleted her post. Six months later, she even stated that her account on the social network was hacked, and she ardently condemns racism.

The next scandal, in which Rodnina was involved, happened in 2018. Then a group of journalists accused LDPR deputy Leonid Slutsky of sexual harassment. Rodnina, who is a member of the Duma ethics commission, together with other deputies, examined the complaint of Farida Rustamova (Russian Air Force Service) and her colleague Daria Zhuk (from the Dozhd TV channel) and did not find anything seditious. After that, several publications announced a boycott of the State Duma.

Personal life

The first husband of Irina Rodnina - since 1975 - was Alexander Zaitsev, with whom she rode in a pair. Rodnina's first marriage lasted almost 10 years (she lived with Zaitsev until 1983, the couple dragged on for a divorce for another two years). In marriage, their son Alexander was born. As Irina recalled, after leaving the sport, she quickly discovered that there was little that connected her with the elastic.

The next husband of Rodnina was businessman Leonid Minkovsky, whom the champion met shortly after leaving Zaitsev. In a marriage with him, Irina had a daughter, Alena, who now works as a journalist (at one time she wrote for Russia Today). The marriage with Minkovsky lasted a long time only formally, as Irina recalled, she quickly found out that her husband had a mistress. After the demands for a divorce, a long judicial red tape began on the subject of who Alena's daughter would stay with.

Now Rodnina is already a grandmother. Her granddaughter's name is Sonya, she was born in 2008. Her father, Alexander Zaitsev Jr., works as an artist. At one time he lived in the States, now he lives in Russia.

For the third time, the illustrious champion is in no hurry to marry her husband, although the media at one time wrote about her warm relationship with the doctor Pavel Niederman, who lives in the USA.

"Tears of a Champion"

In her spare time, Rodnina wrote books: in 1978, The Rough Years was published, and 35 later, Tear of a Champion. The biography of Irina Rodnina, written by herself, got its name due to the situation at the awards ceremony at the Olympic Games in Lake Placid, when she burst into tears right on the podium. According to Irina, this happened not so much because of physical activity how much because of the moral.

In the book, the former athlete also spoke about the difficult relationship with Zhuk, because of which she changed her coach at one time. She also spoke about morals in figure skating. According to her, one day she discovered that broken glass was poured into her skates. Another time, at a training session, Oleg Protopopov defiantly interfered with Rodnina and Ulanov to train jumps and, as a result, he almost got hit in the face with the tip of a skate.

Leads Rodnina, who turned 70 years old, and social networks. She owns a Twitter account, the profile is Irodnina. She has over 50 thousand subscribers. She also has an Instagram page, an account - irina.rodnina, almost 11 thousand people read it.

In 2010, VTsIOM conducted a survey on who Russians consider "the idols of the 20th century." Rodnina took eighth place in it, ahead of Maya Plisetskaya, Dmitry Shostakovich and the legendary football goalkeeper Lev Yashin.

On September 12, congratulations on her birthday were received by the famous figure skater, three-time Olympic champion, ten-time world champion, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Irina Rodnina.

Her memoirs "A Tear of a Champion", published this year, have become a real "bomb". The athlete frankly spoke about her personal life, about intrigues in figure skating and difficult relationships with coaches. We bring to your attention the most intriguing fragments from the book.
Already in the first lines of her memoirs, Rodnina admits that she will not spare anyone:
“I wrote an honest book, so it's tough. Anyone who knows me well will not be surprised. I never gossiped about anyone behind the eyes and always spoke directly. This is who I am, I won’t be different.”
The future champion recalls that love for sports activities her father instilled in her and her sister. But she did not like to do exercises in the morning since childhood:
“When dad was around, the morning began with exercises at the open window ... Since then, I can’t stand morning exercises: I’ve had a terrible allergy to this mournful music in the morning, to these open windows since childhood ...”
The father of the athlete, a regular military man, believed that figure skating for his daughter was a hobby. And he waited a long time for Ira to really decide on a profession:
“I believe that in big sport came across quite by accident. They brought me to the skating rink to improve my health, and then it went and went ... sports talent I didn't show up at first. It was important for the parents that the daughter was in business and the child’s health seemed to be getting better. And then, in the same year when we first won the World Cup, dad said a significant phrase: “Daughter, what are we going to do next?” Me: "In what way?" Dad: “You have to choose a serious profession. You won - great. Few people succeed, but life does not stop there.” Every year my dad asked me: “I hope this is your last season?”. He had already retired and was waiting for me to finish my nonsense and take up my mind. Dad knew one thing: his girls should have a good education and a good profession. But these trawls, this is figure skating, it is up to a certain point ... "
Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev 1977: Rodnina has had to face tough rivalry more than once, not only on the ice, but also behind the scenes of sports competitions:
“There was a hitch before the free program. Our dresses were fastened with zippers, and one of the girls cut the threads along the zipper with a razor. When you close the zipper, the cut is not immediately visible. But if you strain your back, the lightning diverges. I remember sewing the zipper back in. When I told Zhuk (Stanislav Zhuk - Rodnina's coach - author's note) what happened, he told stories that had happened to previous teams in response. Zhuk recalled that before the championships were held on open rinks, and someone put skates on the battery. The skate warmed up, and when the “enemy” went out to skate the “school”, the skate literally soldered into the ice. Usually a long path led to the skating rink. To get on the ice, I had to walk for a long time, the locker rooms were far away. Everyone walked this path on the teeth, so as not to spoil the blades ... "Khokhmachi" sprinkled the path with sand or studded with buttons. That was their entertainment. It was considered a joke…”

Irina Rodnina fondly recalls her first partner in pairs figure skating and a friend of her youth Alexei Ulanov:
“With Lesha, I was terribly interested, for me he became the first of the world of people associated with art. For several years he dragged me around all the capital's halls ... Together we watched all the best that was then going on at the Bolshoi Theater, the entire program of the Moiseev ensemble. Ulanov knew all the elderly women who were in control. We didn’t have money for a real ticket, and tickets, let’s say, to the Bolshoi, didn’t seem to exist in nature. But for a ruble they let us through to the steps of the gallery. Leshka educated me well, thanks to him I got a completely different idea of ​​​​Moscow ... Despite the fact that Ulanov and I spent a lot of time together, we did not have a romantic relationship at all. No matter what people say…”
As for any Soviet girl, a trip abroad for the young figure skater Rodnina was not only a discovery, but also a shock:
“In the sixty-eighth year, I flew for the first time on an airplane. First time on a plane! And immediately abroad! Naturally, I looked into four eyes, so I wanted to see this foreign country in all its details. We only saw “their life” in films! We arrived in the small town of Västerås in Sweden right after the New Year… I walked the streets of the town with a clear feeling that I was in a fairy tale…
... When I first went into the locker room, I realized that I would not be able to change clothes in it. I can’t, because we didn’t have such underwear. And for girls it is very important! And then, to the surprise of the entire foreign public, I make the only right decision: I start taking off everything together and at once - trousers, tights, panties, because it is impossible to take off each separately. And then I put on a dress. Then I changed right in the room to go to the skating rink in a dress. This intractable difficulty continued until we were given a per diem. We girls, of course, ran to the store. The first - we bought ourselves underwear, the second - tights. Otherwise, there would be nothing to perform. Of course, we were given pantyhose. One pair each, as members of the Soviet Union team.
Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev 1982: The Olympic champion frankly tells readers about her "personal" problems with elevators, gin and tonic and the song "Katyusha":
“The World Cup is over, which is very difficult for us, the demonstration performances are over, we ran up to the numbers, changed clothes and gathered at the elevator, already in evening dresses, already with a glass of champagne inside ... The elevator stops. I have to be first everywhere! Naturally, I fly in first, and immediately the door closes behind me. This damn elevator starts at minus eight and goes up and down several times to plus fifty-two. When he finally stopped, I was already sitting on the floor with paint smeared around my eyes from tears and horror. When I finally got to the banquet hall, I immediately began to “treat” with gin and tonic, taking it like a potion. On an empty stomach, after the performance, of course, I quickly got carried away. They announced the number - they offered each team to perform their national songs. I can’t categorically sing, but here the activity let me down again. Plus a gin and tonic. I pulled Yura Ovchinnikov, Ira Vorobyova, and a few more people onto the stage, and there we began to agree on what to sing. It turned out that we all know the Katyusha more or less. They dragged it on. It quickly became clear that apart from the chorus, no one knew more than words, and we all the time deduced: “Katyusha went ashore ... Apple and pear trees bloomed, Katyusha came ashore ...” I remember how Anna Ilyinichna stood in the middle of the hall, insanely proud that her children they sing, and the completely crazed Japanese, because, unlike us, they knew this song by heart ... "
The fact that great coaches are also people, and their authority can be shaken at any moment, Irina Rodnina realized after going to the cinema with Stanislav Zhuk to Romeo and Juliet:“We are sitting in the hall all in tears and snot, the film is in Italian with English subtitles. We leave, and Stasik (Stanislav Zhuk - author's note), who was a little tipsy, says: “What a cool story. But why did they come up with such a bad ending? I, without understanding, told him: "Stanislav Alekseevich, this is Shakespeare." And I myself wipe my tears, I sniffle with my nose. He says: “I say, the plot is cool, why such an ending? Look, everyone is crying." “But it's Shakespeare! "Romeo and Juliet"!" He again: "I say, cool story."
Until that evening, I believed him completely unconditionally, believed everything, no matter what he said, no matter what he did, carried out all his instructions. Once he told me: "Hands are weak." I echo: "Weak". - "So, you swing a little." Me: “No, I do all the tasks.” Beetle: “I woke up in the morning, fell to the floor and did twenty push-ups.” And I really fell off the bed on the floor and did push-ups. Further: "The ankle is weak." I repeat: Weak. – “Do you go down the escalator in the subway?” I say, "I'm going down." He orders: "You have to run upstairs." And I, with a bag, pushing everyone away, ran down the escalator like crazy. And then, maybe for the first time, I suddenly realized that he was not a god. I didn't even laugh at him. I could not imagine how to react to the fact that my teacher does not know Shakespeare ...
... Then for the first time I saw how the Beetle drinks. I had never noticed this before. It seemed that he continued to celebrate our victory. He continued to celebrate: day, second, third ... "
Rodnina and Zaitsev perform at the European Championship in 1978: Rodnina recalls how hard it was for Soviet athletes to achieve their achievements, how much they had to sacrifice for the glory of the country. And the fact that already in those days I had to resort to doping:
“Everyone was skating with their last breath ... The skating rink in Colorado was built very quickly, within almost two weeks, because they were waiting for the arrival of the Soviet Union hockey team. The skating rink is very small… And when you get off the ice, there is a narrow corridor at the end. Men's locker room to the right, women's locker room to the left. During the free program, on one side of the corridor, there were two black people, like doormen, in gloves, with a stretcher, and the same two on the other side. When the couples left the ice, they waited for the assessments, then took two or three steps towards the dressing room and realized that they no longer controlled their movements. At that moment, a couple of “porters” deftly opened the stretcher and carried you into the locker room on them. And in the locker room there was a huge square sofa, more like an ottoman. And they dumped you on it. After a while, we were on it and came to our senses. Young people are faster, but Belousova was very ill for a long time. Our doctor sat next to her all night. We were not checked then, and it seems to me that they were taking some kind of drugs. This probably played a role, because often the effect of stimulants is designed for only a short period of time, and during the second part the effect of the drug began to reverse. I’ll make a reservation right away - all this is solely my guesses ... "
Rodnina, as a representative of the USSR on international competitions, had to feel the "special" attitude towards the Soviet in America:
“And the attitude towards our passport, even in the hotel where we stayed, was very strange. I remember we were received in some big house, where the bartender was, as they say now, an African American, but then he was just black. He stood, listened, listened to our conversations, looked, looked, and then asked: “Actually, where are you guys from?” We: "There is such a country - the Soviet Union." “Strange,” he says, “you look exactly like us, dress the same and drink better than us.” In other words, the concept of "Soviet" was exotic for America in the late sixties. And the fact that we also skate better just killed them.”
With humor, Irina Konstantinovna recalls her first sports fees:
“Having returned from the World Championship, a month later we received our first awards. It seemed to me that we became the owners of crazy money. For the championship of the Soviet Union, where we took third place, we were given one hundred rubles. And for the World Cup - one and a half thousand! European Championship, first place - five hundred rubles. So we really got crazy money…”
All fans of Irina Rodnina remember the famous "Kalinka", which our skaters skated with triumph. Here is how the figure skater herself recalls this dance:
“... We skated all three demonstration numbers, and the audience all shouted: “Kalinka! Kalinka!" And then we began to roll "Kalinka". In "Kalinka" I eventually got my own "trick". When I got up at the start, I chose one person from the audience and started skating for him. I did this in order to somehow entertain myself, because this “Kalinka” was already sitting in my liver ... "
The famous "Kalinka" performed by Rodina and Zaitsev, 1976: Rodnina recalls her wedding with ice partner Alexander Zaitsev, which became a real event for Moscow. And about the divorce that followed a few years later:
“... I told Zaitsev at the wedding: Shura, we are leaving, I can’t be here anymore. People are walking with might and main, no one needs us anymore. I am hungry, I can’t eat anything in this wedding dress, in a veil ...
... The grandmother fell from the second floor, examining us. She fell, thank God, on the crowd, so nothing happened to her. I have a photograph: the Wedding Palace, I am near the main entrance with my veil. I start walking up the stairs and don't have time to pick up my dress. On the second step, I stand on my own hem, on the third step, I step on it with my other foot and understand that I’m about to fall ...
... We parted through the court, not everything turned out to be simple, but somehow we had the sense not to disclose our scandals. Yes, and the yellow press did not exist then. We could not avoid the court, since we have a common child. For several months, I flew from the training camp to the court, where Zaitsev, of course, did not appear ... I flew to Moscow on the sly, because for the fact that I left the training camp, I could fly in great. I sat in court, he did not appear, the court was postponed to another date ... "


With figure skating partner and husband Alexander Zaitsev

March 2014

Irina Rodnina got into the Guinness Book of Records as an athlete,
never lost a single competition in her career

Under the arches of the ice arena, the flag of her country was raised, the anthem of the Soviet Union sounded. Irina Rodnina, a small woman with a big heart and an iron will, remained the invincible "red queen" of figure skating, making the whole world fall at her feet with armfuls of flowers. Even 34 years later, we all remember that famous shot when, to the sounds of the Soviet anthem, a tear flowed down Irina Rodnina's cheek. A tear of a three-time Olympic champion, a tear that reflects everything - labor, pain, happiness, and pride.
February 7, 2014, Sochi, Fisht stadium. Grand opening ceremony XXII winter The Olympic Games are coming to an end. Lighting the fire of the Olympics, completing the relay of the torchbearers, the legendary Vladislav Tretyak and Irina Rodnina. And this is fair. Who better than she - Irina Rodnina - is worthy of such an honorable mission? One of the best athletes of the twentieth century, the most successful figure skater in the history of this sport, three-time Olympic champion, ten-time world champion, multiple European champion in pair skating. And Rodnina is undoubtedly the person whose extraordinary will to win has become an example for many young athletes.
The biography of Irina Rodnina is so full of incredible victories and dramatic turns that there are enough stories in it for a whole Hollywood epic.
Irina was born on September 12, 1949 in Moscow. Papa Konstantin Nikolaevich, originally from Vologda, was a regular military man, mother Yulia Yakovlevna, whose numerous Jewish relatives lived in Ukraine, worked as a doctor. Parents madly loved their daughter, gave her a lot of time, developed her many talents. “Our parents went through the war, they have the price of life, the joy of life - it had a completely different meaning. So we did a lot. I don’t want to speak in reproach to today’s parents, I, perhaps, to a greater extent say this in reproach to myself - because I could not devote so much to my children, ”Irina Rodnina later said.
Everything would be fine, only one upset - the girl grew up very painful. By the age of five, Ira had been ill with pneumonia eleven times, was registered in a tuberculosis dispensary. Yulia Yakovlevna, like any wise Jewish mother, found the only and surest way to improve her daughter's health: without thinking about awards and fame, she simply gave her daughter to sports section where classes were held fresh air- figure skating turned up. Mom brought Ira to the skating rink, the boots turned out to be too big for her - she had to put them on right on the felt boots, but, despite the strange design, the nimble baby immediately bravely rolled forward and, it seems, has never looked back since then ...

“Classes were held in the park,” recalls Irina Konstantinovna. - We learned to finish all the jumps in a snowdrift. For me, all figure skating was that I could run up and jump into a snowdrift - it didn’t hurt at all, but the buzz was extraordinary. Since, of course, there was nowhere to change clothes in the park, a layer of ice was frozen on the leggings, it was hard to clean it off, and while my mother and I were riding home in a trolleybus, streams began to flow from me.
Mom turned out to be right - permanent physical activities fresh air improved Irina's health. Naturally, then no one thought about any serious sports career. However, God had his own plans - figure skating turned the girl's life around once and for all, and she never regretted that she devoted herself to this bright, but very laborious sport.
From childhood, Irina was distinguished by some kind of special determination, selflessly trained both on ice and in the gym - either with dumbbells, or with a barbell, or with rubber bands. From the children's figure skating school, Rodnina moved to the CSKA figure skaters section, where she got through the competition.
In 1962, at the invitation of the Soviet sports committee, Czechoslovak coaches, the spouses Sonya and Milan Valun, came to work at the club. Rodnina, together with Oleg Vlasov, began to train under their guidance, and already in 1963 the young couple took third place in the all-Union youth competitions. However, shortly after the end of the contract, the Czechoslovak specialists left, and Irina was left to her own devices. Then Stanislav Zhuk, who had just been appointed head coach of CSKA skaters, noticed her. It was he who managed to discern a remarkable talent in a fifteen-year-old girl. "There is no one like her!" Stanislav Alekseevich said then.
At the suggestion of a new coach, Alexey Ulanov became Irina's partner. It was a beautiful, memorable couple: a small, strongly built Rodnina and a prominent, tall Ulanov. They first announced themselves in 1967 at demonstration performances. And two years later came the first big victory.
In 1969, Rodnina and Ulanov became world champions in figure skating among sports couples and did not give this title to anyone for three years. 1972 was also marked by the fact that then for the first time they became Olympic champions.
I would like to recall in more detail about that period, the period of the beginning of Irina Rodnina's victorious career. So, the victory at the European Championship-69 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen had a special shade. There he and Ulanov performed without a coach. In figure skating, the presence of a coach next to the athletes during training and competition is much more important than in many other sports. Only qualified, timely advice from a coach who knows the athlete well helps to avoid mistakes, and often severe injuries. And it so happened that the coach was not around at that tournament. And there was prelaunch fever and nervous tension. But there was another thing - the desire to prove the correctness of the chosen path. That victory meant a lot!
And when she arrived, another side of the human and athletic character of Rodnina the leader was revealed: the courage of everyday life. Such courage, multiplied by thousands and thousands of days, is probably the most valuable thing in her character. And it is natural that in moments of the most difficult trials such a person has the greatest reserve of strength and stamina.
It is possible that the episode that occurred immediately after the victory at the Olympic Games in Sapporo is the most characteristic to illustrate this idea. Then, in 1972, before speaking at the World Championships, Alexei Ulanov warned Rodnina that next year he would compete with a new partner, Leningrad figure skater Lyudmila Smirnova. Ulanov and Smirnova were going to get married and make a new sports couple. Ulanov was full of hope for the continuation of a brilliant sports future. Rodnina's condition in this case did not bother him anymore. And the state was - you will not envy ... It was very difficult for Irina then. She later recalled: “I didn’t have any personal resentment. Lesha has always been for me only a comrade in sports, a partner. We had a high goal in front of us, and for some reason I was sure that together with Lesha we would achieve it, that our sports union was indestructible. It turns out he thinks differently. So is it worth continuing?
But what can you do - preparations were underway for the World Championships in Calgary, where Irina and Alexei were supposed to perform together for the last time. In such a difficult moral situation, the nerves of both athletes were strained to the limit. During training, Ulanov unexpectedly dropped Rodnina, and she hit her head on the ice, receiving a serious injury. “No shakes, no jumps. Peace. First of all, peace. Now the main thing is to lie down, ”the adamant doctors admonished Irina so severely when they finally reluctantly released her from the clinic after the treatment. How is it to lie down? You need to know Rodnina - this is not in her character.
... At the ice arena of Calgary, pale Ira hid her usual smile. Only the eyes, about which many journalists love to write, have retained their hardness of gaze. She carried her burden of responsibility with dignity, without shifting a single gram onto the shoulders of others. And thousands of Canadians stood up, welcoming the now four-time world champion Irina Rodnina with a standing ovation.
More than once or twice, then Irina had to make decisions in extremely complex situations that required immediate answers and for her the only correct ones. From the bright flame of wrestling, she came out renewed and even stronger. And this is also the pattern of her character.
Then, in 1972, after Ulanov left her, Irina tried not to show anyone how difficult it was for her. She smiled. She was always cheerful and sociable. People went to her for advice, although these days she herself needed good advice most of all. What to do? Leave performances? Finish college and move on to coaching? If you go out on the ice, then with whom? In whom can you guess a reliable partner?
One way or another, the decision was made. The most difficult. Rodnina begins performances with little-known figure skater Alexander Zaitsev. Irina and her coach saw in him something that, perhaps, almost no one had noticed before them - Zaitsev has a character. He is hardy, knows how to gather all the energy to achieve a specific goal. He knows how to get along with people, which means that a common language will be quickly found in a pair. Well, if we add to this that Zaitsev has high and light jumps and has - albeit not yet polished - pair skating technique, then it is clear: with such a partner, you can think about getting back on the podium. To the top step. Rodnina did not want to think about other steps.
The summer and autumn of 1972 were extraordinary. The workouts were exhausting. They did not leave - they crawled away from the ice. No holidays. No beaches. Only ice. Gradual recognition of each other. It is after these trainings that Zaitsev will say: “In principle, I don’t see anything wrong with such loads. Fear and timidity appear in someone who does not prepare himself in advance for difficult work. In my opinion, you need to gradually tune in to a big job all the time. Irina and I know what awaits us tomorrow. And clarity of purpose gives a lot.”
And here are Irina's words about the new partner: “It was convenient for me to skate with him in pairs. I held out my hand and didn't look back. It's an amazing feeling! Don't look back. You give your hand and they take it. Some kind of power is always with you! Agree, such words are worth a lot.
Yes, of course, the clarity of purpose and the emerging mutual understanding gave them the opportunity to find the shortest paths to future victories. But that's not all. And, perhaps, it was in those days that Rodnina's human talent was fully revealed. She was for Zaitsev both a tireless partner and a caring sister at the same time. She gave no respite to him or herself. And if he overcame all the barriers, then this is primarily because he had a reliable and caring leader, with whom it is not scary to storm any sports heights. And they took them from the first call. Top marks fell like a cornucopia. The energetic couple dug deeper and unearthed new figure skating treasures in front of astonished spectators. And new achievements - in will, courage and stamina - too.

Rodnina left for the USA and began working as a coach. Of course, it was not easy: it was necessary to get used to the new way of life, to establish contacts, to learn the language. In 1986, Alena's daughter was born.
But happiness did not last long - only a year. Irina again had to go through a difficult test - the betrayal of a loved one and parting with him. “I always won, and then I had to learn to lose,” she recalls. – I asked myself many times: can I survive the fall? And I realized: the fall can be stopped, but the wound remains ... "
Ira suffered for a year and a half. The ex-husband tried by all legal means to take away his daughter. Ira needed to earn money for a living. The lawsuits did not stop, there was less and less strength left ... And more and more often she caught herself thinking: “Why am I living? There were moments when I wanted to get into the car - and at full speed off a cliff. It happened that she sat alone and clinked glasses with her reflection. Sasha brought me out of this state. He came up to me once and said: “Mom, look at yourself, who you look like. All gray-haired, ugly. I started, began to run, took care of myself. And she got out of this state, she won.
Rodnina continued to work at the International Figure Skating Center in Lake Arrow, near Los Angeles, where children from all over the world came to train. The famous athlete managed to survive, became a successful coach. But the homesickness did not go away.
Rodnina came to Moscow more than once - and yet then returned back to the United States. However, more and more often I thought about returning to my homeland forever. And yet I decided.
After the separation, Moscow saw her spectacular, fit, in a fighting mood. I saw and appreciated ... Today Rodnina is the chairman of the public organization "Sports Russia", a member of the Council for Physical Education and Sports under the President, a deputy of the State Duma. No troubles in life can knock this miniature woman out of her working rut, and when children gather at home, albeit infrequently: a married son, a graduate of the Stroganov School, and a daughter, a student at an American university, Irina feels happy.
***
For many years, the swift, energetic Rodnina fearlessly performed dizzying lifts, twists and jumps. Her style was called fireworks on ice, storm and onslaught, and although partners, coaches and circumstances changed, she invariably rose to the top step of the podium. Meticulous fans of figure skating have calculated that during her career, Irina collected almost a kilogram of gold in the form of awards. By the way, the weight could have been more, but medals made of precious metal of the 750th test are awarded only at the World and European Championships, Olympic medals are gilded. Once Rodnina was asked where she kept them, and they heard: "In a safe."
“All my life I was afraid of losing. I struggled with myself and the circumstances. Now it seems to me that thanks to figure skating, I discovered a completely different world for myself. And those who did not know him eat fresh food all the time, and I have food with spices and imagination ... This, perhaps, is my success, ”says Irina Rodnina.
Agree - she did everything she could. Who can, let him do better.