About Those Who Are Remembered And Loved

Фото: Nina Ponomareva (ITAR-TASS)

Their names are known far beyond our country. We have chosen three athletes: Nina Ponomareva, Galina Gorohova and Boris Lagutin. Three stunning masters, heroes of the Olympics, World and European championships, many-times champions of the USSR. Galina Evgenievna and Boris Nikolaevich celebrated their 70th birthdays. Nina Apollonovna will celebrate her 80th jubilee, her record-breaking flight at 1952 Olympics shocked the entire sports world. They are still in sports and are active in their sports federations. We asked them five identical questions:

1. What would you become had you not devoted your youth to sports?
2. Do you remember the first publication in the press about you that you liked?
3. What helped you to win: self perfection, skill, luck?
4. What is it like to stand the trial of fame from your present perspective?
5. What was the most memorable New Year’s Eve in your life?

Galina Evgenievna Gorohova

Was born on August 21, 1938 in Moscow. She graduated from the Russian State University of Physical culture, Sports and Tourism and the Academy of Social Sciences of the CPSU Central Committee (1973), professor. Cand. Sc. (History), 1973.

Played for Dinamo (Moscow).

Honored Master of Sports, rapier fencing.

Three-fold Olympic Champion (1960, 1968, 1972) in team competitions; nine-fold World Champion: in individual championship of 1965 and 1970; in team championship of 1958, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1971; silver Olympic prize-winner in 1964 in team competitions; silver World champion prize-winner in individual competitions of 1959, 1962; and in team competitions of 1959, 1962, 1967; bronze prize-winner of the World championship of 1966 (individual competitions); six-fold Champion of the USSR (individual competitions) in 1960, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966 and 1970.

Merited coach of the USSR, Merited coach of Russia.

From 1976 till 1992 she was the state fencing coach of the Sports Committee of the USSR. She was named the best Russian athlete of the 20th century. A member of the executive committee of the Olympic Committee of Russia. She heads the central pension commission of the non-governmental pension fund of sports veterans “Traditsiya”. President of the Russian Union of Athletes. Member of the executive committee of the World Association of Olympic champions, member of the Panel of All- Russian Federation of track and field athletics. Member of the executive committee of all-Russian Fencing Federation.

Gorohova rewarded with the Medal of Worker Red Banner, Order of Merit for Country of the VI Degree, Medal “For Labor Excellence” and two Medals “For Labor Heroism”.

Nina Apollonovna Ponomaryeva (Romashkova) is the first Soviet Olympic champion.

Was born on April 27, 1929 in Sverdlovsk, brought up in the town of Essentuki. Graduated from Moscow Regional teaching institute. Played for the CSKA team (Moscow). Merited Sports Master in track and field athletics (discus throwing). Two-fold Olympic champion (1952, 1960); bronze prize-winner of the 1956 Olympics; 1954 European champion; eight-fold champion of the USSR (1951-1956, 1958, 1959); 1952 World Champion.

Was rewarded with the Medal of Workers Red Banner, “Order of Badge of Honor”, “Badge of honor for the development of the Olympic movement in Russia”.

In 1966 Nina Apollonovna ended her sports career and moved to Kiev where she worked as coach in the school of Olympic reserve for more than thirty years.

Since 1991 she participated in veterans’ competitions. She won golden medals of the World championships of 1991 and the European championships of 1992, 1994 and 1996; bronze medal of the World championship of 1993. In 1993 Nina Apollonovna became the veteran Olympic champion.

Nina Ponomaryeva lives in Moscow since 1998.

Boris Nikolayevich Lagutin

Born on the June 24,1938 in Moscow. Graduated from the State Central Institute of Physical culture and biological faculty of the Moscow State University.

Merited Master of Sports in boxing.

Two-fold Olympic Champion of 1964, 1968; bronze Olympic prize-winner of 1960; two-fold European champion of 1961 and 1963; six-fold Champion of the USSR of 1959, 1961-64, 1968. During his sports life he conducted 298 matches on various competition levels, and won 287 of them.

Merited worker of physical culture and sports of the Russian Federation.

Member of the Panel of Boxing Federation, member of the presidium of Russian club Spartak, member of Moscow Federation of physically challenged people.

Was awarded with the Medal of Worker Red Banner, Order of Badge of Honor, Order of Peoples' Friendship, Orders of Merit for Country of the IV and III Degrees, Medal “For Labor Excellence” and with the award of the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic Order of Glory.

Lives and works in Moscow.

Nina Ponomareva

1. I do not recollect myself dreaming of any particular profession. Besides, my childhood passed in adult toil in a Cossack village. While my father was at war I was the elder of the family. Cossack families are big and full of children who rarely sat still. We played batt, cops and robbers and I remember myself in constant motion. Maybe that was the time when an athlete was born within only I was not aware of such thing. I remember how we built pyramids from boys and girls at school – there was such a fancy at those times before the war, they used to show them at the Red Square athletic parades. Wearing these short pants that I had for building pyramids, I ran my first crosscountry cross: 500 meters in 1 minute and 42 seconds. They gave me the shot and I pushed it to 8.62 meters narrowly missing the coach. A little later after the first events I dreamed of becoming a trainer and work with children. My dream came true and I worked with children for more than 30.

2. First publications were in 1948 and 1949 in Stavropolskaia Pravda newspaper after the republic tournament. This was when I saw real Masters of Sport for the first time. That was before I took up discus, I pushed shot at the time. That day I showed excellent time for a novice and came third. However, a cricket crept inside of me that always kept on nagging me not to give in to no one. Thus I lived all my sports life .

4. I was untouched by fame and never promoted myself. Even my neighbors at the country-house did not know that I am an Olympic champion until they saw me on TV. The authorities did not favor us either. At Helsinki Olympics there were no compatriots at the grand stands but lots of Germans awaiting a record from Marianna Werner. Annoyed with that situation I threw the discus to 51. 42 meters: a new Olympic record and a golden medal. My friend Liza Bagryanceva took silver. However, we did not wake up famous. We got no bonuses, no decorations, no automobiles. Only some short paragraphs in Pravda about the return of the Olympians from Helsinki, where we gained the same number of points as the Americans who were favored by most of the present.

5. I remember the New Year’s Eve celebrations of my childhood – the hungry and dark childhood. We did not even have electricity in our village. A Christmas tree was decorated for the occasion, all the toys were done by our hands, we had never yet seen manufactured toys at that time. Sweets were usually consumed before the occasion and we decorated the tree with their wrappings. We lived in modesty during all our life.

Galina Gorohova

1. I studied at Moscow river technical school and was lucky to become one of those who were admitted to Leningrad institute of river transportation, where all our girls directed their steps. It is most likely that I would have acquired that profession. However, rapier changed my life although I took it in my hands quite late, I was almost 17 then. Today such grownups are not accepted, kids start fencing at 7 years of age.

2. The first publication was after the championship of the USSR in Kharkov, where I won the second place among girls under 18 and my prize was a folding clock, which was a new thing at that time. I still keep that clock as a memory, it doesn't work of course. Mikahil Mariin from Nizhnii Novgorod wrote about me. He used to write about his countrymen but he also wrote about me. Fred Malkin and Igor Obraztsov frequently wrote about me.

3. My sports depends on fast response, quick thinking and the ability to switch, which is most important in fencing as well as being erudite because you need to be able to analyze the situation. In short, it’s about instant analysis, conclusion, taking a decision. Certainly skill plays major role here. This is why a skilled athlete can perform for quite a long time. Sports combine personal qualities and skill. A seasoned fencer doesn’t do unnecessary moves and his energy expenditure is lower. He spends less effort and this is a sign of high class.

4. There was no fame trial for us. We descended from the podiums to regular life and were firmly rooted in it. Upon exiting the competition arena we were nobodies again and we had to reaffirm our mastery once again. If someone was ever called a star it sounded like an insult. Today the stars take this game of stardom quite seriously. It is my opinion that this is the result of coaches indulgence. After completing competitions many athletes think that they have the right to take any place and any position. They hardly understand that any position is earned with work and knowledge. I think that very few athletes take up training positions. They prefer to hang around TV especially in exotic sports.

5. I find nothing special in this celebration although I consider it to be a family occasion. We lived as a big family in a small room. Our granny went to her relatives at 11 o’clock. In my childhood I celebrated it at home with my parents and then with the girls from my technical school. However, I preferred to celebrate it at home because it is a family oriented occasion.

Boris Lagutin

1. It’s hard to say because I came to sports as a professional technician and I worked in the system of defense plants that were then called quite enigmatically: “PO Box”. My main occupation caused some troubles when I needed to travel abroad for competitions. I have an impeccable biography: my grandparents had fought for Russia and my father returned home from war in 1945 having been wounded. By the time I was 30, I graduated from the Institute of physical culture and Biology faculty of Moscow University. However, my destiny was to do social work. I gave 20 years of my life to Komsomol, I worked at the defense and sports department and later in trade unions.

2. It seems to me that it was an article by Vladimir Kolovarov “Grand Master of the ring”. He had written a lot about me. Smena and Ogoniok also wrote about me, I mean the sports issues. I keep many of these publications in albums, someday my grandchildren will read them, they already do. I have many articles from Polish, Hungarian and French newspapers, these are the countries where I appeared on the ring.

3. I think it’s the first, the second and rarely the third one. I belong to that generation of people who submit to the dictate of the obligations. I did what was asked of me: I entered the ring, I traveled far and wide helping people, fixing things. When I worked at Komsomol my wife, Tatiana Petrovna once counted all the assignments I had during a year: 250!

4. My head did not spin from success. I never suffered from stardom disease and the word “star” itself had rather negative connotations in our time. There are more stars on Earth now than there is in the sky and this is true not only about sports. Of course, all sort of things happened, I remember how people used to recognize me in the street and I signed hundreds of autographs. However, what really matters is that I acquired many friends and not only among athletes but also among writers, journalists and cosmonauts. In short, I am indifferent to fame. After the fight in France people ran up to me seeking to touch me apparently for good luck. When I put on my closes they stole my hat for a souvenir. Here is the flip side of fame. Money is ok, after all I need to take care of my family and cure my traumas. However, big money is rather...

5. New Year is a family occasion and I spend it at home most of the time with my wife and kids that keep on waiting for their dad to come back from his travels and sit at the festive table. This is how it always was and is now.