Klevchenya, Sergei Konstantinovich. Sergei Klevchenya: “Family is the most important thing for me. What do you expect from him this season
Sergei Konstantinovich Klevchenya (born January 21, 1971, Barnaul, USSR) is a Soviet and Russian speed skater. Silver and bronze medalist of the XVII Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer at a distance of 500 and 1000 m. Two-time world champion in sprint all-around in 1997 and 1998, world champion in 1996 at a distance of 1000 m. Honored Master of Sports of Russia.
Biography
He studied at the Youth Sports School of Barnaul (now the Sports School named after him).
Since June 2003 - senior sprint coach of the Russian speed skating team.
Since May 2012, he has been a sprint consultant for the Kazakhstan national speed skating team.
Personal life
Married to Inna Klevchenya. He has 2 children: 15-year-old Christina and 13-year-old Nikita.
World Speed Skating Championships
Sprint all-around
- Gold - 1996, 1997 Silver - 1994
Individual distances
- Gold - 1996 (1000 m) Silver - 1996 (500 m) Bronze - 2001 (1000 m)
Awards and titles
- Honored Master of Sports of Russia Order of Merit for the Altai Territory, II degree (2007) Medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (2007)
Barnaul speed skater Sergei Klevchenya is the most titled Altai representative of winter sports in history. One after another, he won gold medals at the world championships. He took part in four (!) Olympic Games, winning silver and bronze. Today Sergei lives in Moscow, works on the coaching staff of the Russian youth team. A call from a sports columnist for Altaiskaya Pravda found him just after one of his training sessions.
- Sergey, how have your relations with your small homeland been developing in recent years?
Parents, acquaintances, friends live here. We plan to fly to Barnaul in the spring to see them. In addition, there is a skating school and stadium named after me. I am constantly interested in promising young people who study at this school and compete in Russian competitions. Now the talented Barnaul boy Vitya Mushtakov, who comes from the junior team, is training under my leadership.
At the beginning of last year, Victor noted that he would really like to train under your leadership, but then you were working with the Kazakhstan national team. And now his wish came true. It turned out very symbolic, because he was born and raised in the same area of Barnaul as you - on the VRZ. Tell us when you first heard about this guy?
We met him in Kolomna shortly after Vitya broke my youth records. I remember in the hostel they brought him up to me and said: “Here is a guy from your city.” As it turned out, we grew up very close: I grew up on Fabrichnaya Street, and he on Shkolnaya Street, which is closer to the stadium.
In general, the Russian youth team, where I currently work, is a search for talent and their further development. I hope that Victor is one of those people who are capable of giving their all to achieve results. What makes a good athlete different is that he can show the maximum of his capabilities in competitions. Then, naturally, it will be fully realized. The foundation here is laid by the parents, who tell the child not to get distracted before the competition, not to worry too much, and to be able to pull himself together at the right moment. Victor is still trying. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done. One might say, not for one year. I hope that he will get into a certain shape much faster than we want.
- A couple of weeks ago Mushtakov showed encouraging results. What do you expect from him this season?
At the first stage of the Russian Cup, he showed a result that would give him the opportunity to compete at the adult stages of the World Cup. But those competitions were not qualifying ones. But at the qualifiers he got a little sick and didn’t perform, so he didn’t make the team. But I think he has everything ahead of him. He needs to be even more self-confident, learn to perform all movements technically correctly and smoothly transition from youth to adult sports life, which is also not so easy. This year his task is to gain a foothold at the adult level, to take places from first to sixth. I deliberately raised the bar to first place. Why not? If progress goes quickly, then you can aim for the highest step of the podium. Among Russian speed skaters, of course. There is still a lot of work to be done before reaching the world podium.
The famous Altai scientist, medical university professor Valery Kiselyov, recalled the first time he saw you in his office during a medical examination. You were 15 years old, and the girls from the speed skating section asked him to talk to you so that you would not be lazy in training.
I'm afraid I won't remember this anymore. But I remember very well the medical examination in Moscow, where I was told that I was not ready to compete in the national team for health reasons. Fortunately, I was soon able to refute such a disappointing forecast. In any case, a little laziness should be present in the athlete. At a certain point it even helps. I had moments when I rested somewhere longer than I should have, and then performed well in competitions.
You have repeatedly won medals at major competitions; tell me, which of them was the most memorable?
Most memorable was his performance at the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer. Standing on the pedestal, of course, I experienced indescribable sensations. The excitement was even greater than before the start itself. It would seem that everything is already behind us, but the emotions when receiving the medal simply went off scale.
They say that a good athlete does not always make a good coach. What was the most difficult thing for you in the transition to coaching?
Naturally, at first I was drawn back to the skating rink. Still, ordinary life is very different from sports life. I had to learn a lot, including from the athletes around me. I built some kind of my own scheme, which, in principle, still works and helps those mentors who hold the position of coach of the sprint team. I was lucky that at the beginning of my career I coached such skaters as Dmitry Lobkov, who under my leadership became the silver medalist of the World Championship in 2004. Or Dmitry Dorofeev, who won silver at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. I am also proud that over the years of working in the Kazakhstan national team I prepared the 2013 world champion in Sochi, Denis Kuzin.
-Are you a tough coach?
I'm very demanding. Because among athletes, someone is always lazy, someone is afraid, someone does not believe in themselves. My task is to convince them to do everything necessary to achieve the result. Sometimes you have to scold your wards. Dorofeev, who is now the coach of the national team, still remembers the moment when I had a fight with him, after which he suffered a turning point. He realized that to achieve results you need to work hard, without sparing yourself at some points. During my time as a coach, I realized that you cannot make friends with athletes. The work is much more fruitful if the coach keeps some distance from his players.
In May last year it was reported that your candidacy was proposed for the post of head coach of the Kazakhstan national team. Why did you decide to return to Russia?
In Kazakhstan, everything was going well for me, and financially, it was generally just great. But I have a son who started skating at the age of 15. He liked it and said that he would be a speed skater. Well, who will take care of it if not his own father? Therefore, for the sake of my son, for the sake of my daughter, who graduated from school and entered university, I returned home. After all, family is the most important thing in life for me.
Your son Nikita recently starred in the TV show “Amazing People,” where he skated at a given speed. When did you notice such unique abilities in him?
He actually turns out to be a pretty unique guy. At first he was small, and then he grew up sharply and began to surprise us. He has an excellent memory, especially good at remembering numbers. And he is also very purposeful, constantly mastering some new activities. He has not yet decided whether he will compete at medium or long distances. But he is working on himself - and that makes me happy. The ability to sense one's own speed helps the skater distribute forces evenly over the distance.
- Do you want Nikita to become a professional athlete?
Sports life in itself excludes any options for an incorrect existence. Any sport organizes a person a little. And the people around you here are completely different. Therefore, if everything worked out for him, then I will be very happy.
What mistakes will you warn your son against if he continues to follow in your footsteps and grows to the level of the Russian national team?
From personal experience I can say that athletes learn primarily from their mistakes. Of course, if any life situations arise, I will try to guide him, advise him, and warn him. And it’s quite difficult to predict something in advance.
-Are you tired of the ice oval yet?
Such thoughts come, of course. Sometimes I look at older coaches and envy them in a good way. Because you need to have a lot of desire, will, and love for your profession in order to stay in it for many years. As they say, coaching is a thankless profession. There are, of course, moments when I get tired. But it’s still a favorite activity that helps me move on.
Sergey Konstantinovich Klevchenya(born January 21, 1971, Barnaul , USSR) - Soviet and Russian skater. Silver and bronze medalist XVII Winter Olympic Games V Lillehamer at distances of 500 and 1000 m. Two-time world champion in sprint all-around in 1997 and 1998, world champion in 1996 at a distance of 1000 m. Honored Master of Sports of Russia.
Biography
Since June 2003 - senior sprint coach of the Russian speed skating team.
Since May 2012, he has been a sprint consultant for the Kazakhstan national speed skating team. .
Personal life
Married to Inna Klevchenya. He has 2 children: Christina (born 1997) and Nikita (born 2000).
World Speed Skating Championships
Sprint all-around
- Gold - 1996, 1997
- Silver - 1994
Individual distances
- Gold - 1996 (1000 m)
- Silver - 1996 (500 m)
- Bronze - 2001 (1000 m)
Awards and titles
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Notes
Links
- - Olympic statistics on the website Sports-Reference.com(English)
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An excerpt characterizing Klevchen, Sergei Konstantinovich
She did not let her mother go, gently struggled with her, demanded a pillow, water, unbuttoned and tore her mother’s dress.“My friend, my dear... mamma, darling,” she whispered incessantly, kissing her head, hands, face and feeling how uncontrollably her tears flowed in streams, tickling her nose and cheeks.
The Countess squeezed her daughter's hand, closed her eyes and fell silent for a moment. Suddenly she stood up with unusual speed, looked around senselessly and, seeing Natasha, began squeezing her head with all her might. Then she turned her face, wrinkled in pain, towards her and peered at it for a long time.
“Natasha, you love me,” she said in a quiet, trusting whisper. - Natasha, won’t you deceive me? Will you tell me the whole truth?
Natasha looked at her with tear-filled eyes, and in her face there was only a plea for forgiveness and love.
“My friend, mamma,” she repeated, straining all the strength of her love in order to somehow relieve her of the excess grief that was oppressing her.
And again, in a powerless struggle with reality, the mother, refusing to believe that she could live when her beloved boy, blooming with life, was killed, fled from reality in a world of madness.
Natasha did not remember how that day, that night, the next day, the next night went. She did not sleep and did not leave her mother. Natasha’s love, persistent, patient, not as an explanation, not as a consolation, but as a call to life, every second seemed to embrace the countess from all sides. On the third night, the Countess fell silent for a few minutes, and Natasha closed her eyes, resting her head on the arm of the chair. The bed creaked. Natasha opened her eyes. The Countess sat on the bed and spoke quietly.
– I’m so glad you came. Are you tired, do you want some tea? – Natasha approached her. “You have become prettier and more mature,” the countess continued, taking her daughter by the hand.
- Mama, what are you saying!..
- Natasha, he’s gone, no more! “And, hugging her daughter, the countess began to cry for the first time.
Princess Marya postponed her departure. Sonya and the Count tried to replace Natasha, but they could not. They saw that she alone could keep her mother from insane despair. For three weeks Natasha lived hopelessly with her mother, slept on an armchair in her room, gave her water, fed her and talked to her incessantly - she talked because her gentle, caressing voice alone calmed the countess.
The mother's mental wound could not be healed. Petya's death took away half of her life. A month after the news of Petya’s death, which found her a fresh and cheerful fifty-year-old woman, she left her room half-dead and not taking part in life - an old woman. But the same wound that half killed the countess, this new wound brought Natasha to life.
A mental wound that comes from a rupture of the spiritual body, just like a physical wound, no matter how strange it may seem, after a deep wound has healed and seems to have come together at its edges, a mental wound, like a physical one, heals only from the inside with the bulging force of life.
Natasha’s wound healed in the same way. She thought her life was over. But suddenly love for her mother showed her that the essence of her life - love - was still alive in her. Love woke up and life woke up.
The last days of Prince Andrei connected Natasha with Princess Marya. The new misfortune brought them even closer together. Princess Marya postponed her departure and for the last three weeks, like a sick child, she looked after Natasha. The last weeks Natasha spent in her mother’s room had strained her physical strength.
One day, Princess Marya, in the middle of the day, noticing that Natasha was trembling with a feverish chill, took her to her place and laid her on her bed. Natasha lay down, but when Princess Marya, lowering the curtains, wanted to go out, Natasha called her over.
– I don’t want to sleep. Marie, sit with me.
– You’re tired, try to sleep.
- No no. Why did you take me away? She will ask.
- She's much better. “She spoke so well today,” said Princess Marya.
Natasha lay in bed and in the semi-darkness of the room looked at the face of Princess Marya.
“Does she look like him? – thought Natasha. – Yes, similar and not similar. But she is special, alien, completely new, unknown. And she loves me. What's on her mind? All is good. But how? What does she think? How does she look at me? Yes, she is beautiful."
“Masha,” she said, timidly pulling her hand towards her. - Masha, don’t think that I’m bad. No? Masha, my dear. I love you so much. We will be completely, completely friends.
And Natasha, hugging and kissing the hands and face of Princess Marya. Princess Marya was ashamed and rejoiced at this expression of Natasha’s feelings.
Barnaul speed skater Sergei Klevchenya is the most titled Altai representative of winter sports in history, not counting our fellow countrymen who won Olympic awards while already residents of other regions. One after another, he won gold medals at the world championships. He took part in four (!) Olympic Games, winning silver and bronze. Today Sergei lives in Moscow, works on the coaching staff of the Russian youth team. A call from Barnaul found him just after one of his training sessions.
- Sergey, how have your relations with your small homeland been developing in recent years?
Parents, acquaintances, friends live here. We plan to fly to Barnaul in the spring to see them. In addition, there is a skating school and stadium named after me. I am constantly interested in promising young people who study at this school and compete in Russian competitions. Now the talented Barnaul boy Vitya Mushtakov, who comes from the junior team, is training under my leadership.
At the beginning of last year, Victor noted that he would really like to train under your leadership, but then you were working with the Kazakhstan national team. And now his wish came true. It turned out very symbolic, because he was born and raised in the same area of Barnaul as you - on the VRZ. Tell us when you first heard about this guy?
We met him in Kolomna shortly after Vitya broke my youth records. I remember in the hostel they brought him up to me and said: “Here is a guy from your city.” As it turned out, we grew up very close: I grew up on Fabrichnaya Street, and he on Shkolnaya Street, which is closer to the stadium.
In general, the Russian youth team, where I currently work, is a search for talent and their further development. I hope that Victor is one of those people who are capable of giving their all to achieve results. What makes a good athlete different is that he can show the maximum of his capabilities in competitions. Then, naturally, it will be fully realized. The foundation here is laid by the parents, who tell the child not to get distracted before the competition, not to worry too much, and to be able to pull himself together at the right moment. Victor is still trying. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done. One might say, not for one year. I hope he gets into some shape much faster than we want him to.
- What do you expect from him this season?
At the first stage of the Russian Cup, he showed a result that would give him the opportunity to compete at the adult stages of the World Cup. But those competitions were not qualifying ones. But at the qualifiers he got a little sick and didn’t perform, so he didn’t make the team. But I think he has everything ahead of him. He needs to be even more self-confident, learn to perform all movements technically correctly and smoothly transition from youth to adult sports life, which is also not so easy. This year his task is to gain a foothold at the adult level, to take places from first to sixth. I deliberately raised the bar to first place. Why not? If progress goes quickly, then you can aim for the highest step of the podium. Among Russian speed skaters, of course. There is still a lot of work to be done before reaching the world podium.
The famous Altai scientist, medical university professor Valery Kiselev, recalled the first time he saw you in his office during a medical examination. You were 15 years old, and the girls from the speed skating section asked him to talk to you so that you would not be lazy in training.
I'm afraid I won't remember this anymore. But I remember very well the medical examination in Moscow, where I was told that I was not ready to compete in the national team for health reasons. Fortunately, I was soon able to refute such a disappointing forecast. In any case, a little laziness should be present in the athlete. At some point it even helps. I had moments when I rested somewhere longer than I should have, and then performed well in competitions.
You have repeatedly won medals at major competitions; tell me, which of them was the most memorable?
Most memorable was his performance at the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer. Standing on the pedestal, of course, I experienced indescribable sensations.
The excitement was even greater than before the start itself. It would seem that everything is already behind us, but the emotions when receiving the medal simply went off scale.
They say that a good athlete does not always make a good coach. What was the most difficult thing for you in the transition to coaching?
Naturally, at first I was drawn back to the skating rink. Still, ordinary life is very different from sports life. I had to learn a lot, including from the athletes around me. I built some kind of my own scheme, which, in principle, still works and helps those mentors who hold the position of coach of the sprint team. I was lucky that at the beginning of my career I coached such skaters as Dmitry Lobkov, who under my leadership in 2004 became a silver medalist at the World Championships. Or Dmitry Dorofeev, who won silver at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. I am also proud that over the years of working in the Kazakhstan national team I prepared the 2013 world champion in Sochi, Denis Kuzin.
-Are you a tough coach?
I'm very demanding. Because among athletes, someone is always lazy, someone is afraid, someone does not believe in themselves. My task is to convince them to do everything necessary to achieve the result. Sometimes you have to scold your wards. Dorofeev, who is now the coach of the national team, still remembers the moment when I had a fight with him, after which he suffered a turning point. He realized that to achieve results you need to work hard, without sparing yourself at some points. During my time as a coach, I realized that you cannot make friends with athletes. The work is much more fruitful if the coach keeps some distance from his players.
In May last year it was reported that your candidacy was proposed for the post of head coach of the Kazakhstan national team. Why did you decide to return to Russia?
In Kazakhstan, everything was going well for me, and financially, it was generally just great. But I have a son who started skating at the age of 15. He liked it and said that he would be a speed skater. Well, who will take care of it if not his own father? Therefore, for the sake of my son, for the sake of my daughter, who graduated from school and entered university, I returned home. Still, family is the most important thing in life for me.
Your son Nikita recently starred in the TV show “Amazing People,” where he skated at a given speed. When did you notice such unique abilities in him?
He actually turns out to be a pretty unique guy. At first he was small, and then he grew up sharply and began to surprise us. He has an excellent memory, especially good at remembering numbers. And he is also very purposeful, constantly mastering some new activities. He has not yet decided whether he will compete at medium or long distances. But he is working on himself - and that makes me happy. The ability to sense one's own speed helps the skater distribute forces evenly over the distance.
- Do you want Nikita to become a professional athlete?
Sports life in itself excludes any options for an incorrect existence. Any sport organizes a person a little. And the people around you here are completely different. Therefore, if everything worked out for him, then I will be very happy.
What mistakes will you warn your son against if he continues to follow in your footsteps and grows to the level of the Russian national team?
From personal experience I can say that athletes learn primarily from their mistakes. Of course, if any life situations arise, I will try to guide him, advise him, and warn him. And it’s quite difficult to predict something in advance.
-Are you tired of the ice oval yet?
Such thoughts come, of course. Sometimes I look at older coaches and envy them in a good way. Because you need to have a lot of desire, will, and love for your profession in order to stay in it for many years. As they say, coaching is a thankless profession. There are, of course, times when I get tired. But it’s still a favorite activity that helps me move on.
