Personal life of Irina Rodnina. Queen of figure skating. The fate of Irina Rodnina could have turned out differently. Under the leadership of Tatyana Tarasova

A few days earlier, one of the readers of my articles and conference participant asked if I had read Irina Rodnina’s new book “Tear of a Champion” and, if so, what I thought about it. I answered honestly that I had not read either this or the previous books of the named author.

Literally a few hours later, another conference participant sent me the book in electronic form, for which I am eternally grateful. For the next three days I read this book and for another three I re-read it, making notes. After which the fingers reached for the pen and, not finding it, climbed onto the keyboard.

I would like to immediately warn the reader that my attitude towards Irina Rodnina is in no way unambiguous. As for the figure skater, using whom Stanislav Zhuk settled scores with the “Leningrad school” in the persons of Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov and turned pair skating from an art into a craft, I have no particular respect. Although, of course, Irina and Alexei Ulanov became not even pioneers, but pioneer leaders other style of pair skating, sports. As a courageous, extremely hardworking and, to the extent possible, independent person - with great sympathy. I also liked Irina a little as a woman, and in almost forty years I’ve had only a few of them at the side. Like a cunning woman who deftly shed a champion’s crocodile tear while raising the Soviet flag and shouting slogans like: “I dedicate my record to you, Party!” - with disbelief.

Not long ago I read a funny story on the Internet: a six-year-old girl, all in tears, angrily shouts to her four-year-old brother: “Give me back the candy, it’s not yours!” I’ve already eaten yours!’ Wasn’t it written with Rodnina?

But athletes with an angelic character do not become Olympic champions, much less three-time ones, so a positive attitude towards Rodnina prevails. Therefore, in reviewing her new book “Tear of a Champion,” I will try to be as objective as possible.

I’ll start, perhaps, with the publisher’s nonsense entitled Abstract: According to a 2010 VTsIOM poll, Irina Rodnina was included in the top ten idols of the 20th century in Russia - along with Gagarin, Vysotsky, Zhukov, Solzhenitsyn... We have many great athletes, but people have never rated any of them so highly.
Some kind of pagan cult of idols and idols from Perun, Semargl, Veles and company. The Christian religion clearly teaches: Do not make yourself an idol.
Where, one wonders, is Partyarch Gundyaev looking? Yes, and VTsIOM, apparently, is revealed as the “All-Russian Center distortion public opinion." This is not surprising, given how the search website describes the tasks of this organization: “Research conducted as part of a monthly survey on a representative sample of the Russian population aged 18 years and older. Fame level information parties, party leaders, etc.“
Rodnina did not write this, and this stupid popularization should not be attributed to her. Read on.

The author's first words are “ I wrote an honest book, so it's tough. Anyone who knows me well will not be surprised. I never judged anyone behind their backs and always spoke out straight“. I am ready to confirm these words of Irina almost completely. “Almost” because the second chapter immediately threw me off track.

Mom without a name, without a patronymic, without nationality

The chapter is called “Mom, Dad, Valya and Me” and begins like this: “ My dad, Konstantin Nikolaevich Rodnin, is from Vologda. More precisely, from the village of Yanino, located directly near Vologda. Now it has already been absorbed by the city. I was taken there when I was very young to visit my grandmother. My father’s sister, Aunt Nadya, still lives there... Of course, it was my mother who took care of us – Valya and me – most of all. And first of all, Valya, because she is the eldest...“.
Neither here nor in any other place in the book does Irina’s mother have a first name, patronymic, or maiden name and is referred to everywhere exclusively as “mother.”

Irochka Rodnina
Photo spletnik.ru

It is only known that she is from Ukraine, is a good cook, is musical and studied medicine. Dad has a full name, sister Valya and even Aunt Nadya have names, but mom doesn’t. What was the great figure skater ashamed to tell about her mother? For what sins against her daughter did her mother even die nameless - I quote: “Literally a few weeks before the putsch, my mother died.”. Grandmother and other relatives on my mother’s side (Ira went to visit them in Ukraine) also remained in the book without family or tribe.
I thought for a long time and the only thing that came to my mind were lines from a song by Alexander Galich: “Here he writes in his biography - Russian, / True, pure, even if you show off. / And he was born, by the way, in Bobruisk / And with his grandmother surname – Katz!“

I do not undertake to condemn the true, pure, Russian athlete of peasant origin Irina Rodnina for the fact that in Soviet times she carefully hid her, as it was called then, “disability of the fifth group.” Many Jews and half-Jews were written by Russians not out of a sense of anti-Semitism, but simply out of fear. Everyone knew perfectly well: it was almost impossible for a Jew or a Jewess to get to the very top, and they were allowed abroad only in the most exceptional cases. I knew this too, so on December 4, 1971, I left the USSR for the first and last time without a passport and without citizenship, but with a one-way visa “for permanent residence in the State of Israel.”
I know many athletes, including figure skaters, who hide the “Jewish flaw” in their biographies. I remember how quite a long time ago, in 2000, in the article “Jews Sew Not Only Liveries” (about Jewish athletes), I called one charming figure skater Jewish. At the next championship she appeared with a cross on her neck and proudly told me: “I am Russian!” She is still listed as Russian. Only Natalya Bestemyanova revealed her secret in her autobiographical book. But what prevented Rodnina from calling her mother by name and patronymic? in 2010, and how the fact of concealment is combined with her assurance that the book is honest? Let's leave the answer to this question up to the author.*)

Further reading of the book surprised me with the illiteracy in writing names and titles. Let me give you a few examples:
Coach Samson Glyzer, known to the entire older generation of figure skaters, is called Glyzer, figure skaters Yulia and Ardo Rennik - Reiniki, coach Gennady Ackerman - Ackerman, world famous dance coach Igor Shpilband - Shpilman, and no less than Shpilband, but the infamous Alla Shekhovtsova - Shakhnovskaya.
The only students of Rodnina who have reached the European and world level are Radka Kovazhikova and Rene Novotny. In one place in the book they are Radka Kovarikova and Rene Novotny, in another they are Radka Kovarikova and Rene Novotny. It’s as if it was written about different people.

There are no less errors in American names and titles.
The book changed American figure skater Linda Fratienne's last name to Frontiani. The famous ice show Ice Capades is called “Ice Capets” - it’s good that it’s not “Ice Pesets”, otherwise the Protopopovs would be ashamed to admit that they worked in this show. The town where Rodnina worked for 10 years is called Lake Arrowhead and is written in Russian as Lake Arrowhead, and Irina writes it “Lake Aerochette,” knowing that the name translates as “Lake Arrowhead.” Aero is air, arrow is Arrow. Even if we assume that Rodnina did not read Walter Scott’s books as a child, did she really not learn English at least at this level in 10 years? The city of Memphis is named in the book as the capital of the state of Arkansas. But in another book, about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, which I read as a child, Mark Twain attributes Memphis to the state of Tennessee, and I am inclined to believe him more, a Native American.

Of course, we must not forget that Rodnina’s stable education ended in the eighth grade of a school specialized in the in-depth study of the German language. Ira received the rest on the run, between training and competitions. She writes about it herself. But she didn’t write the book herself!
Although to call all four spirals “todes” - that is, spirals of death- only she could, and only to humiliate her main rivals, Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov. In addition to the “spiral of death” that existed before them, Lyudmila and Oleg came up with three more, and called them “Spiral of Life”, “Spiral of Love” and “Cosmic Spiral”, which Rodnina is well aware of. Under these names, the Protopopov spirals are registered with the International Skating Union. Today, no one in the world will be able to perform all four spirals - you won’t earn levels with them. You don't need to reach a good level, but jump.

I asked Irina who did the literary recording of the book for her? Was this person literate enough? It turned out that this was a very competent and very famous publicist Vitaly Melik-Karamov, who wrote a literary record and the books of Tatyana Tarasova “Beauty and the Beast,” with whom he had been friends for a long time. Why then did he allow such disgrace? Accidentally? I do not believe. Out of absent-mindedness? I will never believe it. Hastily? But the manuscript lay in the publishing house for more than three years. This means that in the publishing house itself, the editor of the book was a person who had never been interested in figure skating, who had never read books by foreign authors or Soviet newspapers. Or it was a person who deliberately missed all the mistakes in order to expose Rodnina in an unsightly light. Was it possible that the editor was asked to do this by someone whom Irina spoke unflatteringly about in her book?

Always guilty of subjectivity

In the address “From the Author,” Rodnina writes: “A first-person story always suffers from subjectivity. This is how I see the situation, but someone else who was involved may have a completely different view of the events I describe. I tried not to gloss over my memories, which is actually very difficult. It’s not easy to offend people who were close to you.”
I was not a participant in the events, but I witnessed a lot of things described in this book. I can testify that most sports functionaries, starting with Piseev, deserved the characteristics given to them by Rodnina. I would even say that Irina Konstantinovna “didn’t give enough” to the same Piseeva, Shekhovtsova-Shakhnovskaya and Tarasova, just in case. But she writes about herself with such love and adoration that it seems: her best friend’s name is not Oksana Pushkina, but Manya Velichiya. What made me laugh the most were the lines in which Rodnina states: Tamara Nikolaevna and Igor Borisovich Moskvin borrowed a lot from her. Did Moskvina’s coaches borrow a lot from Zhuk and Tarasova’s student? Fresh legend.....
After laughing, I remembered a similar incident. Salvador Dali wrote memoirs in which he did not speak very well of his friend, Pablo Picasso. After some time, they met in Paris, and Picasso asked his friend what he had done to deserve an unflattering description. To which Dali calmly replied: “You see, Pablo, I wrote my memoirs not about you, but about myself.”
Rodnina also writes about herself, so there is nothing to complain about. When a person like her finds herself at the very top of her sports career, she experiences what is called “success dizziness.” In this state, it was already difficult for Irina to distinguish the party congress (no matter which one: the CPSU, United Russia or any other ruling one) from the congress of her own roof. Rodnina, by the way, is no exception. For example, world champion Alexei Tikhonov, a very good figure skater, was modest until, due to his great physical strength, Ilya Averbukh put the most magnificent briskets and heaviest hams of the so-called “stars” of the Russian stage, cinema and TV into Tikhonov’s muscular hands . Having had his fill, Alexey decided that he was an unsurpassed male, handsome, a talented film actor and a “star” of the first magnitude. I have already written about Evgeni Plushenko’s cult of personality, but for now I am silent about Anton Sikharulidze.

It is a pity that, while listing in the “American” part of her biography the names of famous figure skaters whom she helped prepare at the request of their coaches, Irina did not talk about the Stigler brother and sister - American figure skaters whom she raised and brought to the level of the World Junior Championships. Later, she appears to have given the pair to Alexander Zaitsev. I met Rodnina and the Stiglers at several tournaments, they were a very good sports couple. But most of the time Rodnina in the USA worked not for the record, but for the cash register - like most Russian and Eastern European coaches from the USA, so counting six American years in her professional experience as a coach in the sense familiar to Soviet ears should be done with great caution. But the money she earned helped her raise her daughter and, especially, her son.

Rodnina returned to her homeland

Watching from the sidelines the collapse of the Soviet Union, where she was part of the nomenklatura, Rodnina realized: her future was in her past. The time had come to return to Russia, where a certain category of the privileged population had a chance to earn a lot of money. But she had no intention of becoming a coach, under the almost unlimited power of the same “Pisei the Immutable.” After standing on the ice in California for six years, Rodnina wanted to sit down and relax. Sit down in a chair, of course. Yes, not simple, but guiding. No sooner said than done. Irina Konstantinovna mentions the stages of her long journey in almost detail in the book - director of the Irina Rodnina Palace, member of the International Olympic Committee, chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee. Neither here, nor there, nor there, Rodnina’s candidacy was supported. Despite the fact that the cool businessmen who were supposed to build a “Palace” for her assured: a luxurious office with a sign on the massive door “Director - I.K.” Rodnina” has already been planned and an additional salary will be delivered to her monthly.

Photo pedsovet.su

The returnee had the opportunity to become president of the FFKKR, but she did not dare to climb into the painfully familiar jungle of intrigue. In the end, old connections helped her become a deputy of the State Duma and get the coveted chair in Sports Russia. October pioneer Komsomol communist Rodnina, as one would expect, became a member of the ruling party.
The book ends with life-affirming lines:
“Is it time to take stock? If it has arrived, then the main one is this: it’s too early to draw conclusions.”

Is this book worth reading? The answer to this question is also not clear-cut. It will not surprise anyone who lives inside Soviet, and after the collapse of the USSR, Russian figure skating. All events and facts mentioned in it are known. But for fans of figure skating, his fans and those who like to gnaw every fried fact to the bone, the book will give many interesting facts that they either did not know until now, or knew from rumors. And Rodnina writes from herself, that is, from the first person.
I ask only one thing. As you read, do not forget the Christian commandments, especially chapter 7 of the Gospel of Matthew: “Be not judged, lest ye be judged.” I told Irina that I could not understand some passages in the new book that were completely out of character for her and that I would be forced to “go through them” in the review. This is what she replied:

You have the right to write everything!!! For more than three years I did not give consent to the book, the contract expired, and the publishing house did THIS: (((Edited by Melik-Karamov, you know, I’m not a writer:))))

Having known Irina for almost 40 years, I believe her. Lies have never been her weapon. Maybe one of her many ill-wishers really wanted to frame Rodnin with the release of this book?

*) In the photo section of the book, mother is mentioned once by name and patronymic. Her name was Yulia Yakovlevna.

World copyright by Arthur Werner. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, printing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

Name: Irina Rodnina

Date of Birth: 12.09.1949

Age:'70

Place of Birth: Moscow city, Russia

Activity: figure skater, Russian statesman and public figure

Family status: divorced

Irina Rodnina is a famous Soviet figure skater who has repeatedly won the title of Olympic champion. She has a large number of victories at international figure skating competitions. We can say that it was she who raised the sport of her native country to unprecedented heights. Many fans are interested in questions not only about Irina Rodnina’s sporting achievements, but also about her personal life, as well as the athlete’s nationality. All the details about the skater can be found in her rich biography.

Biography

Irina was born on September 12, 1949 in Moscow. Her family was no different from many others. Parents were simple Soviet people. Dad was a military man all his life, and mom worked as a nurse in a hospital. It is worth noting that on her mother’s side, Irina inherited Jewish roots, so from an early age she showed her strong-willed character and incredible talent, which led her to success.

Irina Rodnina in childhood

From childhood, the girl was wrapped in special care, because her body often malfunctioned, and she often got sick. Therefore, in order to strengthen her immunity, doctors advised her to spend more time outdoors and exercise.

At first, the parents took their daughter to the children's skating rink, and they learned to skate together. Irina liked the classes so much that she wanted to take up this sport seriously. After a while, the girl was enrolled in the figure skating section, where Yakov Smushkin became her first coach. Thanks to his support, Irina mastered all the required elements of skating on ice: jumps, spins, spirals. With the help of increased physical activity, her health improved significantly.

Irina Rodnina in her youth

Therefore, Irina continued to do what she loved. Very soon she managed to get into the CSKA figure skating section. Until the age of 15, Rodnina practiced single skating, and then began performing with a partner, Oleg Vlasov. Since then, sport has become not only part of her biography, but also her personal life. Some time later, Irina married her partner, Alexander Zaitsev.

The beginning of the sports journey

In 1964, the athlete met her new coach. It was the Honored Master of Sports in figure skating - Stanislav Zhuk. A few years later, Rodnina, together with her partner Alexei Ulanov, won prizes at international competitions.

In 1969, the skaters went to the European Championships in Germany. Despite some circumstances, the athletes managed to snatch a well-deserved victory from their opponents. After this speech, the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR appeared in the biography of Irina Rodnina. She had no time left for her personal life, but her sports career continued to grow.

Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov

The figure skater showed excellent results in various competitions. But in 1972, Irina had to endure serious trauma. During training, her partner was unable to hold Rodnina, and she fell from the support.

At the hospital, she was diagnosed with a concussion and an intracranial hematoma. But even this could not prevent the athlete from performing well and representing her country at the World Championships.

With his second partner Alexander Zaitsev

Successful career

Then, in the sports biography of Irina Rodnina, a period of recovery began. And only a few months later she managed to return to the ice. Alexander Zaitsev became her new partner, thanks to whom not only her career, but also her personal life changed. Almost immediately, mutual feelings flared up between them, which were noticeable to everyone around them. In addition, many judges repeatedly noted the well-coordinated work of the skaters.

Famous ice skater

In 1973, the athletes took part in the European Championships, where they defeated the no less outstanding pair of Smirnov-Ulanov. A year later, the couple began collaborating with a professional trainer, Tatyana Tarasova. Thanks to their new mentor, Rodnina and Zaitsev won the World Championships in 1975.

Irina Rodnina with her medals

In the early 1990s, Irina moved to the USA. There she very quickly managed to gain a good reputation. In 2005, changes occurred in Rodnina’s biography. Her interests also expanded with political activity: she became a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. And two years later, Irina was elected as a deputy of the State Duma of the 5th convocation from United Russia.

Personal life

The biography and personal life of Irina Rodnina has always been full of the most vivid emotions and achievements. Irina met her first husband in 1972. It was her figure skating partner, Alexander Zaitsev. Joint training really brought the guys together and they started a relationship.

With her first husband Alexander Zaitsev and son

After 3 years, Alexander proposed to Irina, and they got married. In 1979, Rodnina gave birth to her first son, Alexander. Life together ceased to suit Irina after 8 years. And, despite the fact that the couple divorced a long time ago, they maintain fairly friendly relations.

With second husband and daughter

The figure skater’s second husband was Leonid Minkovsky. At first, family relationships were perfect. Leonid immediately found a common language with his wife’s son, and then the couple had a daughter.

After a while, Irina was offered a job in America, and she and her family moved there for two years. A year later, Rodnina began to suspect that Leonid was cheating on her, so she filed for divorce.

Irina Rodnina born in Moscow on September 12, 1949 in the family of a military man and a nurse. It so happened that she was a sickly child who could not recover from pneumonia. In the first four to five years of her life, she suffered from pneumonia 10 times, after which her father came up with the idea to send the girl to sports, where she could improve her health.

Not far from the house in the park of the Dzerzhinsky district of Moscow there was a figure skating section, where little Ira was enrolled. It is curious that the family then lived in a large communal apartment for several families, where there were 10 children. Every single one of them was doing something: some went to a music school, some to a sports section. Ira became the last one who was not left idle. She also liked the figure because white shoes were considered very fashionable among girls of that time.

Bug

At first, Rodnina worked out purely for her health, which really improved quickly. And at the age of eight, she managed to pass a strict selection for the CSKA section, where there was the only artificial ice in all of Moscow. This allowed me to train all year round, and even with the best trainers in the city.

True, initially there was no need to talk about any successes in sports. Ira was not considered a promising girl, but they were not going to part with her. Moreover, she started out as a singles skater. Everything changed the moment one of the CSKA coaches saw her on the ice. Stanislav Zhuk. Sisters worked under his leadership at that time Tatyana Zhuk and Alexander Gorelik, Elena Shcheglova and Valery Meshkov. But even if not right away, he took on 17-year-old Rodnina, with whom he decided to pair a handsome figure skater Alexey Ulanov.

This decision became fateful. The ambitious, tough and demanding Zhuk immediately set a specific goal for them: to surpass the best couple at that time, who already had an Olympic gold medal to their credit - Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Prototopov.

Stanislav Zhuk, Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov. Photo: RIA Novosti / Dmitry Donskoy

First victory and separation

Three years of painful and persistent training by Rodnina and Ulanov brought results already in 1969, when they sensationally won the European Championships in Germany. A young, little-known couple from the Soviet Union beat the Olympic champions themselves! Irina was then overwhelmed with flowers, chocolate and soft toys.

After tremendous success, the couple managed to win several more titles, including the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan. This victory was achieved in intense competition with another Soviet couple - Lyudmila Smirnova and Andrey Suraikin. Everything was decided by the votes of just two judges.

The last success with Ulanov was the 1972 World Championship. Moreover, the day before the start of the tournament, Rodnina fell during training and was hospitalized with a concussion and intracranial hematoma. But by some miracle, Irina not only got on the ice, but also skated without mistakes.

And after the World Championship, Alexey Ulanov went to Lyudmila Smirnova, with whom I had been in love for a long time. As a result, the couple formed not only in life, but also on the ice. The whole country was worried about Irina, who did not remain without a partner for long. That same year, Zhuk invited her to try riding with Alexander Zaitsev. The experienced coach's instincts did not disappoint. The very next year, Rodnina and Zaitsev beat Smirnova and Ulanov in brilliant style at the European Championships, receiving 12 top marks of 6.0 out of 18. It was a triumph!

New Union

The Soviet people quickly forgot about the breakup of the couple Rodnina and Ulanov and admired the new alliance with Zaitsev. This was the standard of pairs figure skating in everything. A thin girl with a short haircut and big eyes delighted millions of people who did not miss the broadcast of major figure skating competitions. It can be said without exaggeration that the entire male population of the country was in love with her.

In 1974, Rodnina and Zaitsev decided to part ways with coach Stanislav Zhuk. The athlete said in an interview that she was “tired of the Beetle’s behavior.” She had already become an experienced and independent athlete who did not need instructions every minute. As a result, they came under the wing of a young novice mentor Tatiana Tarasova. This allowed me to “reboot” a little and take many more titles with new programs.

In 1975, Rodnina and Zaitsev got married, the whole country celebrated this event, and American TV even sent a crew to report, which was then broadcast in the USA.

As a result, Irina Rodnina won three Olympic gold medals and ten world championships during her career. After the victory in Lake Placid in 1980, when the third Olympics was won in a row, Irina cried with happiness. And these tears went down in the history of the country as the most touching moment in the entire history of sports.

Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev. Photo: RIA Novosti / Vladimir Sergeev

After sports

Immediately after winning in Lake Placid, Rodnina decided to end her sports career. She left at the height of her fame at 31. And then a difficult time began and the search for oneself in post-sports life began. Irina got a job as a coach, her husband got a job in the sports committee. In this routine, the marriage unexpectedly broke up in 1985.

Rodnina's second husband was Leonid Minkovsky, an architect by training, but at that time working as a film producer. Soon the couple had a daughter (Rodnina had another son from her first marriage), and they emigrated to America for 12 long years.

Circumstances forced her to leave the United States and return to Russia in 2002 - her husband cheated on Irina with her best friend. Rodnina endured the second divorce in her life steadfastly, but she found herself in a new country for her, becoming a famous politician and entering the top 100 most influential women in Russia in 2012 according to various media.

© Photo from wikipedia.org

© Photo Russian Look

© Photo Russian Look

© Photo Russian Look

© Photo Russian Look

© Photo Russian Look

© Photo from wikipedia.org

© Photo from wikipedia.org

On September 12, the legend of Soviet figure skating, three-time Olympic champion, and the most successful figure skater in the history of pair skating, Irina Rodnina, turned 69 years old.

During Soviet times, she was one of the most famous athletes in the country, and in the 1990s. she had to leave for the USA. What prompted her to make this decision, and why, even after her return to Russia, she hears accusations against her, read further in the review.

Irina Rodnina in her youth
Irina Rodnina was born in 1949 in Moscow. As a child, she was often sick, and after she suffered from pneumonia several times, her parents decided to send her to a figure skating school to strengthen her immunity. Irina started training at the age of 5, and since then sport has become for her not only a hobby, but also the meaning of life. After graduating from the CSKA sports school, Rodnina became a graduate of the State Institute of Physical Education.


Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov
Her first victory was third place at the all-Union youth competitions in 1963. And after Stanislav Zhuk began training her, and Alexey Ulanov became her partner, her sports career took off. For the first time, Rodnina and Ulanov won gold at the World and European Championships in 1969, and since then they have become champions of all competitions in which they participated.


Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov, 1969


Sportswoman with young skaters, 1973
The pair of Rodnina and Ulanov broke up after the skater was injured and was forced to take a break from training. But after 3 months she went on the ice again, but with a new partner - Alexander Zaitsev, who soon became her husband. In 1973, Rodnina and Zaitsev caused a sensation in Bratislava, continuing to skate in complete silence when their music suddenly stopped, and receiving a record number of “6.0” ratings. Irina Rodnina was included in the Guinness Book of Records as a unique athlete who has never lost in a tournament: she won 11 European Championships, 10 World Championships and 3 Olympics.





Legendary Soviet figure skater Irina Rodnina
The Rodnina-Zaitsev pair became famous throughout the world and became a true figure skating legend thanks to their high level of skill, enormous speed and exceptional synchronicity in the execution of elements, a large number of complex lifts and cascades. They said that their technique was several years ahead of the development of pair skating. Rodnina and Zaitsev won their last victory at the 1980 Olympics, after which the athletes decided to leave big-time sports.

Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev
Since 1981, Irina Rodnina has been involved in coaching. And in 1990, she left for the USA at the invitation of the American International Figure Skating Center. At that time, she did not even suspect that she would return to her homeland only after 12 years - after all, Rodnina signed a contract for only 2 years. From then on, a period of constant difficulties and tests of strength began for her, which she, as an athlete accustomed to winning, honorably endured with incredible fortitude and courage for a woman.


Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev with their son


Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev
Ever since the figure skater left for the USA, accusations have been pouring in against her - of ingratitude, of betrayal of her homeland, and of selfishness. But no one took into account the fact that in their homeland in the late 1980s. Suddenly, no one needed the athlete. She later admitted: “I signed the contract completely calmly. True, I thought that they wouldn’t let me out of the country; we didn’t have such a practice. Besides, at that moment I was no longer working. After all, they asked me very tactfully, they said: “After the birth of your second child, you better take up motherhood, otherwise you will never experience this feeling again!”


Legend of Soviet sports Irina Rodnina
At 40, she literally had to start life from scratch. Adaptation to another country was very difficult. She did not know English, and in order to work fully in the USA, she had to master it at a record pace. In addition, Rodnina’s horizon of expectations was not justified: although world-famous coaches worked at the international center, she had to train athletes whose level of capabilities was significantly lower than she had hoped - Rodnina said: “According to our concepts, this is the championship of the housing office.”


Figure skater with son Sasha, 1984
At the same time, I had to overcome all the difficulties alone. After she and Zaitsev stopped going on the ice together, their life paths diverged and they broke up. And in 1985, the figure skater married businessman Leonid Minkovsky, but he left her and went to another woman immediately after moving to the USA. And then he wanted to take their daughter away from her, and the right to raise her had to be defended in court. According to her, this period was one of the most difficult in her life, because she was left without the support of friends and acquaintances, without financial assistance, in complete isolation in a foreign country. Then she quickly turned gray and lost a lot of weight, but her children helped her get out of depression.


Athlete with second husband and daughter
When asked how she had changed over the years spent abroad, the athlete answered: “Maybe she has become more natural. Here I really was a very famous person and no matter what I did, everything was in plain sight. I needed to live up to the image. Here I was only outwardly Irina Rodnina: there I became who I am. Whether bad or good, but yourself. Here I was a star, there I was just a representative of the Soviet Union, who, moreover, literally cut off the oxygen to foreigners with her results for 10 years. They took a closer look at me, and after a year and a half they said: we are all waiting for you to show your character.”


Figure skater with daughter Alena
The skater had no goal of emigrating; she did not even imagine that she would live in the USA for so long. But every time Rodnina came to her homeland (at least 3-4 times a year), she listened to accusations against her - they say that she lives neither here nor here, so she cannot be called a patriot. The athlete was tired of explaining that she left primarily because she wanted to gain some other experience and realize the opportunities that were closed to her at that time in her homeland. But after 12 years abroad, she returned to her homeland.


Irina Rodnina in the State Duma
After 10 years ago the athlete became involved in social activities, politics and became a State Duma deputy, she hears more and more complaints against her. Most often, she is accused of the fact that, advocating tightening control in all areas of relations between Russia and the United States, she regularly vacations in America, where her daughter lives, and does not see any contradictions in her behavior.

Irina Rodnina is a Soviet figure skater who is idolized all over the world for her achievements in the sport. The ten-time world champion, three-time Olympic champion and eleven-time European champion in pair skating went down in history as an athlete who had never lost a single tournament, for which she was included in the Guinness Book of Records. After completing her sports career, she began political activity.

Childhood and youth

Irina was born on September 12, 1949 in Moscow in the family of a career military man and a doctor. The girl's father was from the Vologda region, her mother, a Jewish nationality, was from Kharkov. Her parents raised two children - the figure skater has an older sister, Valentina, who is a mathematical engineer by training.

Irina Rodnina in her youth / Federal Archives of Germany

As a child, the athlete was a weak girl. After suffering from pneumonia 11 times, the parents decided that their daughter needed to be saved and decided to take her to the skating rink in order to naturally strengthen the child’s immunity through physical exercise.

This decision of the parents became fateful for the girl. After Rodnina first went to the skating rink, which happened in 1954, her biography was inextricably linked with sports. First she was sent to a figure skating school, then to the CSKA figure skating section, then the girl graduated from the CSKA sports school, and in 1974 she became a graduate of the State Central Institute of Physical Education.

Figure skating

The sports career of miniature Irina Rodnina (her height was 152 cm, weight - 57 kg) started in 1963, when she took 3rd prize at the All-Union Youth Competitions. Then her coaches were the Czechs Milan and Sonya Valun, and her partner was Oleg Vlasov. After her first victory, the future Olympic champion became a student of Stanislav Zhuk. Along with the new coach, Rodnina also changed her figure skating partner; he became Alexey Ulanov.

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Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov

Over the next 10 years, Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov won gold medals at the European Championships and the Olympics, becoming leaders in the international sports arena with each victory.

In 1972, Irina Rodnina's injury separates her from her figure skating partner. After a 3-month break from sports, Alexander Zaitsev becomes the athlete’s partner. Together they became figure skating legends and achieved brilliant results on the skating rink that no modern skater could achieve.

In the mid-70s, the duo came under the guidance of a young coach, who emphasized the artistic component of each performance. New ideas allowed the couple to fully realize their potential and take two more Olympic gold medals - in Innsbruck in 1976 and Lake Placid in 1980.

In 1981, the figure skater switched to professional sports and became an honored figure skating coach. From 1990 to 2002 she lived in the USA and conducted coaching activities. Her best coaching result on the international stage is considered to be the victory of the pair Radka Kovarzhikova and Rene Novotny from the Czech Republic at the World Championships.

Policy

Since 2003, Irina Rodnina tried to break into the Russian political arena, but twice failed in the elections to the State Duma. In 2007, she still managed to become a deputy from the United Russia party from the Omsk region and take the post of deputy chairman of the education committee in parliament.

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Politician Irina Rodnina

In 2011, she was again re-elected to the State Duma and became a member of the Committee on Women, Family and Children. At the same time, in United Russia the figure skater heads several internal party projects dedicated to the development of Russian sports.

Rodnina joined the Council for Physical Culture and Sports under the President of the Russian Federation. She took part in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sochi. Former figure skater and renowned hockey coach Vladislav Tretyak lit the Olympic flame.

Personal life

Irina Rodnina's personal life is not as successful as her brilliant sports career. The athlete was married twice, but figure skating became an obstacle in both her first and second marriages.