Olympic champion in rowing Vyacheslav Nikolaevich. Vyacheslav Ivanov: “as an Olympic champion, he entered the ring and played football for the CSKA reserve team. In Melbourne, after the finish line, I couldn’t peel an orange.

The three-time Olympic champion in rowing gave an interview to VM during the traditional 86th relay race for newspaper prizes, which took place on May 9 at the rowing canal in Krylatskoye.

The multiple winner of these competitions, 80-year-old native of Moscow, Vyacheslav Ivanov, spoke about the problems of his sport, remembered his youth, his meeting with the king of football Pele, how Lev Yashin forced him to stand in the goal, and recognized the court’s verdict on Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamaev as fair.

ABOUT ROWING

Do you remember how you won this relay race?

Of course. I always started at the first stage as part of the CSK Navy team. At a distance of 500 meters I won about 15 seconds over my closest competitor, and then my partners only increased the gap from their pursuers. At that time, our club was unrivaled in the USSR, and rowing was held in high esteem: before the war there were more than 20 teams in Moscow, and after 1945 there were 13. Almost all rowing clubs were closed in the capital. Now there are only one or two of them.

Are you not satisfied with the pace of development of rowing in Russia?

What development? God grant that the Russian team will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in at least one discipline. Previously, our team participated in the Games in all disciplines, but now we dream of slipping through with at least one or two boats. Our only hope is for our women's team; men are unlikely to qualify for the Olympics.

Why have we turned from leaders in rowing to outsiders?

Because the reservoirs were taken away from our rowers. It’s convenient for a billionaire to build a dacha on the shore of his own lake. The lake was fenced off - the rowing club was closed, so there is no influx of children in the section.

How long has it been since you picked up an oar?

The last time was 45 years ago.

Are your hands not reaching for the oar?

I row constantly in my dreams. My wife can confirm this. In my dreams, I participate in competitions, most often in the championship of the Soviet Union.

ABOUT THE SECRETS OF THE PROFESSION

What qualities should a rower have to count on great success?

Love sports and be a well-rounded athlete. I was good at alpine skiing, competed at the level of a master of sports in cross-country skiing, pedaled on a cycling track, and ran marathons. During preparation for the season, I rowed 72 kilometers on a boat once every 10 days. The route was 36 kilometers long, the route Khimki - Aksakovo and back. This is how I trained my endurance. In winter, every day at eight in the morning I came to CSKA on Leningradsky Prospekt of the capital. First I played volleyball against two-time world champion Kostya Reva, then in the same hall I trained with basketball players. Once the Olympic champion Gena Volnov was thrown over in a basketball game “21”, that was a laugh. After basketball, I went to the weight room, where Olympic champion Yuri Vlasov trained, then from training with weightlifters, I went to the army pool, swam a kilometer and a half, and after lunch in the canteen I went home. This is the workload I had, not counting training with the football team CSKA.

In general, train a lot and you will be a champion?

It won't work without a good coach. The old generation of domestic rowing coaches is gone, and the new ones have no idea about rowing technique. They don't even know how to properly set up the boat.

Don't you feel on the sidelines of sports life?

No way. I travel around the world all the time. I am invited to Germany, Switzerland, and the USA, and I give consultations to foreign rowers via Skype. Our experts say that I am outdated, thereby showing me their “I”, but for foreigners I am a storehouse of knowledge and professional secrets. After all, all the good new things are forgotten old things. My rowing technique is recognized as the best in the world, it is considered a standard, but our specialists do not recognize this.

Urgently tell your compatriots your main professional secret.

First, tune the boat like a guitar and make the right moves. I treated the boat like the woman I loved and adjusted it according to the weather every week. Otherwise the boat will be out of tune. There are many nuances in this matter, but the results show: after consultations with me, the athletes’ results increase. In Russia, coaches don’t know how to tune the boat correctly, and with an out-of-tune guitar you won’t become a virtuoso.

“Previously, our team participated in the Games in all disciplines, but now we dream of getting there with at least one or two boats”

ABOUT RECORDS, PELE AND LEV YASHIN

Which of your three Olympic finals do you remember most often?

The first in 1956. By the way, I still remain the youngest Olympic champion in rowing. I was 18 years old in Melbourne.

The current champions are swimming much faster than your record.

I had a completely different type of boat. My oar weighed 2,250 kilograms, and a modern oar weighs 750 grams. Wave my log. First of all, due to the modernization of equipment, the results of the rowers increased. My world record for 2000 meters was 6.52 minutes, and now it is 6.35. If I had lighter equipment when I was younger, I would have shaved a lot more seconds off my record.

Everything has its time, as they say. I've heard a lot about your meeting with the king of football Pele...

In 1965, I was invited to Sao Paulo to watch a Santos game, for which Pele played. I was given the right to symbolically first hit the ball. After the match we sat with Pele in a restaurant. We communicated through an interpreter and ate chicken. Pele was a normal guy, friendly, it even seemed to me that he admired me more than I admired him. He was not yet a three-time world champion, and at that time I had won the Olympics three times. On my visit to South America, the USSR national football team played a draw with the Brazilians. After the match, I put Lev Yashin, Slava Metreveli, Misha Meskhi in the Cadillac - and we went to Copacabana beach. There they were kicking a ball with the boys on the sand, Lev Ivanovich told me: come on, Slava, now you stand in the goal, I’m already convinced, I want to run with the boys. Yashin and I were good friends.

Ivanov said that he gives consultations via Skype to foreign rowers

ABOUT STRELTSOV AND MAMAEV WITH KOKORIN

And were you on friendly terms with Eduard Streltsov?

In 1957, Edik, Valentin Ivanov and I appeared on television together... Even before Streltsov was sent to prison.

Recently, two famous football players Pavel Mamaev and Alexander Kokorin were sent to prison, what do you think about this?

They distinguished themselves in Monaco by organizing a public drinking party with champagne. You know, I trained with boxers from the USSR national team for six years. I have a friend, two-time Olympic champion Boris Lagutin, we were both born in 1938 and started boxing at Spartak, fighting as youths. So, having boxing skills, I could not even think of starting a fight in the center of Moscow. I think they were planted absolutely correctly.

Was Eduard Streltsov also justly imprisoned?

It was a little different. There was no such thing as waving chairs in a restaurant. There was an intimate company there, like a football one: Streltsov, Boris Tatushin, Mikhail Ogonkov, well, girls, well, youth, God. Well, how was it, well, we drank... Footballers could afford to take it on their chests before, but rowers could not. For example, until I was 30 I didn’t know the taste of vodka; I could only drink champagne or dry wine.

ABOUT THE SECRET OF LONGEVITY

What is your main joy in life today?

I wake up and think: how can I go back to sleep? I’ll sit at the computer for an hour and then go back to bed,” Ivanov chuckles.

And this is the secret to longevity? I thought I had to exercise every day to live to 80...

You have to love life and people. My wife and I have guests in our house every day. I have many friends. Today they handed over a gift from the outstanding fighter Fedor Emelianenko - a trump cap with the inscription “captain”.

Do you like fights without rules? This is a legal fight?

My son is engaged in fights without rules, why are fights without rules worse than boxing? A man must stand up for himself.

Have you always been free from all bad habits?

Well why not? I have smoked all my life and only strong tobacco, but rowers have greater ventilation of the lungs, which means there are fewer consequences from smoking. My grandfather smoked from the age of 12, and died at 96, and even then not by his own death, he was as healthy as a moose.

Be healthy and you, Vyacheslav Nikolaevich! See you in a year at the same place during the rowing relay for the “Evening Moscow” prizes.

I will always come to this relay race of my youth as long as I live.

HELP "VM"

Three-time Olympic champion in rowing (single boat; 1956, 1960, 1964), world champion (1962), four-time European champion, multiple USSR champion and winner of the Silver Boat relay for the Evening Moscow prizes (1956–1966). After finishing his sports career, he served in the Northern Fleet for six years. Retired 3rd rank captain.

Vyacheslav Ivanov photography

City Moscow.

Country USSR.

Titles Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1956)

Olympic champion (1956, 1960, 1964)

world champion (1962)

European champion (1956, 1959, 1961, 1964)

USSR champion (1956-1966) in rowing (single boat)

Best of the day

His services were recognized with state awards: the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1960) and two Orders of the Badge of Honor (1956, 1964).

Like most of his peers, Vyacheslav Ivanov had a difficult military childhood. In 1941, his family was evacuated to Barnaul. In 1943, my father, having refused his armor, volunteered to go to the front and died near Leningrad. In 1945, just before the end of the war, his older brother, 19-year-old Mikhail, also died.

Returning from evacuation in 1943, the Ivanov family (mother, grandmother, sister and Vyacheslav) lived on Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street next to Neskuchny Garden, where Slava received his first “physical education”. He loved to “race” on skates, and although he was exempt from physical education (doctors discovered he had rheumatic heart disease), he spent all his free time playing hockey in the winter and football in the summer. In the summer of 1950, he enrolled in the track and field athletics section "Wings of the Soviets", and in the fall - in the boxing section of the Spartak society, in which he trained for three years. By his own admission, boxing taught him a lot: courage, the ability to think instantly, endure blows in the literal and figurative sense, gave excellent physical training and colossal endurance.

Since 1952, Ivanov began combining boxing classes with training in the rowing section at the famous Strelka club, which was literally wall to wall with the Red October confectionery factory, where his mother worked for many years. His first coach in rowing was the repeated champion of the USSR, an experienced teacher I.Ya. Demyanov. In the summer of 1953, Vyacheslav boarded a shabby English boat with the prosaic name “Perch” and went to the start of a rowing competition for the first time. This race was for beginners, the winner became a 3rd class rower. The lanky Moscow boy still had to study and learn rowing, shed a lot of sweat in training and competitions, and harden himself as an athlete.

At the beginning of 1955, his mother became seriously ill and Vyacheslav had to leave school. He began working as a turner's apprentice at the May 1st Machine-Building Plant. Many were surprised that the son of a deceased front-line soldier did not hang out on the street, like many of his peers, but went to work as an apprentice mechanic and even took up a serious and beautiful sport. On the shore he seemed modest and shy. In racing, he immediately showed remarkable passion, ingenuity, and even cunning. A year later, everyone admired the nimble young man, throwing up their hands in surprise: from race to race he improved his class, showing rare talent.

From the very beginning of rowing, Ivanov’s motto was “fight to the end” or “never put down the oars.” He achieved his first success in 1955, becoming on his 17th birthday the winner of the national youth championship and the bronze medalist of the USSR championship among men. And if that season Ivanov only bit the masters, among them Olympic champion Yuri Tyukalov, then the next summer he consistently became the strongest at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, then at the European Championships in Yugoslavia and, finally, at the Olympic regatta on Lake Wendurrie near Melbourne! It was one of the main sensations of the Olympics. Fabulous fame fell on 18-year-old Vyacheslav Ivanov.

Three years later, at the European Championships in France, in the most difficult weather conditions, for the first time in the history of rowing, Ivanov completed a distance of 2000 meters in a single boat in less than 7 minutes (6.58.8).

In general, there was more in him that was peculiar, even strange and incorrect, than logic and common sense. For example, his style, which did not fit into generally accepted canons. Ivanov sat on the “bank” - a movable seat, straightened up, like a cockerel, although the classical school recommends going limp in a boat, slouching. “Roaring loves humpbacks” - this joke was not born yesterday.

And his tactics? With what seemingly carelessness he gave up half the distance, or even more, to his opponents, putting himself in an extremely disadvantageous position. In an academic boat, the rower rows along the distance with his back to the finish line, and if he lags behind, he has to turn around, which means he loses his rhythm. Another opponent can put the straggler in the waste water, and this is also a loss in seconds. Everything is right, everything is correct. But then the rush began, a fantastic finishing spurt - long, with dense, biting blows of the oars, and our champion unerringly chose the moment to break the resistance of others in a matter of seconds.

Even at the Olympics in Melbourne, he lost the “tram stop” to all participants in the final, but in the end he not only made it, but with the last five or six strokes of the oars he overtook and overtook the leader, Australian Steward McKenzie. This Mackenzie is a huge man, he was the champion of his country in discus throwing, which means he had rare strength. But then Ivanov defeated him too.

There were many who wanted to correct his technique and polish Ivanov to suit everyone. But it always ended in failure. If, by and large, he was not a martyr in rowing, a month or two was enough for him to get into excellent shape. And when, for example, after the Games in Melbourne, Ivanov was forced to train in full, until the “snowball”, he completely failed the entire season. The team coaches’ calculation was simple and seemingly correct: if Ivanov won the gold medal with pre-training, then after rigorous training he would become completely unattainable. How did this turn out? Ivanov became haggard, lost weight, lost all his conditioning, not excluding a great spurt. I was so stuck that at the Youth Festival in Moscow I lost the race to the Hungarian Ferenczi, an average level singles skater.

Before the Olympic Games in Rome, he, of course, rose. He went to Aksakovo, near Moscow, where he not only trained in a boat, but also ran cross-country courses, chopped and carried firewood - in a word, he trained according to the “back to nature” system. I got into amazing shape, won the Olympic final at a pace of 28 strokes per minute, which is considered a walking rhythm. At the same time, Joachim Hill (GDR) lost to Ivanov by 8 seconds, almost three boat hulls! Both, by the way, 4 years later competed at the Toda Olympic Channel in Tokyo, and there Ivanov won a third gold medal, this time with a finishing dash.

Between the two Olympics, in 1962, there was also the first ever world rowing championship in Lucerne (Switzerland), at which V. Ivanov again confirmed the title of the strongest single rower. He was supposed to perform in Mexico City, although these were no longer his best times. But closer to the Games, he again managed to get into fighting shape and won an estimation race in Mexico City. Before submitting an application from our team, all interested people gathered, not excluding the then chairman of the USSR Sports Committee, Sergei Pavlov. And then the coach of our second single rower declares that he is ready to give a full guarantee: his student will become an Olympic champion.

This, of course, made an impression, although the very next day it became clear that there was nothing real behind this promise, a pure gamble: the understudy of the great Ivanov failed to even make it to the finals. Shortly after this, the three-time Olympic champion retired from the sport. In 1969, he graduated from the Volgograd State Institute of Physical Culture, and before that, back in 1960, as an external student at the officer school. Having reached the rank of captain 3rd rank, V.N. Ivanov retired. But he doesn't look like a pensioner. The former self can be easily discerned in him, and he is full of energy and a lively interest in life.

Not only that, but he also gets into a boat and plays around like a veteran. Not so long ago, the organizers of the World Rowing Championships on the Yugoslav Canal, where Ivanov won his first international victory, invited several famous veteran rowers. They suggested that Vyacheslav Nikolaevich and Steward Mackenzie, an old rival, walk some distance by boat. The Australian refused: I had lost all my skills and said, I’ll roll over. Ivanov got into the boat and looked so good in it, not forgetting to win applause with his once victorious strokes in front of the stands.

V.N. Ivanov - Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1956), champion of the Olympic Games (1956, 1960, 1964), world (1962), European (1956, 1959, 1961, 1964), USSR (1956-1966) in rowing (single boat ). His services were recognized with state awards: the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1960) and two Orders of the Badge of Honor (1956, 1964).

Today, July 30, Vyacheslav Ivanov, a legend of rowing, an outstanding Soviet athlete, three-time Olympic champion in single sculls, world champion, four-time European champion, winner of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and two orders of the Badge of Honor, captain, celebrates his 79th birthday retired third rank.

We congratulate Vyacheslav Nikolaevich on the holiday and wish him health, good luck and many happy years!

Filming on May 8, 2017 at a press conference dedicated to the start of the “Golden Oars of St. Petersburg” regatta

BOXER – COMMITTEE

At school, doctors discovered he had rheumatic heart disease. Ivanov was exempted from physical education lessons. But the boy was not in danger of physical inactivity, since Neskuchny Garden was nearby. A neighbor in the yard was throwing a discus, Ivanov brought him a projectile, and then decided to throw a discus himself.

In the track and field section at the Young Pioneers stadium, the coach told Ivanov that he was too skinny for throwing. He was assigned to the high jump sector. It was the autumn of 1950, the rains began to fall, classes were moved indoors - to the Wings of the Soviets Sports Palace. And there was a national boxing championship going on. Slava Ivanov did not take his eyes off the ring. Without hesitation, he parted with athletics and began going to the Spartak gym on Vorovskogo Street three times a week to see Ivan Ganykin.

He was already fighting in the ring when, in the summer of 1952, his friend Vitya Dorofeev invited him to row. Ivanov initially refused. I decided on my friend’s argument: “A boxer needs strong hands. And you can’t pump them up better than rowing.” The young athlete began to combine things: he boxed three times a week in the Spartak gym with Ganykin, and rowed the same amount at Strelka with Igor Demyanov.

This could last a long time, because he loved boxing very much. Now it’s hard to believe, but Ivanov continued to box “as a youth,” even becoming an Olympic champion! Case put an end to it. At the youth competitions of the central council of the Spartak society, Vyacheslav Ivanov was knocked out by a strong guy named Romanov. It was after this – already in 1957 – that he was banned from entering the ring.

Ivanov believes that it was boxing that gave him a ticket to big rowing. “Endurance, reaction, the ability to take a blow, endure and go into a decisive counterattack when no one expects it from you - all this comes from boxing,” he says.

But if boxing gives such phenomenal results as Ivanov began to show just three years after he started rowing, then, apparently, all rowers need to immediately go ashore and start practicing blows to the head and body.

TEACHER

At the age of 14, he first boarded a boat on the legendary Strelka. The boat was heavy and very unstable. “Drop the oars! Stay on board! – the old-timers of Strelka shouted to the newcomer. He felt that there was some kind of catch here, but he unwittingly did as his insidious advisers suggested. The boat capsized.

Coach Igor Demyanov specially slipped the clinker single to the somewhat self-confident newcomer. The coach of the “academics” at Strelka, despite the fact that he was no longer in his youth, continued to race and fought for medals at the Union Championship. He liked the lanky, thin guy who did not pay attention to the fact that he did not get a place at the main rowing machine. Ivanov sat in a kayak attached by a chain and rowed in it until he sweated. None of the “academics” did this. No one combined boxing with rowing. The guy had a strong character, and this was what the coach liked most.

Ivanov’s father died in ’42, his older brother, Mikhail, in ’45. Slava Ivanov was 15 when he was forced to go to the factory: his mother became seriously ill, and he had to feed his family. He got up every day at 5.30, did a 5-kilometer cross-country run before starting his shift, and went to training in the evening. Depending on what it was like today: boxing or rowing.

Demyanov, to a certain extent, was also a part-time worker. In addition to Strelka, he worked part-time in the rowing section of the Red Banner society, where the working boy Ivanov was now training. So the coach and student did not lose each other - and this was the lucky finger of fate. Often they raced in earnest. And very soon the young rower began to bypass the teacher.

On his birthday - July 30, 1955 - 17-year-old Vyacheslav Ivanov won his first gold medal - at the national youth championship. Even then, in the final race, his unique ability to make a protracted spurt out of hopeless situations was evident. Having absurdly fallen off the “bank” at the start (as rowers call the movable seat in a boat) and having let his main rival Nikolai Butyrin go far, Vyacheslav Ivanov developed a frantic pace. He caught up and passed his opponent. This technique will become Ivanov’s “signature”. He always started the race as if at a walking rhythm, and ended with a protracted spurt that was unbearable for his rivals.

TYUKALOV

In the spring of 1956, 17-year-old Ivanov was included in the Union national team and called to training camp in Poti. For the first time, the young man lived and trained next to the legendary rower Yuri Tyukalov. The great athlete, who went through the Leningrad blockade and suffered severe dystrophy, won Olympic gold in Helsinki. The first is for our rowers. In those years, Tyukalov dominated on the water paths. Until a 17-year-old Moscow boy appeared, a “new guy,” as Ivanov’s collections called him.

In sports, someone always appears to take your place. And it always happens suddenly. When, during the assessment before the First Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, Ivanov was 7 seconds ahead of Tyukalov, the Helsinki champion realized that he could no longer defeat this guy. If the “new guy” wins almost two lengths against you, it means you need to go to a place where he won’t be. And, taking fellow countryman Alexander Berkutov as a partner, Tyukalov left to race in doubles - in order to win his second Olympic gold in Melbourne. But before that, this is what happened to him and Ivanov.

Having changed to doubles, Tyukalov, at the request of the leadership of the Leningrad team at the Spartakiad, started on singles. Before the final, he called Ivanov aside and said that Vyacheslav was now the strongest in singles. The great rower's compliment was unexpected and pleasant. But that was not all. Tyukalov asked Ivanov to perform a small performance for the audience: he, Tyukalov, would first go ahead, but would not break away, then let Ivanov pass, and he himself would come second. Like, he wants to imitate the fight, but not give it his all in order to save strength for the two.

Ivanov decided to help his older comrade. As agreed, he let him go ahead and waited for him to let him pass. At some point, he looked at the track where Tyukalov was rowing to determine whether this would happen soon, and almost fell off the “bank”: the Olympic champion’s boat was 40 meters ahead, and the leader had no intention of slowing down...

Today - from the height of three Olympics won - Ivanov says that he would still have gone to Melbourne, because he was stronger than Tyukalov. And then, at the age of 18, he could not know this. And he got really angry. Again the long, powerful spurt helped out. Ivanov took on such a crazy rhythm and developed such an unprecedented pace that 50 meters before the finish Tyukalov lowered his oars and gave up. On the raft he approached Ivanov and, smiling broadly, said: “Congratulations, Slava! You won in a fair fight!”

Words of reproach froze on the young champion’s lips. He forgave the great rower immediately and forever. Subsequently, they found themselves in the same boat twice and won both times. Together we won gold at the USSR Championship in doubles. But the race in America was especially memorable when they were invited to a match between the USA and the USSR. Tyukalov's partner fell ill, Ivanov had to help out the team. Moreover, I had to row with Tyukalov immediately after my race.

Ivanov won his single race. But the strong American rower Cromwell exhausted him thoroughly. It was 40 degrees in Philadelphia and terribly stuffy. The interval between races was very short in order to recover. It was a very difficult race for both. First Tyukalov had to give his all: Ivanov could only maintain the rhythm, but made no effort. In the end, Tyukalov pleaded: “Slavka! I can't do it anymore! Row!”

Here Ivanov turned on at full power. And they won! And then, as if laughing at their powerful rivals, who expected to easily defeat the Russians, Ivanov and Tyukalov again walked along the stands - this time in a calm, walking rhythm. The spectators greeted the Russian rowers with an ovation.

MACKENZIE

Stuart McKenzie is Ivanov’s main rival in his sports career. Actually, this six-foot red-haired Australian was a pretty nasty guy. Arrogant, arrogant. In any case, that’s how he seemed to Ivanov.

For the first time, fate brought them together on Lake Wendurri near Melbourne, where the Olympic regatta was taking place. Ivanov had a small weakness: he collected autographs of famous boxers. And then I decided to take autographs from my rivals before the final race. Boyishness? But let's not forget: he was 18.

Mackenzie signed a postcard with a view of Lake Geneva and put a bold “I” next to his last name. Then he looked at Ivanov point-blank: did you get the hint? Ivanov understood. Mackenzie grew up on this lake, he was very strong physically, he really wanted to win. The Australian immediately went ahead. Got very far away. Ivanov thought: that’s it, he lost. He was running at a good pace of 36 strokes per minute, but McKenzie nevertheless increased his lead. And then Ivanov did what he was often called an “adventurer” for: he made a 500-meter spurt.

He switched to a hurricane pace: 48 strokes per minute. It is impossible to maintain this pace for long. He caught up with Mackenzie 100 meters before the finish. Snatched victory. Ivanov was pulled out of the boat in an unconscious state...

Stewart dreamed of revenge. He managed to beat Ivanov at three regattas in a row! But when the time came for the most important starts, Ivanov won. This was the case at the European Championships in Macon, France, this was the case at the rowers’ first World Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland, and this was also the case at the Olympics in Rome.

... Mackenzie arrived in French Macon in his own racing car (he moved to live in London and competed under the English flag). Knowing that Ivanov liked to walk from the hotel to the boathouses, McKenzie accelerated his car, then switched to neutral speed and turned off the engine. He would creep up to the Russian, almost hitting him, turn on the engine at full power and rush past with laughter, waving his hand. And he did this, the bastard, before the race!

A couple of times he caught Ivanov by surprise. And the third time, Ivanov turned to face him and waited for the car to drive up. Then, feigning politeness, Mackenzie stopped and offered to give Ivanov a ride. He sent him to hell. Russian swearing does not need translation. Mackenzie no longer guarded Ivanov on the road.

They continued to sort things out on the water. We picked up a crazy pace from the start. 200 meters before the finish, McKenzie threw down his oars... Vyacheslav showed a time that the judges hesitated to announce for a long time: 6.58.8! For the first time in history, a single skater completed 2000 meters in less than 7 minutes.

Mackenzie arrived in Olympic Rome in a month. I prepared carefully. Contrary to usual, I avoided interviews. When our athlete appeared on Lake Albano, Mackenzie immediately approached him and bluntly said: “Shall we try?” He wanted to know what shape Ivanov was in. "Let's!" – Ivanov answered. The estimate was also part of his plans.

1000 meters passed, Mackenzie was two boat lengths behind. The next morning the Australian was guarding the Russian. "Let's?" - “Please!” Mackenzie was four boat lengths behind. Ivanov was very surprised that on the third morning Mackenzie was waiting for him. Ivanov nodded and they left. At the finish line, McKenzie looked at the stopwatch he had taken with him with shaking hands... “How much?” – Ivanov asked casually, turning his head. “You’ve done well, Slava...” the dejected opponent squeezed out.

The next morning Mackenzie left Rome...

Ivanov won the final race easily. There were no real rivals.

When Mackenzie got married, he invited Ivanov to his wedding. He sent an invitation and wrote that he would pay for the round trip travel. Ivanov showed the invitation to the sports department. They were forbidden to travel. But they gave me money for a good camera and engraved a memorial inscription. Sent Stuart a wedding gift. Mackenzie, however, was something else. In response, he sent the Russian champion... his racing car! With a hint. The Central Committee did not allow the Soviet athlete to accept such a gift.

IOC DECISION

Ivanov won his third Olympic gold medal in Tokyo. Here he faced serious trials. Firstly, a week before the start he fell ill. I got out. Second blow: the boat, ordered in England, was delivered to Tokyo too late. She was as upset as a guitar that had been lying in the attic for a year. It takes at least a day to set up the boat. There weren't any. And we had to make our way to the final through consolation heats.

By the end the boat was adjusted. The weather turned out to be very windy. From the start, Joachim Hill, an athlete from the GDR, took the lead. On the eve of the Olympics, at the European Championships in Holland, where Ivanov won, Hill did not even make it to the finals. The first time Ivanov turned his head was at the 1000-meter mark - the German was two lengths ahead. But Ivanov did not feel the danger; he did not believe in Hill. At around 1500, Ivanov looked at his opponent a second time: Hill was four boat lengths ahead! And Ivanov realized that he was mistaken about this athlete.

It was too late to blame myself. We had to try to do something. He picked up the pace to the limit. Then this limit was equal to 44 strokes per minute. He knew that he would not have enough strength, but there was no way out. He worked like never before in his life. There was only hope in my hands - and in my heart, which had to endure.

There was a continuous buzz in my head. He didn't see anything. 50 meters before the finish, Ivanov lost his strength and lowered his oars. I looked around. Ahead – until the very finish – there was clear water! He looked in the opposite direction. Hill was closest to him, but he looked pitiful: his opponent had lowered his oars powerlessly. Ivanov made his last effort and finished first. And again, as in Melbourne, he was carried out of the boat unconscious.

Could Ivanov become a 4-time Olympic champion in Mexico City? I didn’t mean I couldn’t, I hear the answer. But the whole point is that they could have, but they didn’t give it! He won the pre-Olympic regatta in Mexico City. His competitor, our second singles skater, lost to him by 12 seconds in the Union. This is, as the rowers say, a “tram stop.” But Ivanov was not entered into the race. The competitor’s coach said at a meeting with the head of the Soviet delegation, Sergei Pavlov, that Ivanov had a leg injury and would not survive.

Ivanov had a leg injury. But she did not stop him from rowing. And then, Ivanov and “can’t stand it” are two incompatible things. The coach of our second rower “guaranteed” that his student would win gold. And this guarantee became decisive.

Having learned that the Russians did not declare Ivanov, the IOC made an unprecedented decision: to admit the three-time Olympic champion out of competition! Moreover, it was specially stipulated: if Ivanov wins, both he and the second-place finisher will be awarded two equal gold medals! This has never happened in the entire history of the Olympic Games!

No, the IOC lords loved sports and great athletes more than our leaders! The same person (the coach of Ivanov’s “understudy”) became very active: he convinced Sergei Pavlov that Ivanov should not start even outside the competition. They say that Ivanov is an adventurer, and if he goes, he “does not guarantee” a gold medal. And the great athlete, the brilliant “adventurer,” was not allowed to go to the start line to make, perhaps, the most brilliant adventure of his career.

Ivanov’s “understudy” did not make it to the finals.

Ivanov quit the sport after that.

INSTEAD OF AN AFTERWORD

... We are sitting with Vyacheslav Nikolaevich on a bench near his house, in one not very quiet Moscow side street. How does a retired captain of the second rank live? What does he do?

– I have a good military pension. In addition, Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov gives us, the Olympians, a little trick. The total is five thousand rubles,” says Ivanov.

The greatest rower of the 20th century is going to write a true book about his life. Myself. Without any note takers there.

“In that book that was published in Soviet times, 30 years ago, 30 percent of it is true,” says Ivanov. - It was such a time.

It's a different time now. And the time has come to tell the whole truth.

Ivanov Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Ivanov Vyacheslav Nikolaevich

(b. 1938), athlete, Honored Master of Sports (1956). Champion of the Olympic Games (1956, 1960, 1964), world (1962), European (1956, 1959, 1961, 1964), USSR (1956-66) in rowing (single boat).

IVANOV Vyacheslav Nikolaevich (b. July 30, 1938, Moscow), Russian athlete (rowing (cm. ROWING)); Honored Master of Sports (1956). Three-time Olympic champion (1956, 1960, 1964) in a single boat; world champion (1962), European champion (1956, 1959, 1961, 1964), USSR (1956-66).
Difficult childhood

In 1941 the family was evacuated to Barnaul. In 1943, my father, having refused his armor, volunteered to go to the front and died near Leningrad. In 1945, just before the end of the war, his older brother, 19-year-old Mikhail, died. Returning from Barnaul (1943), the Ivanov family (mother, grandmother, sister and Vyacheslav) lived on Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street next to Neskuchny Garden, where Vyacheslav received his first “physical education”. He loved to “race” on skates, and although he was exempt from physical education (doctors discovered he had rheumatic heart disease), he played hockey in the winter and football in the summer in all his free time. In the summer of 1950, he enrolled in the track and field athletics section “Wings of the Soviets”, and in the fall in the boxing section of the Spartak society, in which he studied for three years. By his own admission, boxing taught me a lot: “Courage. The ability to think instantly. Bear blows, literally and figuratively. Gave me excellent physical training and tremendous endurance.” In the summer of 1952, he began to combine boxing with training in the rowing section.
At the beginning of 1955, his mother became seriously ill and he had to leave school; began working as a turner's apprentice at the May 1st Machine-Building Plant.
"Never put your oars down"

His first coach in rowing was the repeated champion of the USSR, an experienced teacher I. Ya. Demyanov. Vyacheslav achieved his first success in 1955, becoming on his 17th birthday the winner of the national youth championship and the bronze medalist of the national championship among men. From the very beginning of rowing, his motto was “fight to the end” or “never put down the oars.” In 1956, having defeated his main rivals Yu. Tyukalov at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR (cm. TYUKALOV Yuri Sergeevich) and A. Berkutov, won the right to participate in the Olympic Games in Melbourne. The Lake Wendurrie race near Melbourne (1956) brought him his first Olympic gold medal. Three years later, at the European Championships in France, in the most difficult weather conditions, for the first time in the history of rowing, he completed the 2000 m distance in a single boat in less than 7 minutes (6.58.8).
Historical victories

In the next 5 years (1960-64), he won victories at the Olympic Games in Rome (1960) and Tokyo (1964), becoming the first single rower in the history of the sport to win three Olympics. In 1962 he won his first gold medal at the first World Rowing Championships in Lucerne (Switzerland). Awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1960) and two Orders of the Badge of Honor (1956, 1964). He graduated from the Volgograd State Institute of Physical Culture (GIFK, 1969) and as an external student from the officer school (1960).

Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

See what “Ivanov Vyacheslav Nikolaevich” is in other dictionaries:

- (b. 1938) Russian athlete, Honored Master of Sports (1956). Champion of the Olympic Games (1956, 1960, 1964), world (1962), European (1956, 1959, 1961, 1964), USSR (1956 66) in rowing (single boat). IVANOV Vyacheslav Nikolaevich (b. 30... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (b. July 30, 1938, Moscow), Soviet athlete, academic rower, Honored Master of Sports (1956). Soviet Army officer. In single rowing (single boat) he won the USSR championship 11 times in a row (1956 66), European champion (1956... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Ivanov. Wikipedia has articles about other people named Ivanov, Vyacheslav. Vyacheslav Ivanov Personal information Gender: male Full name: Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Ivanov Citizenship ... Wikipedia

Sports awards Rowing Olympic Games Gold Melbourne 1956 single sculler Gold Rome 1960 single sculls ... Wikipedia

Three-time Olympic champion (1956, 1960, 1964) in rowing, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR; born July 30, 1938 in Moscow; graduated from the Volgograd State Institute of Physical Education in 1969; world champion (1962); champion... ... Large biographical encyclopedia