On a tin plate covered with a thin layer of asphalt (WIKIPEDIA). There was no digital technology back then
There was no photoshop, not even retouching. But this does not prevent us, contemporaries of scientific and technological expansion, from admiring the ingenious invention of the first half of the 19th century. In relation to our topic, we can see a certain analogy. The “effect of photography” works and it is from this position that one can consider a selection of materials about the star tandem of Novosibirsk residents Alexander Karelin and his mentor Viktor Kuznetsov. In our case, light is texts, documents, and photosensitive material is the canvas of history, which, as they say, cannot be rewritten. The frame shows the fourth Olympic cycle, the final segment “Atlanta - Sydney”.
After two “summer” Olympics in 2004 and 2008, and after the end of his sports career, Karelin remains the most titled classic in the history of world wrestling, an example for those who have already conquered the sports Olympus and still dream of big victories. And this is also a phenomenon that can delight and surprise, perhaps to a certain extent, just like the first photograph. Karelin is looked up to and “synchronized watches” by current mentors and athletes; about some promising athletes they say: “here is the future Karelin” or “ he fights like Karelin” and this is considered a very high mark...
Viktor Mikhailovich Kuznetsov gave this interview for the Novosibirsk News newspaper in the summer of 1996, after the Olympics in Atlanta.
Viktor Kuznetsov: “Only victories are visible from the outside.”
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Alexander Karelin won his third Olympics. Not only in From the first day of his sports biography until today, the most titled wrestler on the planet has been trained by Viktor Kuznetsov. At the beginning of our conversation, Viktor Mikhailovich expressed his point of view on why the fights in Atlanta were so difficult for Sasha. Three Olympics are not that easy. From the outside, only victories are visible: “Yes, so much has been given to him that he can qualify for several more Olympics!” But no one sees what is behind these victories: muscle tears, fractures, sprains. All this interferes with preparation. And in general, if you analyze at least the last year, other problems have appeared: thoughts about the future become more and more persistent, family requires attention, a lot of social work. All this is understandable, but at the same time it distracts and does not allow you to work at full capacity. |
Olympic Games in Atlanta (USA, 1996)
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We no longer train in
the same mode in which they trained before. Are you hoping for training camp?
before the World and European Championships, where you disconnect from everything, where it seems
It would be possible to catch up. But count only on them - this
few. We need to train and stay in shape all year round, like we do
done before.
Before the European Championships, Sasha tore a thigh muscle, several days
I couldn’t stand on my feet at all. That's why he wasn't ready then,
as needed. And if something bothers you, it means there is no longer something necessary.
composure. And as a result, at the end of March, he received another severe
injury - separation of the pectoralis major muscle. Two months after surgery -
April and May - we just had to wait for everything to grow together. But in
At the end of May, Sasha had already begun to slowly prepare, two training camps were held, but
there was almost no work on the carpet. And only on the third, final, he
I started checking myself.
I foresaw that it would not be easy for him at the Olympics. No rivals
when you are in good shape, and what happens, and every private already wants
win you. The second match with the Moldovan turned out to be very difficult
Sergei Mureiko. How long has Sasha been fighting, in this state I have him
I've never seen it before. So that he is not enough for the fight - this will never happen
did not have. He's never fought in extra time before
it just didn't work out. Let's look at each other - we smile, but laughter is like
they say through tears.
- And what still allows him to win even in such a situation?
condition?
Self-confidence, character, ability to overcome oneself, no matter how difficult
neither was it. This is what an athlete is all about. He was struggling with a broken rib.
The muscle was torn off, and he went out to fight for first place - a lot of you
Do you know such cases?
And when I asked Viktor Mikhailovich a question about whether he had enough
strength to prepare another Olympic champion (among him
students, after all, not only Alexander Karelin, but also several champions
countries, four-time world champion Vladimir Zubkov), our conversation
turned onto another path, and it turned out that there is a downside
even Olympic gold medals.
With such an attitude towards our profession, it is difficult to force a coach
work for results. It seems that no one needs this, but when
you achieve some success, so many people involved in it appear around you
What happens to him is that you didn’t seem to play any role in this matter.
Now, in my opinion, the number one problem is the coaches. Everything rests on
units, and if they are not only not supported financially, but simply not
noticing it won't lead to anything good.
After all, in addition to moral satisfaction, I also want there to be no
material problems. A specialist in his field should not have them.
If we all trade, where will we end up? What if I'm over three
Olympics I can’t buy myself a normal car, it’s simple
speaks about the attitude towards coaches. Show me at least one specialist who
prepared someone in adolescence and lives normally. To
to simply raise a champion of Russia, he still needs to be found, having spent on it
a year, or maybe ten years. And then, no matter how talented he may be, with
they need to plow for 5-6 years.
Before the Olympics they promise prizes, and after it they decide that if
coaches to pay what they promised, then it will be too much for them. And this is theirs
life, they put all their health into it, and now it turns out that they
It just has nothing to do with it. Until recently, we had 8 training camps a year,
We were away from home for 9 months out of 12 and did not see our family. To
to achieve results, the coach must devote himself completely to his work,
just like an athlete. And only if there is such
connection, something might work out.
Sasha became a champion, President of our Olympic Committee Vitaly
Smirnov congratulates him, I’m standing next to him - if only he could say a word, how
It's as if I don't exist. We support our cause, we raise people who
are winning and will continue to win the Olympics, and I don’t want them to
They've already wiped their feet on you. They want results, but who's in the end?
After all, does he work for him? And so don’t notice us, don’t point blank
see - this should not happen.
The guys seemed to have been given half the bonus amount in the Olympic
village, but they promise half. As for the coaches, they are like
as if they were strangers in this matter: “Well, of course, you didn’t
God willing, you will receive at least half of what your students earned.
Moreover, taxes will be deducted from you." This emphasizes the attitude of management towards
trainers. And I wasn’t the only one talking about this in Atlanta. And who, if not
Should we, who have raised Olympic champions, raise these questions?
We probably have the right to do this.
Yes, it feels like Viktor Mikhailovich touched on a pressing issue. Speech
- not about material wealth. We are talking about the principles on which
the whole system holds together. In sports, everything starts with the coach. Bread
begins with a man throwing grain into the ground, and this cannot be said
forget.
Alexander Sklyarenko
YEAR 1997
Alexander Karelin: ten years - without defeat.
January 27, 1997 is an anniversary that is unique in modern sports, and this achievement is unlikely to have any analogues.
For 10 years now, Alexander Karelin has not known defeat on the wrestling mat.
However, no one will probably celebrate it. Athletes are superstitious people. 10 years ago, in the final of the USSR Championship in Omsk, the young and talented 19-year-old Alexander Karelin lost to two-time world champion Igor Rastorotsky with a football score of 0:1. The only point given by the judges to Sasha’s opponent turned out to be so controversial and not obvious even to specialists that the chief judge of the competition had to intervene.
Since that day, Karelin has achieved everything possible in sports.
achieve, but the last year on this path turned out to be perhaps the most
difficult.
- Sasha, there were many victories, but the last two were at the European Championships and
The Olympics are probably worth everyone else...
Not all of them are worth it, but they are associated with high costs, and firstly
turn - moral forces. These victories came to me with much more
harder than many others. Their consequences must be eliminated before
so far.
- In the finals of the European Championship you fought with a torn pectoral muscle.
There was no such thought that it was better to withdraw, not to aggravate the injury, especially since
that the Olympic Games were coming up in a few months?
I'm the captain of the national team, you understand? On the other hand, like me
Will I take off if I fight Petya Kotka? To have someone for me
misunderstood? If one arm doesn't work, what should I do?
retreat, or what? I thought: “I’ll go out and fight if it’s too strong.”
I’m sick, what can I do, then I’ll take off.” Why not try?
Just luck, that's all. Apparently he was in a better mood than me.
I expected a long fight, but fell at the beginning.
- Don’t these victories indicate that your rivals are simply
Are you morally not ready to fight with you?
If I had not reached the final at the European Championships, they would have been in
psychologically we are much better prepared. They're already ready
not bad, but there are some internal weaknesses. To myself after all
sometimes you indulge: “Why now, why today? I’m better
I’ll start doing this tomorrow.” Or: “Why me? Why so many
lift?" Well, I think: "What is it, the muscle is torn off!"
Moreover, the Russian team is not an empty phrase for me. What is ours
the wrestlers won only one gold medal in Atlanta - and I won it,
arrived at the Olympics not in the best condition - for me it was big
blow. This is a serious defeat for our methodology, our school. There
such an unsuccessful performance by my teammates was for me
an additional irritant, but now, of course, it’s sad. We are
are accustomed to the fact that the slogan “the main thing is not victory, but participation” is not for
us.
- Six months have already passed. How is your health? Are you eager to fight?
To be honest, I’m not too eager, because my health
good only for walking the dog, with veterans
wrestle and play basketball with the freestyle wrestlers. And for now more
not ready.
- You have achieved everything that could be achieved. And in sports
It is very difficult to win without incentives. What is he like for you now - to
fight and win again?
Were you the best? For me this is a very serious incentive. I just
today (January 10 - A.S.) I found out that journalists recognized him as the best
athlete of the year in Russia, came to the gym and instead of three with five
struggled. Russia is not Luxembourg, it is the country that
only slightly lost to the Americans at the Olympics.
- After your victory in Atlanta, many probably thought about
Australia, about Sydney, where the Olympic Games will take place in 2000...
Apparently the accelerator in my head doesn't work so well, I don't
I’m used to rushing about like carbide on water. What is my methodology based on?
coach Viktor Mikhailovich Kuznetsov, all my performances,
based on this technique? Progressively, clearly
delimited stages in preparation and performances. Still until the Olympics
four European Championships, and say: “Here, Sasha, eat shanezhek,
leave the snowballs and go to Sydney" - for Victor and me
This approach is not typical for Mikhailovich. In addition, family, mother,
dad, and all these life circumstances also put forward their
requirements.
- And they distract from the main business. Were you once, say,
22 years old, and nothing stopped me from focusing only on wrestling...
To be honest, for me in this sense, 22 years and 29 years are one and the same
same. Everything in life changes, but the struggle remains, and I cannot say
that he began to treat her differently. Fight for me is
joy. Therefore, there is no need to say that everything has changed, everything
It's complicated, everything is different. All the same! Remember, it seems
struggle.
- Lately we see you on the TV screen somehow slightly
tired...
This is probably primarily due to the fact that I started training
walk a little less often. Traveling, all the joys of life - they take away
time. But you still get the main charge during training. When not
this recharge or when it is greatly diluted by everyday life, then,
maybe the eyes are dimming. Or maybe you shouldn't try to get used to it
that today I am a kind of shortage, an object of excessive demand. Exactly
This is how I sometimes feel myself. Maybe you just need to remember
that when I saw a movie camera before, and even more so a voice recorder, then
I always felt awe.
- At the end of January - 10 years since you have not lost to anyone.
Could you highlight the main point along the way, after which you
felt complete confidence in your abilities, realized that you -
first.
No, there were no fractures, I just wanted to win, that’s all.
Total. I wanted to win any competition, I wanted to beat
everyone. In 1985 I won the memory tournament
heroes of the Young Guard, losing one battle. But the rules
they were different then, and I became the first in a personal meeting. Won - and
Apparently, he liked this state. I thought: “Why
lose something?"
But seriously, it's a shame to lose. That's why I'm resting and not
I’m trying to go out and unreasonably claim something, not
fully recovered. I don’t want to come forward when I’m sick, to weave into
struggle elements of sadomasochism: “Ah-ah, it hurts!” No, just
I want to fight, I like the process itself. It's just a shame that he's bald
became several square centimeters larger. This suggests that
Time passes, but it’s a pity! It seems to me that how I started is how I am
remained. The only thing is, maybe I know half a dose more.
So, there were no turning points. Was clearly developed
methodology, and I tried and did everything to reach this level. A
Now I’m doing everything to stay at this level. If so
stop fighting, then quite consciously, it should be yours
decision. Not because you were forced into it: “That’s it, old man, sand
We don’t have time to sweep up after you.”
Alexander Karelin gave this interview to our correspondent in early September 2000, a few days before leaving for the Olympics in Sydney. Fate decreed that it was not published anywhere. We offer it to our readers.
Alexander Karelin: “If there were no competitors, our hands wouldn’t come off”
In the very next few days, the epicenter of sports passions will move to Australia, where the next Olympics will start. The main hope of both Novosibirsk and Russian sports fans in Sydney remains three-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling Alexander Karelin. From September 25 to 27, he will hold the last fights of his sports career on the Sydney carpet.
For Sasha, the upcoming Olympic Games will be his last competition, the final chord in his phenomenal sports career. It’s not just a great athlete leaving the mat. The Champion is leaving, who in the 20th century, with all the wealth of choice and abundance of legendary personalities, has no one to compare with. Karelin has not lost to anyone for almost fourteen years, since January 1987. And if you think about this figure, you will understand that Karelin is something great and unique in sports. This is a phenomenon before which words, majestic epithets and comparisons are powerless. This is a phenomenon that has almost no chance of ever happening again.
We spoke with Sasha shortly after his return from Podolsk, where the last pre-Olympic tournament was held - the Poddubny Memorial. After a hard evening's workout (sweat dripping from his forehead like a shower!), he took the time to answer a few questions. A day and a half later, he was leaving for a long business trip - to the last training camp and his fourth Olympics. - Sasha, do you have a feeling that this is already your fourth Olympic Games? Is there any heaviness or fatigue?
No, everything is the same. If you listen very carefully to the recommendations of pseudo-experts and the opinions of very compassionate people, then sometimes you can believe that you have become super experienced. But when the main efforts at the beginning of the Olympic cycle were spent on not getting used to this state - the state of being too experienced - then now everything is fine, everything is behind.
You essentially won the last Olympics in 1996 with one hand. Now your position in the heavyweight division is just as unshakable...
There are competitors, they always have been. If there were no competitors, our hands wouldn’t be torn off. And it is very easy to come to this conclusion if you look closely at what is happening without narcissism. It’s just that, on top of everything else, I’m lucky. In addition, I train in the best team in the world, and this is also an important factor.
- If it's a matter of luck, then why aren't your opponents so lucky?
You know, the strong are always lucky. The head coach of the national team, Shamil Khisamutdinov, loves such axioms, thoughts that do not require confirmation. These are not dogmas, but those people to whom such axioms apply agree without objection. And so he says: “For some reason, in our sport the situation is such that when a person is strong, he is lucky. And when you’re weak, you’re unlucky.” It's clear that I'm a bit of a jerk, but in reality I'm really lucky. I’m lucky with my coach, who is not very healthy now, but, nevertheless, we went together to watch the competition at the Poddubny Memorial. So our tandem continues to work fruitfully. Lucky with the team. People like five-time world champion Gogi Koguashvili train nearby. He alone is worth it! Competition for the six remaining Olympic berths is very intense. Now at the Poddubny Memorial, Alexey Shevtsov (weight up to 54 kg), last year’s world champion among juniors, “torn to pieces” last year’s European champion Ambartsumov in the semi-finals, and in the final – another contender for the Olympic berth, world champion Samvel Danielyan – 12:1. And therefore you don’t have to sit and think how good you are, how experienced you are. Because those who are late get the bones. Even if you fall behind the young guys during cross-country. And no one here looks at how old you are. You just have to comply with the standards. I am lucky that I am in a team where there is such a healthy atmosphere.
- Are you lucky with your opponents too?
Yes. I have constant and strong rivals. During the times of the Soviet Union, we sorted things out once a year, but now we have to do this three times a year: at one of the tournaments, at the World and European Championships. After the collapse of the USSR, competition in my weight became more intense. Now 20-year-old Yuri Patrikeev from Krasnodar won the Poddubny Memorial, defeating the first number one of the American team in the final. Both age and results speak for themselves. Alexey Kolesnikov, an incredibly strong athlete, is just over 25 years old. There is also Alexey Tarabarin from Yaroslavl, but he had his knee operated on for the second time. He is a very hardworking and disciplined athlete, with a unique personality. A ktern style. There are strong competitors, and, as a result, constant good sparring at training camps. All this makes it impossible to relax; you need to constantly be on your toes.
Listening to you talk lovingly about your teammates, you begin to think that if they also participated in the Olympics, then only Russians would compete in the semifinals...
Even in those distant and glorious times when the Soviet Union existed, they said that the six strongest wrestlers in the Union in any weight category were ready to fight for first places at the World Championships. Now our space has narrowed, the opportunities for breeding work have worsened, but, nevertheless, the winners of the Russian Championship in any weight can really compete for medals at the World Championship. And in some weight categories they can fight not for prizes, but for first place. And the main problem for them is the national championship, where they need to pass the selection sieve and get into the team. All teams in the world produce good wrestlers. And for some reason we always prepare world champions. One of our mutual acquaintances (we are talking about the national champion, World Cup winner, two-time winner and multiple winner of the Poddubny Memorial, Novosibirsk Andrei Cherepakhin - A.S.) recently took second place at the Poddubny Memorial. This is a visible success, because the Olympic team was formed there, the competition was very intense, wrestlers from 14 countries took part in the competition. He lost by three points in the final. And with all this, he did not call anyone, did not ask to be met. He hitched a ride home. This atmosphere, mood, self-esteem criteria already speak volumes.
- Sasha, you missed the Poddubny Memorial by decision of the coaching council. Why did you decide not to fight?
This decision was made by my coach Viktor Mikhailovich Kuznetsov. He and I caught a cold together at a training camp in Altai, where we were unlucky with the weather. There the temperature during the day “jumped” to +1 degree. To be honest, it’s kind of awkward for me to explain all this. Well, they say, I have a runny nose... Although everything is a little more complicated, including with illness. But it is precisely for this reason that we decided not to fight in conditions of heightened perception of reality.
- Are there factors that are alarming shortly before the Olympic Games? Or is everything going according to plan?
Not enough time, to be honest. Including thanks to parliamentary activities. I don’t go to plenary sessions of the Duma, but there is a deputy’s reception room, and this whole system works. Problems have to be solved. This is one of the visible difficulties.
- Before the Olympics, you’ll probably go to the Duma and soak up the energy of the whole people...
It is enough to imbue the national team with this same energy. If we are talking about the energy of the people...
The wrestling team flies to Sydney from Vladivostok. When you arrive in the Far East, there is no electricity or hot water. Fly to Australia - everything is there. So you can relax...
There is such a famous coach Gennady Andreevich Sapunov, who was the head coach of the USSR national team, and now works with one of the foreign teams. He said: “I’m making Rambo out of you. I’ll raise you up at night, and you must win.” Therefore, whether there is hot water or not is not even secondary. If we are talking about the lack of conditions, then you see that our Dynamo gym, the central wrestling hall of the city of Novosibirsk and the region, is far from European standards. But this year we have a winner of the Russian Championship and a prize-winner of the World Junior Championship, and at the World Championship among veterans - two second places and two third. Well, your humble servant represents the main age group. Therefore, it is not the conditions that decide, nor the care on the part of public utilities. It’s hard for everyone right now, and no one can claim an exceptional position.
After all, the revolution is a serious matter, but there are plenty of anecdotes about it: about Vladimir Ilyich, about Vasily Ivanovich and Petka. I've never heard any jokes about the Olympic Games...
Apparently, this is not such a serious matter... And, apparently, all emotions spill out during preparation and during the spectacle itself. There is no time left for writing jokes.
Sasha, you have been fighting for so long, but no one has ever heard “predictions” from you - I will win, I will break them all there, tear them to pieces. Unlike, say, football players or representatives of other sports...
What can I say? I have never had such thoughts. I even feel embarrassed that I am pitted against representatives of such massive and popular sports. Apparently the wrestlers are tongue-tied. But I noticed that the less you talk and the more convincing you fight, the fewer questions arise.
Alexander Sklyarenko
Champion for all time
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The great musician Franz Liszt once said about the violin genius Niccolo Paganini: “No one’s footprints will ever match his gigantic footprints. I say without hesitation: there will not be a second Paganini. Such a combination of colossal talent and special life circumstances that raised him to the very pinnacle of fame is a unique case in the history of art. He was great." All this - word for word, but with the caveat that in this case we are not talking about art - we can repeat it about our outstanding fellow countryman, wrestler Alexander Karelin. In the fall of 2000, Karelin left the mat, and with him went an entire era in Greco-Roman wrestling and in world sports. Yes, in?? century there were many great ones, but even among the very best, the name Karelin stands apart. He walked across the wrestling mats of the planet like a bulldozer through a wheat field. In sports arenas, he set a number of “eternal” records, which (we can say this with complete confidence) will never be surpassed. |
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Before Karelin, there were no three-time Olympic champions in Greco-Roman wrestling. Among the wrestlers of this style, he became the first and only winner of the three highest Olympic awards. Karelin won nine world championships, twelve European championships, he climbed to the highest step of the podium at the USSR championships five times and eight times at the Russian championships.
He also owns the most fantastic achievement in the history of world sports: he was undefeated for 13 years and 8 months. And when this great winning streak was interrupted at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, leading foreign news agencies, commenting on the final fight in the heavyweight division (up to 130 kg), called our fellow countryman nothing less than Alexander the Great. For the vast majority of athletes, Olympic silver is the ultimate dream, a huge success, the pinnacle of a sports career. For Karelin, second place at the Sydney Olympics was the biggest failure. And this fact alone speaks more eloquently than any words about the scale of this personality in sports.
On September 19, 1967, one of its most famous was born in our city
residents Alexander Karelin. Sasha began to practice Greco-Roman wrestling in
thirteen and a half years with Viktor Mikhailovich Kuznetsov. Two creative personalities found each other, and in this they were both lucky. Subsequently, Sasha, with his characteristic modesty, always tried to emphasize that he, as an athlete, is the embodiment of Viktor Kuznetsov’s coaching improvisation and the personification of the correctness of his coaching methods. Viktor Mikhailovich once admitted that he quickly singled out Sasha from the general mass of guys who trained with him: “Physically, he was more gifted, and there was no need to force him to work. He never missed training, experienced his defeats, and they were an incentive for him to improve. All this quickly affected his results.” At the age of 16, Sasha became the second prize-winner of the USSR youth championship, and the competition at all tournaments of those years, as many Greco-Roman wrestling experts admit, was simply colossal. Soon he won an international tournament in Germany, where many of his opponents were two years older than him. After this success, Sasha was awarded the Master of Sports badge. At the age of 17, he became the world champion among juniors, for which he was awarded the title of international master of sports. A year later, Sasha wins the European junior championship, and at the age of 19 becomes a two-time world junior champion.
In 1987, Karelin made his debut in adult competitions. At the end of January, in the final bout of the USSR Championship, held in Omsk, the young Novosibirsk resident met two-time world champion Igor Rastorotsky. The fate of the fight was decided by a single point, which the judges, in a very controversial situation, gave to a more experienced and titled athlete. It was after this fight that the era of Karelin began in Greco-Roman wrestling, which lasted almost 14 years. In the same 1987, on his first try, Sasha won one of the strongest tournaments in terms of composition - the Poddubny Memorial, in which the entire USSR national team took part. And it became clear to many experts that a new star had risen on the sports horizon. True, for the coaches of the Soviet Union national team, the first high-profile successes of young Karelin did not become convincing arguments, and they did not want to take him to the world championship even after at the USSR Championship he beat his main rival Igor Rastorotsky within a minute and a half after the start of the fight - 8:0, and then laid it on his shoulder blades. But soon they met again at one of the international tournaments, and after Karelin’s victory, all questions disappeared by themselves. Sasha made his debut as a member of the USSR national team in the spring of 1988. At his first European Championship, he behaved in the manner of Julius Caesar - he came, he saw, he conquered. This success paved the way for him to the Olympics.
Subsequently, Alexander Karelin recalled that time from a slightly different perspective: “Viktor Mikhailovich never said: “The main thing is to fight, and you will have everything.” He always said: “Fight and learn - combine!” A wrestler is great. But this is a specialization, and it does not determine your position in society.” Alexander Karelin's father was a big truck driver, and Sasha also dreamed of becoming a driver as a child. By the time the first great successes in sports came, he had already graduated from the Novosibirsk Motor Transport College and passed the entrance exams to the Omsk Institute of Physical Culture, which he subsequently successfully graduated from. But, perhaps, young Karelin had to pass his first main life test at the 1988 Olympics, which took place in Seoul. In that last Soviet Olympic team that came to the capital of South Korea, there were many outstanding athletes, bright names. But at a meeting of the Soviet Olympic delegation, it was decided that Alexander Karelin would carry the flag of our country at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. It was a huge honor and trust, and on the wrestling mat of Seoul the young Siberian hero fully justified all the hopes placed on him. At the beginning of the final fight, he was losing to the Bulgarian heavyweight Gerovski - 0:3, but by the end of the first period he performed a move and equalized the score. The fate of the Olympic gold was decided at the very end of the match. The completely exhausted Bulgarian could not resist the onslaught of the Siberian. Sasha managed to pull off a spectacular move and won his first great victory.
In 1992, at the Olympics in Barcelona (as well as four years later in Atlanta), the question of the standard bearer of our Olympic delegation was no longer raised. The flag was supposed to be carried by Karelin, and for everyone it seemed like something self-evident. And the situation in the Karelin heavyweight division has changed so dramatically over the four years since Seoul that Karelin’s second Olympic gold medal was also something that was taken for granted. “In Barcelona, Sasha actually wrestled as if in training,” recalled his coach Viktor Kuznetsov. - The opponents only thought about how he wouldn’t pick them up, throw them, or injure them. Before the fight, they asked him not to use his signature “reverse belt” technique against them. They were afraid that before going on the carpet they wouldn’t have time to tell him this, to warn him! They feared him like fire.” Karelin was head and shoulders above everyone else and in the final match he literally slammed Swede Thomas Johansson into the mat in a minute and a half.
Another year passed, and at the World Championships in Stockholm they were once again convinced that Karelin and his rivals were separated by an abyss. Already in the first bout of the championship with American Matt Ghaffari, Sasha unsuccessfully made a grab and broke a rib. But, continuing to fight such a serious injury, he won not only against the American, but also, having defeated several of his competitors, once again reminded these ambitious guys that he has no equal on the wrestling mat. Meanwhile, the restless Ghaffari, who became Sasha’s main competitor in the international arena, increasingly began to travel around our country and take “lessons” from Karelin. In 1995, they fought in the finals of the Poddubny Memorial, and in the fall of 1995 Matt came to Novosibirsk, where the international tournament for the A. Karelin prizes was held. This grandiose sports festival will never be erased from the memory of those who managed to attend it. Our hero spoke for the first time in front of his fellow countrymen and could not disappoint their expectations. In the finals of the tournament, he taught Matt Ghaffari the cruelest lesson, pulling him out onto his signature “reverse belt” and sticking him with the scruff of the neck into the carpet. At the award ceremony, Matt cried, and our guest’s coach then explained the reason for such strong feelings that overwhelmed his ward: “It could have been anything, but not a reverse belt!” As it turns out, Americans don't like to fly so high over carpets. But, we must give him his due, Ghaffari realistically assessed the situation: “Karelin is a special case. Karelin doesn't count. If I’m second after Karelin, then I’m first.”
Olympic Atlanta was already on the agenda, and after such an unconditional victory over Ghaffari, who was competitor No. 1, it even seemed that a trip for the third Olympic gold could become an easy walk for Alexander Karelin, an empty formality. However, “the gods judged differently.” In the semi-final bout of the European Championship, which took place at the end of March 1996 in Budapest, our hero suffered a severe injury - a separation of the pectoral muscle. But he not only brought that fight to the end, but also - an unprecedented case! - decided to fight in the finals. The injured hand hung like a whip, and, nevertheless, the “one-armed” Karelin won the decisive bout of the championship against the Ukrainian Petr Kotka - 3:0. It was a real sporting feat. Immediately after the competition, Sasha was taken to one of the Budapest clinics, where he was operated on. After surgery, the arm had to be at rest for two months. And there were less than five months left before the Olympic Games...
This was one of the most difficult periods in the sports career of Alexander Karelin. And the unprecedented final match in Budapest raised a lot of questions. After returning to Novosibirsk, Sasha explained why, at the risk of aggravating the injury, he decided to go on the mat: “I’m the captain of the national team, you understand? How will I take off? Do you want me for someone
misunderstood? If one arm doesn't work, should I retreat or what? My opponents are all guys not from the hospital. But if I had not come out to fight in the final, then psychologically they would have been even better prepared. They are already quite prepared, they just have some internal weaknesses. Sometimes you indulge yourself: “Why now, why today? I’d better start doing this tomorrow.” Or: “Why me? Why raise so much?” Well, I think: “What is it, the muscle is torn off!” Moreover, the Russian team is not an empty phrase for me. We are accustomed to the Olympic slogan “the main thing is not victory, but participation” - it is not for us.” I once asked Viktor Kuznetsov what still allows Sasha to win even in this condition? “Self-confidence, character, the ability to overcome oneself, no matter how difficult it may be,” answered Viktor Mikhailovich. - This is what an athlete is all about. He was struggling with a broken rib. The muscle was torn off, and he went out to fight for first place. Do you know many such cases?”
On the eve of the Olympics in Atlanta, America, Karelin still managed to return to the mat. But there was no question that in just over two months of full-fledged training he would be able to get into optimal athletic shape. All his rivals understood this perfectly and prepared with extraordinary zeal. Fate gave them perhaps their only chance. Somehow, in one of the conversations, Alexander Karelin reminded us of what we, lulled by a series of his triumphs, had already begun to forget: “There are competitors, they have always been. If there were no competitors, our hands wouldn’t be “torn off.” However, they could not do anything about Karelin in Atlanta. As expected, Sasha faced Ghaffari in the final. The American was promised a reward of $1 million for the victory over Karelin. In a tense fight, our hero moved his old American acquaintance to the ground, and this technical action decided the fate of the Olympic gold medal. Soon after returning from Atlanta, Alexander Karelin was awarded the title of Hero of Russia for his services to the Fatherland and outstanding sporting achievements. In September 1997, he was recognized as the Person of the Year in Novosibirsk, and on June 28, 1998, he became an honorary resident of our city. Another year and a half later, in December 1999, Novosibirsk residents elected Alexander Alexandrovich as a deputy of the State Duma.
The new field of activity took a lot of effort and time. But Karelin continued to prepare for his last Olympic Games. He still won the European and World Championships, but only he and his coach knew the price of these victories. “Three Olympics are behind us - it’s not so easy,” said Viktor Mikhailovich. - From the outside, only victories are visible. “Yes,” people reason, “he has been given so much that he can fight a few more times.”
Olympics! But no one sees what is behind these victories: tears
muscles, fractures, sprains.” I once told Alexander Karelin that with age, so many worries appeared - both family and social - and they distracted, did not allow me to fully concentrate only on the fight, as it was, say, at 22 years old. “To be honest, for me in this sense, 22 years old and my current age are one and the same,” answered Sasha. “Everything in life changes, but the struggle remains, and I can’t say that I have started to feel differently about it. Fighting is a joy for me. Therefore, there is no need to say that everything has changed, everything has become more complicated, everything is different. All the same! Remember, it seems
Stanislavsky said that you need to love art, not yourself
art. The situation is the same here. You need to love the fight, not yourself
struggle."
The news of Karelin's defeat in the final bout of the Olympic tournament in Sydney on September 27, 2000 was like a bolt from the blue. On the approaches to the final, Sasha continued to convincingly deal with his rivals. He beat all the strongest, and in the final he was awaited by the little-known American Rulon Gardner, whom Sasha had met only once before the fight in Atlanta. Why did Karelin lose? This question has haunted us for a long time, but there seems to be no clear answer to it. Too many circumstances are intertwined into a tight knot. Everyone who saw this fight will agree that what happened defies rational explanation. In Sydney, Karelin was again the strongest, but first an obvious refereeing error, and then one ridiculous point that the referee gave to the American on the mat, decided the fate of the gold medal. The Olympic champion was an athlete who did not show the slightest activity for nine minutes and spent half of the bout lying on his stomach, pressed to the mat. As it turned out later, the Americans prepared for this fight for a very long time and carefully in the American way. We were preparing not just for the Olympics, but specifically for the fight with Karelin. Gardner admitted that he constantly trained actions in the cross grip and practiced defense against the “reverse belt”. However, in the first minutes, Sasha had already torn his opponent off the mat. This throw would certainly have decided the fate of the fight. But at the decisive moment there was a little lack of freshness... Here we can also recall a severe cold during one of the last training camps in Altai, which knocked Karelin out of his usual training rhythm for several weeks. And that for Sasha this was not just a decisive fight for Olympic gold. This was the last fight in his sports career. And the colossal nervous tension “gobbled up” the lion’s share of strength...
At the turn of the century, experts and journalists, summing up sports results?? century, included Alexander Karelin among the 25 best athletes of our time. Our outstanding fellow countryman is a great sports phenomenon, and this has already become a commonplace. And in an essay of such length there is no opportunity to talk about other aspects of his multifaceted personality. Therefore, the activities of the A. Karelin Foundation, which was created in February 1993 and helped many boys find themselves in sports, and the A. Karelin Club, which trained many bright athletes and returned veterans to the carpet, were left outside the scope of our story. And then there were first a candidate’s dissertation and then a doctoral dissertation. Alexander Karelin defended it on May 14, 2002 in St. Petersburg and became a Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences. The topic of the dissertation is “The system of integral training of highly qualified wrestlers.” As Alexander Karelin admitted after his defense, he did not expect this work to be so interesting: “I tried to make sure that it was applied, not requiring any adaptation for its use in practical activities. An athlete must be able to use his strengths, and this is what I had in mind when I spoke about the optimal model of an Olympic wrestler. It is not at all necessary to be better than your competitors in six indicators. It is enough to have two or three that are “off the charts” and in which your competitors cannot compare with you. And the shortcomings must either be skillfully masked, or compensated for by the existing advantages.”
In one of the interviews, I asked Karelin if he could highlight a turning point in his career, after which he felt unshakable confidence in his abilities and realized that he was the first. “No, there were no turning points,” Sasha answered. “I just wanted to win, that’s all.” I wanted to win any competition, beat everyone. In 1985, I won the tournament in memory of the heroes of the Young Guard. I won, and I apparently liked this condition. And then I thought: “Why lose?” I always wanted to fight, I liked the process itself. The only shame is that over the years my bald spot has become several square centimeters larger. This shows that time is passing, but it’s a pity! It seems to me that the way I started is the way I have remained. The only difference is maybe I know half a lesson more. So, there were no turning points. There was a clearly developed methodology, and I tried and did everything to reach this level. And now I do everything to remain at this level. And if to stop fighting, then quite consciously. This should be your decision, and not because you were forced into it: “That’s it, old man, we don’t have time to sweep up the sand after you.”
Viktor Mikhailovich Kuznetsov once highlighted another very important trait in Karelin’s character: “Often there are situations when nothing depends on the coach. You raised him, he became a world champion, and then he left you. I was very lucky in this regard with Sasha. No matter what they offered him, or “drew” or showed him, he was not tempted by anything, and we walked this path together. It is under such circumstances that you can break through and prove that you are right. And I had to constantly prove it. Every athlete must find his own path, and often people did not want to understand this. The great ones are unique. Only mediocre wrestlers are similar to each other.”
At one of the international youth tournaments for the prizes of A. Karelin, I remembered another phrase from Viktor Mikhailovich: “He who has the result is right.” I told Sasha about this and had the opportunity to see how close the positions of a great athlete and an outstanding coach are on this issue. “The result is the main criterion,” Karelin answered. - Your rightness, the validity of your claims should be judged precisely by the result, by your achievements. You can do Manilovism all your life, and then say: “But I couldn’t...” Like in that joke, you know? Because the dog could speak beautifully, but could not run. It happens that some young coach will approach Viktor Mikhailovich and begin to say: “Just look at this boy! What a talent!” Viktor Mikhailovich says: “Yes-ah!” And then he turns to me: “Do you know how many such talents I have already seen? Yes, and you, too, over these twenty years...” So, here it is - the carpet. And whoever of these young guys shows something on it is a great guy. Yes, you need to work, experiment, search. But how good you are (there is a new word - productive) - all this determines the result.”
What qualities should a great athlete have? I once asked Alexander Karelin about this, who by that time already had every conceivable and inconceivable title. “I understand what the question is, but I don’t consider myself that way,” said Sasha. - For the same reason, I do not wear any insignia - medals or awards of the Motherland. Great athletes - Alexander Medved, the late Ivan Yarygin. Using their example, we can say that such people always combine outstanding human and sporting qualities. To put it in the spirit of socialist realism, they justified the enormous trust that their Motherland placed in them. Even if people don’t know the athlete, if he worthily defends the honor of the country, he becomes one of the pieces of national pride. Even if his success is momentary, even if it is like a one-day butterfly, it is one of those sparks that creates a radiance in the halo. That’s probably what they are like – great athletes.”
Alexander SKLYARENKO
ALEXANDER KARELIN:
"EPILOGUE"
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Sometimes our life resembles a movie, some episodes of which are etched in our memory for a long time and force us, again and again, to analyze random events, snatches of seemingly meaningless phrases. Time sets accents and what was seen as completely insignificant suddenly becomes the main detail, the key to understanding the whole picture of what happened. However, here too there are magical metamorphoses. From the depths of Lethe, the river of time, new details are coming to light, but how long they will determine the attitude towards certain events is unknown. However, there are some constants that do not depend on the situation; they always come first in the gallery of history. Ascents to the sports Olympus are always surrounded by an aura of mystery, even some kind of understatement and uncertainty, thereby attracting the attention of the public, becoming one of the Great Mysteries that outlive their time. |
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We are increasingly separated from the last Olympic Games of the 20th century. Thousands of publications have been prepared about their results. However, it still remains, and probably will remain, unclear what actually happened. September 27, 2000, during the final of the Olympic tournament of Greco-Roman wrestlers in the weight up to 130 kilograms. During the preparation of the material, a fair question arose as to how justified this publication was; cause negative emotions. However, the question “WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?” continues to excite journalists, athletes, coaches, hundreds of fans, and becomes the subject of speculation. There is no point in entering into polemics with representatives of different points of view and versions. We can only try to remember everything that happened, at least in the last year of the fourth Olympic cycle of our fellow countryman, Alexander Karelin.
It seems to me that I can remember everything down to the smallest detail from January 1 to the moment when the final siren of the fight for the title of Olympic champion in the weight category up to 130 kilograms sounded in distant Sydney. However, it is impossible to know which link was decisive and predetermined such an unexpected outcome of that dramatic duel. Just as there is no way to change anything, you cannot turn back the river of time, you cannot correct an error in a program that has worked flawlessly for 13 years. It is impossible to say that this is trivial. These words are the life of a real person, his emotions and experiences, his pain. Can the truth be banal?
This may look strange, but from the very beginning of the year, Karelin was accompanied by a series of events, signs, the meaning of which, it seems, became clear on September 27.
The Russian Championship opened 9 months before the Olympics, where Karelin won the title of the country's strongest athlete for the 13th time. The victory was not easy, because it is quite difficult to fight and win with a temperature below 40 and a runny nose. The 1:0 score clearly did not bring satisfaction, so after the fight our champion flatly refused to be interviewed. It was too early to talk about the upcoming preparations for the European Championship, there was no point in commenting on my condition, there were training camps ahead for which great hopes were pinned, but which, unfortunately, were not fully realized. Two training camps did not bring the desired result: a costal arch injury and complications from the flu led to the fact that there were only 4 weeks left to prepare for Europe 2000. Only at the last stage of preparation in Podolsk, Karelin’s mentor, Honored Coach of the USSR Viktor Mikhailovich Kuznetsov, was able to say that his ward was in normal shape, but it could not be called ideal.
12 years have passed since Alexander Karelin’s first victory at the Olympics in Seoul; according to the eastern calendar, 12 years is a kind of life cycle, so the Olympic leap year closed the time circle of 1988 - 2000.
Alexander Karelin himself treated such symbols with irony, because they distracted from the training process and made it difficult to concentrate. In one of the interviews recorded at the Seminsky Pass Olympic training base, Karelin said: “Of course, there is faith. For me, this is faith in God, as a representative of Russia, I profess Orthodoxy. Superstition is another thing, superstition is the lot of the weak.”
Before the Olympics, we tried not to tempt fate and avoided making forecasts for the upcoming games or commenting on sports uniforms. However, the journalists literally tortured them with strange questions, demanded exclusives, and were very indignant when they received a harsh but polite refusal. Some of them, with the sly smile of the biblical Thomas the unbeliever, asked questions at press conferences and in personal conversations like: “What, have you really never lost to anyone? How do you manage to do this?” Associations with biblical themes did not arise by chance. Karelin became the silver medalist of the Olympics at the age of Christ, at 33 years old.
At the end of one of the interviews, Karelin said: “A brilliant victory with an abundance of techniques and throws demonstrates the athlete’s condition better than any words. I want everything to be said on the mat, for everything to be said by the referee’s opinion.”
After the Olympics, these words acquired some special meaning. It’s as if our hero was able to look several months ahead, into the future, or simply felt that it was the position of the judge that would be decisive in the controversial fight for gold.
I understand that all these reflections in no way claim to be absolute truth. The absolute truth is the final protocols. Statistics are devoid of emotion; the dry language of numbers best reflects the essence of what happened. True, few people want to put up with established and approved facts, with what is, in a way, an axiom and does not require much evidence other than what was done to win the highest awards. Some, in this case, want to feel sorry for the person, others want to speculate and earn certain dividends on this, and others set themselves some other goals that only they understand. Even trying to formulate my thoughts is not constructive. Any of these manifestations are salt in the wound. Losing Olympic gold is already a big blow. Remarque wrote that memory is a beast that can devour us. Even if you have the will to throw unnecessary memories out of your head, negative emotions and unpleasant associations will fill your dreams like ballast. This could drive you crazy. One way or another, memory forces me to replay the same episode in my head. It turned out that to turn the world upside down and throw it out of balance, it didn’t take much time, just a few seconds, a movement that was elusive to the eyes of the referees, was enough.
Much has been written and said about the fact that Karelin brought popularity, love and respect of hundreds of thousands of fans to modern wrestling. Most spectators attended tournaments only to see his signature “reverse belt”. And what Gardner brings to the fight is, in principle, not important, Gardner is already in history, he is the winner of the Olympics, and that says it all. Naturally, a lot will depend on the rules. Under the current regulations, the role of chance is too great. But before the Olympics, everything was much simpler and clearer, and even the zero outcome of the match did not create a problem for identifying the strongest. This happened in 1998 in Sweden, when our Alexander Tretyakov became world champion. He won because his opponent had more criticism for being passive in the fight. However, in the pre-Olympic 1999, the rules were changed and a mandatory cross grip, or simply “cross,” was introduced. Associations with scenes from the New Testament, when 33-year-old Jesus was crucified on the cross, haunt me. It is clear that the wrestling mat is not Golgotha, and making such comparisons would anger God, but in our history there is also a 33-year-old Hero, there is a “cross” that played its fatal role.
A similar situation with the “cross” already happened in Sofia at the European Championships-99, in a fight with Dmitry Debelka. The day before, on the night from Thursday to Friday, I had a dream, a very bad dream, I saw a fight, but for some unknown reason, Karelin’s opponent’s hand was raised. The worst premonitions almost came true. According to the rules that existed then, if during regular time none of the opponents scored three winning points, the opponents, after overtime, were again put into a cross grip. In the first “cross” Debelka took a 1:0 lead, and in the second he tried to throw with a deflection. He was so close to becoming the author of a sensation, but he fussed, and Karelin calmly carried out a counter-technique - covering - and pressed his opponent to the carpet with his shoulder blades. This is how he himself remembers that fight:
Yes, I remember that fight, leaving the mat, feeling some kind of lethargy, realizing that only a miracle helped to avoid embarrassment. Fortunately, I figured it out later. In the semi-finals I met with the Italian Giuseppe Giunta and pulled him out to the “reverse”. It seems that he didn’t really like it, because at the World Championships in Athens, in the same 1999, in the subgroup, he simply refused the fight, went out onto the mat and shook hands. It turned out like in Vladimir Vysotsky’s song about boxers, “And the hand that I didn’t hit was raised by the referee.” It was amazing to watch him during the warm-up; usually, before the fight, many opponents were afraid to look him in the eye and turned away. And Giuseppe walked calmly, with his head held high and smiling. I realized what the reason was when I entered the fight.
- And in the final of the Olympics, in the final of the competition for which I was preparing, I lost - I didn’t have enough emotions.
And this was clearly visible, even in short news stories that showed fragments of preliminary fights with Karelin’s participation. There was no smile on his face when he defeated his main rivals in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals. The usual joy was not visible...
What was there to be happy about when the Millennium Olympics started out very badly for the Russian team? In Sydney, fortune turned away from many of our athletes, who are favorites in their disciplines. Alexander Popov (swimming, silver), Andrey Chemerkin (weightlifting, bronze), failure of gymnasts in team events. It seemed that the probability of their success was 100 percent; therefore, the temptation was great to try on the mantle of an oracle and seer. The journalist brothers were especially guilty of this. In any case, they were not losers, since the defeat of a recognized leader was a sensation, rich food for thought and fertile ground for speculation. Maybe our stars have simply been jinxed?
I still see this fight in my dreams, says Alexander Karelin. Like a huge ink blot, it covered with a dark purple spot all the good things that happened during my 19 years of Greco-Roman wrestling. However, I also have pleasant memories associated with the Sydney Olympics. It was the first day of the wrestling tournament. After training, I relaxed in the warm-up room, just lying on the carpet with my eyes closed. I didn’t immediately understand where the sound was coming from, but I clearly heard the words of one of my favorite songs from Alexander Rosenbaum’s repertoire “Boston Waltz”: “On a carpet of yellow leaves in a simple dress, from crepe de Chine donated by the wind, an autumn waltz danced in the gateway. Boston..” This is how the president of our federation, Mikhail Gerazievich Mamiashvili, congratulated me on my birthday. It was a real surprise and one of the most memorable gifts...
The autumn of 2000 was supposed to be golden, both literally and figuratively. How many beautiful epithets have been chosen for the upcoming materials telling about winning the fourth Olympic medal. Many saw the “Olympic Autumn 2000” as “the Autumn of the Patriarch, the invincible champion of champions.” The tune “We are the champions” always sounded in my head, royally performed by the classics of rock music, the Queen quartet. However, on September 27 at 15:00 Novosibirsk time, the strings of the soul were broken and the music fell silent...
The result of the heavyweight final of the Greco-Roman wrestling competition in Sydney is not a grimace of capricious fortune, not an evil fate, not anything else. Most likely this is a new test. But not fire or water, and especially not copper pipes - this is something unidentified, but very tangible, pressing on the psyche with the force of a giant press of thousands of atmospheres.
“Looking back,” says Alexander Karelin, “it is difficult for me to determine what was done wrong in preparation for the Olympics. The conditions were normal, and at the last training camp in Vladivostok I felt that I was really at the peak of my form. I passed all my main competitors: Sergei Mureiko in the first round, then the Hungarian Mihaly Dick, Georgiy Soldadze from Ukraine and the inconvenient Belarusian Dima Debelka, but I stumbled on Gardner. Before the final, for the first time in my entire sports career, the treacherous thought of fourth gold arose as a fait accompli. It turned out that it was too early to draw a conclusion. Although I was probably luckier than my teammate, five-time world champion, bronze medalist of the Barcelona Olympics Gogi Koguashvili. Sydney 2000 was also his last Olympics and, unfortunately, the best wrestler in the world in the second half of the 90s in the weight category up to 97 kilograms was unable to win Olympic gold. Considering that in the history of Soviet classical wrestling there is a five-time world champion Viktor Mikhailovich Igumenov, who was also prevented from winning the most prestigious award in the world of big-time sports by various unpleasant circumstances. It turns out that history is going in circles? There is one episode associated with Gardner, and in particular with his coach, Olympic medalist Dan Chandler, which, it seems, did not arise by chance. At the Ivan Poddubny memorial in Podolsk, on the last day of the tournament, Chandler presented two T-shirts with the symbols of the US national Olympic team. I then thought: I should give Dan something too...
For me, as an athlete, naturally, the highest awards are three Olympic gold medals, as for a Russian - the Golden Star of the Hero of Russia, and what award can there be for the head of a family, for the father of his children. At the training camp at Seminsky, my youngest son was with me, this, of course, was contrary to the principles of preparation, but the guy was in his sixth year, in another year he will go to school and adult life... When, due to being busy at work, you come home late, when 11 months from You spend 12 years at training camps, on business trips, anyone in my place would use the opportunity to go to Altai with their children. At the beginning of the training camp, Ivan caught a cold, this caused more trouble, but, let me emphasize, it did not lead to a violation of the training regime. And today I am pleased to remember that time. After Seminsky, who saw us off with sub-zero temperatures and rain, the valley greeted us with warmth and indescribable beauty. The excursion around the Altai Mountains lasted two more days and I will be glad if my children have good memories of that trip, for me now this is of great value.
Artistic tricks, beautiful metaphors are like decorations for objective reality, they are more interesting, but sometimes they come to the fore and interfere with adequately perceiving the world around us. Ultimately, in Sydney I lost with dignity, after the final whistle I shook hands with my opponent, went to the awards ceremony and stood on the second step of the podium. I did everything that was required of me according to the unwritten laws of the world of sports. And many were surprised that I did not appear at the press conference. I had nothing to talk about there... The attitude of my family, friends, work colleagues, ordinary people whom I only know through the Internet became different, but not negative, but more caring. Hundreds of letters came to my email address, and not one of them contained any reproach, only the words: “Sasha, you are still the best!” Moreover, both our compatriots and Americans wrote. One girl, I remember, sent a drawing of a kitten as a talisman so that everything would be fine in the future. At first, these “anyway” literally killed, but time is the best healer. It was not possible to avoid unpleasant questions about the reasons for the defeat, but I cannot rationally explain why this happened. And there is no point in explaining this, since this way you can stay there forever, in September 27, 2000. The struggle taught me to work on myself, to improve, which means I need to go forward and try to do as Ostrovsky advised, so that it does not cause excruciating pain for the years spent aimlessly.”
We could put an end to this, but there is one quote from the book, without exaggeration, by the Great Man, Olympic champion Yuri Vlasov, “Fairness of Force”, a quote that sums up what may seem like a lengthy material, and clearly expresses the attitude towards to the same Great Man, our fellow countryman Alexander Karelin. These words were spoken to Vlasov by one of his most interested fans, a colleague in the sport, the American Island, after his defeat in the final of the heavyweight weightlifting competition at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and attracted attention because there is no humiliating and condescending “whatever” here. , but there is life-affirming, giving new strength, stimulating to new victories in a new quality “always”.
“For me, Yuri, you are always a hero, no matter who turns out to be the champion. Any opponent I know cannot become a champion. He can fulfill this formality - winning first place, but this will not make him a champion. A champion has an independent, great spirit. With a champion in sports there is always an era, he is always a special person, he leads everyone along the path of strength...”
K. Kruglyansky
February 2009
Karelin Alexander Alexandrovich (born in 1967) - Russian athlete (Greco-Roman wrestling), Honored Master of Sports (1988). Three-time Olympic champion (1988,1992,1996), world champion (1989-1991, 1993-1995,1997-1999) and European champion (1988-19%, 1998-2000).
Since 1988, he has been the permanent (thirteen-time) champion of the country.
Alexander Karelin was born near Novosibirsk. He began training in Greco-Roman (classical) wrestling in the section of the Novosibirsk Electrotechnical Institute in 1981. However, his sporting interests did not end there.
The boy loved to hunt, ski and swim. His first and only mentor was and remains to this day the Honored Coach of the USSR V. M. Kuznetsov.
In 1986, Karelin suffered his only defeat - he lost to world champion Igor Rastorotsky. But a year later the athlete became the world champion among youth and joined the main national team of the country.
Karelin went to the Olympics in Seoul (1988) thanks to the fact that he won the fight with two-time world champion Igor Rastorotsky. The debutant performed brilliantly, winning a gold medal.
Four years later, in Olympic Barcelona, the athlete again proved his invincibility in Greco-Roman wrestling. He finished four out of five fights ahead of schedule: in 1.5 minutes he defeated Canadian Andrew Bordow, in 2 minutes he defeated Cuban Rossel Mesa, in 15 seconds he defeated Romanian Ion Grigoras.
In the final, Karelin demonstrated his high professionalism and invincible strength to the world champion, twenty-time Swedish champion Thomas Johansson. The foreign athlete lasted no more than 2 minutes.
In 1989, Alexander won the world title for the fifth time in a row. Later, journalists found out that almost throughout the entire championship the athlete competed on the mat with a broken rib.
In 1996, at the European Championships in Budapest, he also competed with an injury (in a duel with a Belarusian wrestler, his pectoral muscle was torn off), but he never had the thought of withdrawing his candidacy from the competition.
Karelin's health was undermined; doctors strongly recommended that he not take part in the Olympics in Atlanta. But it was impossible for anyone to convince the most powerful fighter on the planet. Alexander could not stay away from the turbulent Olympic life and let his team down.
The athlete’s reward for his willpower was the victorious anthem, performed in his honor at the Olympic Atlanta (1996). In the same year, Alexander Karelin was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of Russia.
After the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000), where the athlete became a silver medalist, he decided to leave the sport.
Brief biographical dictionary
"Karelin Alexander" and other articles from the section
Sports achivments:
1996 Olympic Games - gold
1992 Olympic Games - gold
1988 Olympic Games - gold
Date of birth: 09/19/1967
Alexander Karelin began playing sports in his hometown of Novosibirsk. In 1981, he enrolled in the classical wrestling section at the Electrotechnical Institute. Karelin’s first coach, Viktor Kuznetsov, remained his only mentor for his entire sports life. In 1985, his first success came - he became the world youth champion.
Seoul 1988
In 1988, despite a concussion and high fever, Karelin became the USSR champion for the first time. For the first time he won against the leader of the USSR national team, world champion, Igor Rastorotsky. The national team's coaches were not satisfied with these results and in July 1988 an additional selection was held between the wrestlers, which was won by 21-year-old Karelin.
In the final of the Olympics in Seoul, Karelin met with the Bulgarian Rangel Gerovski. Alexander lost the first period 3:2. But in the end he won 15 seconds before the end of the fight with his favorite technique - the “reverse belt”.
1992-1996
In 1992, in the finals of the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Alexander Karelin cleanly defeated the Swedish wrestler Thomas Johansson in 19 seconds. In 1993 at the World Championships, in the first fight with American wrestler Matt Ghaffari, Karelin was injured, breaking two ribs. Despite this, he again won against the same Johansson and, as a result, again became the world champion. In Atlanta, at the 1996 Games, Karelin met Matt Gaffari in the final and left him no chance.
year 2000
In 2000, in the finals of the Olympic Games in Sydney, Karelin met with American wrestler Rulon Gardner. Both periods did not reveal a winner and, according to the new rules, the wrestlers were placed in a hold - the one who releases the opponent first loses. As a result, the American wrestler won with a score of 1:0, Karelin lost his first match in 13 years and received a silver award. After the Games in Sydney, Alexander Karelin ended his sports career.
Merits
Three-time Olympic champion in the category up to 130 kg (1988, 1992, 1996), nine-time world champion (1989-1991, 1993-1995, 1997-1999), twelve-time European champion, silver medalist of the 2000 Olympic Games, world junior champion 1988 , 13-time champion of the USSR and Russia 1988-2001. He was the standard bearer of the national team at the opening of three Olympic Games: 1988 - USSR, 1992 - CIS, 1996 - Russia.
Alexander Karelin was named the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of the 20th century by the International Amateur Wrestling Federation (FILA):
Knight of the Olympic Order "Golden Palm" (2001).
Since 1992, wrestling tournaments for Karelin prizes have been held in Russia.
Work and social activities
Alexander Karelin graduated from the Novosibirsk Motor Transport College, then from the Omsk Institute of Physical Culture. Since 1995, Alexander Karelin has been an employee of the Russian tax police. Rank: Tax Police Colonel.
Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation (1999, 2003, 2007). He was a member of the Duma Committee on Health and Sports, a member of the Commission on Geopolitics. Since 2001, member of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party.
Hero of the Russian Federation (1997), awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples (1989), Honor (2001), “For Services to the Fatherland” IV degree (2008).
Candidate (1998), Doctor (2002) of Pedagogical Sciences. Theses are devoted to sports topics.
Honorary resident of the city of Novosibirsk.
Family
Alexander Karelin dedicated all his victories to his wife Olga. His family has three children: sons Denis and Ivan, daughter Vasilisa
ESSAY ABOUT ALEXANDER KARELINA
...In 1994, a Greco-Roman wrestling match took place in Moscow between the national teams of the world and Russia. All the fights were exciting. Of particular interest was the latter, in which Alexander Karelin and the Olympic champion, three-time world champion in the weight category up to 100 kilograms, Nestor Milian (Cuba), who had moved to heavyweight, were to meet. Many foreign experts then hoped that it was Milian who would be able to interrupt the series of Karelin victories. True, at the 1994 World Championships in Tampere, Milian lost to Karelin, but this defeat did not shake the Cuban’s reputation, since then, about two and a half minutes after the start of the fight, the doctor removed him due to injury.
...Milian was the first to step onto the platform. Light and powerful, he looked like a poet: a hidden sadness shone in his eyes, which, as is commonly believed, precedes the creation of a lyrical masterpiece.
Karelin, who pretended to be jogging as he rushed to the platform, looked much more down to earth. At the same time, in his movements (as he walked, Alexander lightly raked with his huge, size 49 feet) there was some kind of terrifying playfulness...
Karelin once told the author of these lines that the first seconds of a fight immediately give him information about the enemy that is impossible to obtain in advance: whether his hands are strong, what his gaze expresses, if, of course, he looks into your eyes... But to In this way to tell about yourself, the enemy must resist. And Milian, as if obeying this wish of his enemy, at first did everything he could. However, it quickly became clear that it would not last long. When Karelin unclenched Nestor’s hands, it seemed that they, like metal losing elasticity, were about to lose the ability to return to their previous position... Karelin first “rolled” his opponent, earning two points, and then in less than two minutes - laid it on his shoulder blades, having won a clear victory...
No one could stop Karelin, who moved uncontrollably from success to success. And every time it made me wonder: what explains his amazing athletic talent? Maybe higher powers really took part in Karelin’s fate? But then events probably took place in his life that defy logical explanation...
What would we do without this? There were at least two such events. The first is that I came into this world, and the second is a meeting with Viktor Mikhailovich Kuznetsov, my only coach. The guys and I were fooling around on the street, and suddenly some young, strong man with shining blue eyes invited us to the gym. I was about thirteen years old, I knew nothing about wrestling and, of course, I could not guess that from that moment my long sports career would begin.
When he became interested in sports, it did not cause much joy among his parents, Zinaida Ivanovna and Alexander Ivanovich Karelin.
I wasn't very lucky in those years. At fifteen I broke my leg. My mother then forbade me to train and even burned my uniform. You can understand her: On the eighth of March, on Women’s Day, the guys brought her my briefcase and said: “Your son is in the hospital”... Still, I managed to “posthumously” take third place at the championship of the Novosibirsk region. Well, after that I broke my hands a couple of times. Ribs - eight times. But broken ribs for a wrestler are nonsense...
Victory did not come to me right away. I can name many wrestlers who raised me. These are Vladimir Grigoriev, Igor Rastorotsky, Nikolai Makarenko... Viktor Mikhailovich Kuznetsov says that in wrestling it is not the result that is interesting, but the process itself. Great masters helped me experience this in practice. True, there were moments when, while training with them, I left the mat in tears, feeling completely powerless.
In 1987, in the final of the USSR Championship, Alexander Karelin lost to two-time world champion Igor Rastorotsky with a score of 0:1. Their next fight took place only in January 1988 in Tbilisi, where the next national championship was held. Shortly before this, Karelin received a concussion, so serious that, at the insistence of doctors, they even wanted to remove the 19-year-old athlete from the Olympic team. But he still went out onto the carpet. And he managed to win against his main opponent cleanly, by touch, using two of his signature moves. But even after this, the dispute between them was not over.
They told me: “You are only nineteen. Wait. Let Igor fight, and when he’s finished, you’ll take his place.” Added to this were the tricks of the behind-the-scenes struggle... All this exhausted me. But I couldn’t come to terms with the title of second.
A month and a half before the 1988 Olympics, Karelin and Rastorotsky went to Romania together to finally find out who is who here, on a neutral site.
I walked onto the carpet, probably, with the same feeling with which gladiators entered the circus arena. All the obstacles that I had to overcome were concentrated for me in one single person. There were only he and I in the whole wide world... The score was small - 2:0, but, according to experts, my victory was convincing. That’s when, for the first time in my life, I threw my hands up and performed something like a dance...
An incredible emotional uplift was necessary for Karelin, who very strictly controls his emotions, to allow himself such freedom. After all, even having gained worldwide fame, he always, if possible, tried to remain unnoticed. Here's just one example. Before the Champions Ball, held in 1993 in Moscow, Karelin, together with his friend swimmer Evgeniy Sadov, watched as the show participants prepared for the performance. When one of the girls asked him: “Who are you? What kind of sport do you do?” Karelin, pushing his comrade forward, said: “This is three-time Olympic champion Evgeniy Sadovy, and I ... his massage therapist.”
...In the final of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Karelin was supposed to meet with the Bulgarian Rangel Gerovski. Connoisseurs preferred Karelin: firstly, he represented the leading school of wrestling, and, secondly, he had already managed to loudly declare himself by winning the European Championship. However, Rangel Gerovski put yesterday's junior in his place within a second, making a throw that the judges scored three points. The wrestlers went into the break with the score 3:2 in favor of Gerovski.
Then, when I came across in books a description of the night before the execution, I could unmistakably determine whether the author was telling the truth or not, because I myself felt all this during that fight. In the second period, I frantically tried to change the course of the fight, and in my mind everything lasted and lasted “the night before the execution”... I no longer had the opportunity to try different options, and I put everything on one of my signature moves. And with 15 seconds left, my “reverse belt” worked. The wrestlers really don’t like this technique: no one likes falling from the second floor...
They raised my hand, but I felt neither joy nor satisfaction. There was a different feeling: finally the stone had fallen from my neck... When I went out into the hall, I only had enough strength to smile...
In 1992, at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, the fate of the gold award was also decided in a matter of moments. Only this time - at the very beginning of the fight... In the final fight, Alexander Karelin's opponent was the Swedish heavyweight Thomas Johansson. This fight ended in 19 seconds. But her backstory lasted much longer... In 1986, Johansson won the World Championship. His success was called triumphant, because in the final Johansson prevailed over the favorite, Vladimir Grigoriev. A few months after this, the USSR national team (including Grigoriev) went to Sweden. Karelin was 18 years old at the time, and this was his first “adult” foreign tournament.
Vladimir Grigoriev and I ended up in one subgroup, and Thomas in another. I beat Grigoriev and reached the final. And here Johansson gave me a “long-lasting” gift: supposedly due to an injury, he withdrew from the competition. I saw what happened on the carpet - there was no injury. Why did Thomas let me get to the pedestal? Apparently, only because, speaking at home, I didn’t want to take risks...
Since then, we have met with Johansson more than once, but he failed to win a single point against me. The total score is more than a hundred: zero in my favor. And this is not at all explained by the fact that I was so supernaturally good. The reason is different: I suddenly felt that, even if just a little, I was superior to Johansson. And he himself was to blame for this. The loser is not the one who missed the move, but the one who is ready to lose. The inner core that defines character, it doesn’t bend - it breaks...
At the Games in Barcelona, fate brought Karelin and Johansson together again in the final fight. Sasha tried not so much to suppress Thomas, - one of the most authoritative coaches Nikolai Yesin later said, - but to help him not lose his dignity in defeat and not get injured.
Johansson didn’t even try to oppose Karelin with anything.
“I didn’t take part in that fight,” he said after the final. - I just watched the superstar from the sidelines. It seemed that Johansson would never have the chance to win at least one point against Karelin. However, in 1993, at the World Championships in Stockholm, he was unexpectedly given such an opportunity... In the first fight, Karelin met with the American Matt Ghaffari.
After winning the first point, I tried to turn my opponent over and injured two ribs on the right side. The bottom one came off, the other one next to it broke. These ribs sank, putting pressure on the liver, so I always felt the taste of bile in my mouth. But I still won with a score of 3:0. He came out of the carpet completely confused. I lay down and the guys ran up to me: “Well, how are you?” Will you be filming?"
A German doctor helped me - we didn’t have one of our own at that time: when the Russian team was created instead of the USSR national team, for some reason they forgot about the doctor...
And twenty minutes later, Alexander Karelin was supposed to go on the mat against his main opponent, Thomas Johansson...
We went out, and Thomas beat me by one point: when I bent over, my broken ribs jammed and I couldn’t straighten up in time. But then I managed to pull Johansson into the reverse belt three times and throw him. The score became 12:1. Well, the rest of the fights went more or less smoothly. There were no fireworks. I gained points little by little. Didn't go wild. And in the final, Serezha Mureiko from Moldova was beaten cleanly. The ribs took a long time to grow together. For two and a half months I could neither wrestle nor lift weights, I could not even run. And it was also difficult for me to breathe deeply.
After that World Championship, Johansson said that Karelin deliberately misled everyone: you can’t fight with broken ribs like that.
And three years later, at the European Championships, Karelin again misled everyone. He then suffered a severe injury - his pectoralis major muscle was torn off and a huge hematoma weighing about one and a half kilograms formed, which essentially deprived him of the ability to use his right arm. It would seem that he had no business even thinking about performing in Budapest. However, sports doctor Valery Sergeevich Okhapkin said that Karelin can go on the mat and that he takes full responsibility for any consequences of this step. And Karelin accomplished the impossible - in the full sense, he won the European Championship with his left hand. There, in Budapest, he underwent an operation that lasted two hours.
The best Hungarian orthopedists told me then: “In about nine months you will probably be able to lift a glass with your right hand.” But Valery Sergeevich had a different opinion on this matter. He came to me in Novosibirsk and for the month and a half that remained before the Olympics in Atlanta, he treated and restored me, performing up to nine procedures a day. In those days, he created a new technique that made it possible to quickly restore the health of an athlete after a serious injury. He himself, however, never talks about this. But I always remember that he extended my sports career by at least five years...
In Atlanta, Karelin was again opposed by Matt Gaffari, who, as many thought, now nothing could stop him from taking revenge. But it seemed so only before the start of the fight, which brought Karelin his third Olympic gold...
For thirteen years, Alexander Karelin did not know defeat, but he probably felt that his “rainy day” was approaching.
I often feel like a kind of stuffed bear, the main attraction of a street photographer. Everyone wants to film with me, they let their wives down, they put their children on me... I don’t mind. This is also popularity. And if my photograph is printed somewhere, this will increase the likelihood that, say, at Sheremetyevo airport a policeman will not stop me and ask why this bald, healthy guy is hanging out here. On the contrary, he can come up and ask: “Listen, wasn’t it your photograph that I saw there and there?” But I understand that all this is fleeting. Tomorrow I will step off the platform - that’s all. The spotlights and microphones will turn off, and even if I really want to enter the beam of light again, I will not be able to...
It seems that Karelin’s amazing intuition told him in advance when and how this would happen. And maybe that’s why, before his fourth (!) Olympiad, Alexander, who by that time had become a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the Unity party (he was one of the top three - the face of the party, which, strictly speaking, was not a party ), instead of completely concentrating on sports, he became involved, and seriously, in political activities...
In 2000, at the Sydney Olympics, Alexander Karelin lost to the American Rulon Gardner with a score of 0:1: having grabbed his opponent, Sasha suddenly unclenched his embrace for a moment, and this, according to the new rules introduced shortly before the Olympics, brought Gardner the victorious point. But why, after all, Karelin, even in the extra three minutes, could not beat the American, whom no one considered his main competitor? Karelin himself later said that he “didn’t have enough emotions.”
You feel as if you are covered in a web. And indifference sets in, or something. Yes, indifference to everything. And nothing can be done about it. Sometimes you lie down and it seems like your heart isn’t beating. And the worst thing is when you suddenly realize that you don’t want anything anymore...
After the Games in Sydney, Karelin did not have the slightest desire to justify himself, explaining his defeat for one reason or another. Experts remembered that at the last national championship, which opened nine months before the Olympics, Alexander competed with a temperature of about forty and that shortly before the Games he suffered a costal arch injury and suffered complications from the flu...
Why did I lose in Sydney? There are, of course, plenty of explanations. And we can list them endlessly, but what happened should be judged by the result. No matter what I say today, it still won’t make me the first... Well, any excuses only humiliate me. About three years have passed since that defeat, but even today this is still a living topic. Just recently I became convinced of this again. At the invitation of the President of Kabardino-Balkaria, I was flying to Nalchik, and a man approached me at Domodedovo airport. “Karelin?”, he asked, looking at me. - “Karelin.” - "Don't be upset. I’ve already forgiven you for the heart attack I had after Sydney.”
For me, the defeat in Australia was a very big shock, which I could not cope with for a long time, although I was preparing for the Games in Sydney as my last Olympics... When I arrived home, for some reason I completely forgot about my sports bag, which contained the Olympic equipment. I took it apart only a year and a half later, when I suddenly needed it for some reason...
There have been a lot of events in my life in recent years. But behind their whirlwind, I cannot forget about what happened in Sydney. Even today people come up to me who dreamed that I would win, and who cannot get used to the fact that I lost. What can I answer them? Only one thing: “Sorry,” because I disappointed their expectations. A good friend of mine once told me: “In ten minutes of the final fight, you, Sasha, turned from a fighter into a playwright.” I asked, “Why?” - “Because I made half of Russia cry” And this, of course, is difficult to forgive yourself.
I hope that in five years the pain will go away. It helps me a lot that my fans have not lost their good attitude towards me - I constantly hear words of sympathy and support, and I am very pleased that many still see me first of all as an athlete, and only then as a member of the parliament of the Russian Federation.
Now I rarely have the opportunity to come to the hall, because I am in Moscow almost all the time, with the exception of those weeks when I work in the district, host a reception, meet with voters and local leadership. Now it has become much easier: there is no responsibility that I always felt when playing for the national team. Back then, I very often dreamed of hard workouts, and even in my dreams I heard the ringing of the barbell... Now I fight only for myself. I don’t go to all these fitness clubs - the texture is not the same. I can only come to my wrestling gym... And if I see that heavyweights are training there, I always ask: “Who wants to try the deputy’s body?” And such attempts happen, but so far they have not brought success to anyone. Now I don’t see that anyone has any special desire to fight me.
I train twice a week. I run “ten” three times a week. If this is not possible, I exercise on an exercise bike.
I thought a lot about what my current position is among my brothers in wrestling. I don’t remember who suggested that struggle is a doctrine of life and that the one who is involved in the struggle is either an active fighter or just a fighter. So I am a fighter, and I will always remain one.
I want Russia to be a self-sufficient country. And I never forget that Russia is not only Moscow, it is the regions. I am outraged when I hear discussions about the “electorally unattractive part of the Russian population,” that is, about those thirty million Russians who live beyond the Urals.
The main wealth of our country is not raw materials, but people. In the Novosibirsk region, for example, there are no special natural resources with the exception of forests and a recently discovered oil field in the North, but we have three academic campuses and about a hundred different institutes - educational and research.
Unfortunately, my way of thinking and acting is not very suitable for what I do today. I’m used to deciding everything myself and at once, but the work of deputies - lawmaking - is a collective matter.
Recently, one young girl, having learned that I would not run for another term, asked: “How will you grow?” In her opinion, you can only grow in the following way: if today you are a Duma deputy, then tomorrow you should become a member of the Federation Council, and the day after tomorrow - a minister or a senior official in the presidential administration. But is it really impossible to grow in some other way? By supporting, for example, the best initiatives in your small homeland and creating something viable there...
This is not a complete list of titles and titles of A.A. Karelina: Honored Master of Sports in Greco-Roman wrestling, four-time champion of the USSR (1988-1991), champion of the CIS in 1992, eight-time champion of Russia (1993-2000), champion of the Olympic Games in Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta ( 1996), silver medalist at the Sydney Olympics (2000), twelve-time European champion (1988-1996 and 1998-2000), nine-time world champion (1989-1991, 1993-1995 and 1997-1999). State awards: Gold Star of the Hero of Russia, Order of Friendship and Honor. Sports awards: Olympic Order “Golden Palm”, Golden Order of FILA (International Wrestling Federation), Golden Belt of the strongest wrestler on the planet. Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Colonel of the Tax Police, Deputy of the State Duma of Russia.
One could put an end to these facts. However... When preparing material about Alexander Alexandrovich Karelin, the editors expected to tell not only about the amazing sports path of this great athlete, who became one of the symbols of the power of the nation, its hero, both in the epic and in the official sense of the word - Hero of Russia. I wanted to feel and convey to the reader his emotions, human preferences, and reveal the nuances of character. We had to use the interview genre, which is not typical for our publication and is more suitable for the magazine, but therefore no less informative.
Have you ever turned to God with the words: “Lord, forgive me, a sinner...”
The fact that we are all sinners is a truth that does not require proof. But as for me, I have not yet reached the age when a person begins to doubt everything, including the rightness of his actions. I cannot say that I am a true believer, because I am young, ardent and sometimes even unbridled in my manifestations. However, from my own experience I know that confession really gives peace of mind. It is necessary to take communion and confess, but not at all in order to demonstrate to someone that you are a real Russian, and therefore you know what snow is, wear a hat with earflaps made of wild animal fur, and even go to church, without forgetting , take off this hat of yours... I think that many more years will pass before visiting temples becomes an urgent need for us. But we must strive to find it, and this will ultimately help us...
One day, when I was in seventh grade, he and I had an argument. And he said: “A real man must be physically strong, have his own view on everything and have a strong character. Well, he should cut his hair short.” Since then I have been going “bald”, although I have naturally curly hair and once even had a Cossack forelock.
Is your father a Cossack?
No. He is a Siberian peasant. I worked as a driver all my life...
Probably the most important words Karelin Sr. said to his son in Sydney, immediately after the final fight.
My father then came to the Olympics for the first time and called his mother twice a day, telling her about everything. And so, when I, unable to restrain myself, cried before the award ceremony, my father came up to me and uttered words that, if they were smoothed out a little, sounded something like this: “Son, why are you so different? All this is vanity of vanities and useless languor of the spirit. You are alive, and we are all alive. Calm down. And spit on what happened to you here.” I, of course, did not expect that my father, a driver with thirty years of experience and a former amateur boxer, would, as a consolation, quote the words of one of the Greek sages about the useless languor of the spirit...
The coach of the Russian Greco-Roman wrestling team, Shamil Khisamutdinov, did not quote Karelin. “Sanya,” he said, “four years ago, in Atlanta, only you from our entire team managed to win gold.” And this year the boys have your back. Yes, you stumbled, but this time, after losing in Atlanta in the team competition, we again became the strongest team of the Games. And this happened largely due to the fact that during all four pre-Olympic years you remained on the team and were an example of dedication and self-discipline for everyone. And the fact that our young masters Murat Kardanov and Varteres Samurgashev mined “gold” in Sydney is also your merit”...
Tell me, if you could erase this defeat from your life, would you do it?
No. This defeat is part of my life and I cannot give it up. When the Games had just ended, there was talk that, they say, I needed to help - to challenge the judge’s decision, contribute some money somewhere and ensure that I, too, was awarded a gold medal. Yes, I would never accept her. Such help is not only unnecessary, it is insulting.
...In one of my first meetings with Karelin, when I spoke to him, I did not recognize my voice: it became quiet and thin. Karelin, listening to my slurred words, smiled encouragingly, apparently having long been accustomed to the fact that people get lost in conversation with him.
If I knew Karelin better then, I would have tried to quickly cope with my “vocal insufficiency” so as not to offend the famous athlete, who, despite his fantastic power, is very vulnerable. But who would think that your voice, distorted beyond recognition, and your amazed, frightened look could touch a super-champion?
One day I finally decided to ask him:
Does your appearance bother you?
No. Everything has its time. To be understood, you have to wait.
Are you used to people getting confused when they meet you?
It's hard to get used to this. But sometimes it happens differently: I myself feel confused when I see how some people perceive me. So, for example, it happened in Sweden, where I met a wrestling lover. After the end of the competition, she, clearly under her boss, came into our locker room. She looked at me and said (her words were translated for me): “You know, in the movie “Rocky 4” I was struck by one of the characters - the Russian boxer Ivan Draga. I used to think that the filmmakers deliberately chose a scarier actor for this role in order to scare the audience with Russians. But now, having seen you, I realized that you are all like that.”
We sat with her and laughed. This Swede really made me laugh, because the “terrible Russian” was played by the Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren in that film.
- Well, how do you feel about your appearance? - I asked Sasha.
- Fine. “When I shave, I don’t faint,” Karelin answered me in all seriousness, making me wonder who he was making fun of when telling this story: at his Swedish fan, at himself, and maybe at everyone who sees him as “scary.” Russian"? I think that Karelin himself doesn’t care much about all this - he has a beautiful wife and three children - Denis, Vanya and a very little Vasilisa.
Karelin does not like to talk about her family life. When I tried to ask about this, I answered like this:
- My loved ones, of course, suffer from the fact that I have so much to do. After all, I haven’t moved a step away from the Wrestling Federation - I constantly communicate with my comrades, and if my work schedule allows it, I go to various competitions, including, of course, the Karelin Prize tournaments, which I have been holding since 1991 .
Unfortunately, because of all this, my children most often see me not at home, but on the TV screen. The eldest Denis is already accustomed to the fact that if dad doesn’t walk around the house in the morning, it means he’s already left, because all our flights are in the morning...
The famous English fairy tale says that a pig's home is his castle. These words can also be applied to me. Next to my family, I don't have to fear anything. Be completely open, be yourself. I think that I have some use in family life: I hammer nails normally and love to cook, especially fish. True, the fish must be good...
In one of the American magazines, I once read about Karelin’s “secrets”, that he enjoys running through the taiga in winter, falling waist-deep in snow. Well, maybe, I thought, there is still some truth in this Russian cranberry?
Tell me, have you ever shot at a bear?
Here in Siberia we hunt differently. With a piece of plywood and a hammer. Are you familiar with this method?
No…
You pick up a bear, it stands on its hind legs, roars and comes at you.
???
You present the plywood to him, he punches it with his claws, and you carefully bend them with a hammer. All. The bear is yours.
In general, I manage to go hunting no more than once a year. True, the ardor of a breadwinner, which I inherited from my ancestors, fades away after the first shots. I don’t hunt because I’m obsessed with the desire to track down, for example, a deer and kill it. Hunting is time spent searching, winter huts in the taiga, fires... And this is the greatest pleasure you can have in life - communicating with people you know well. And, finally, this indescribable feeling of kinship with your ancestors, who in time immemorial also passed through these places.
What comes to mind now when you think about these hikes?
Blue water, cedars, a fire... A light frost only enhances the smell of pine needles, and the smoke of a fire gives everything a feeling of being lived in. Here, near Novosibirsk, the earth smells special, and the water glows at night...
Probably many would like to become your friends. And for you, if you meet someone, does it matter whether this person is rich or not?
It doesn't, of course. But you always want good people to also have money.
What don't you like about yourself?
Much. But most of all - suspiciousness.
Are you afraid of anything?
Heights, probably. I hate looking down from a skyscraper window. And I am also very afraid of insincerity. If, say, you treat a person well, then you want him to respond to you in kind. But sometimes it happens that, before determining his line of behavior towards you, he begins to evaluate your connections and opportunities, wondering whether this is beneficial for him or not.
Siberians - in everything they do - have a special measuredness and restraint. Not because they are frozen, no. These people became like this because their inner essence was formed under the influence of Siberia, its vast spaces, its scale, which protect you from the danger of overestimating yourself, exaggerating the significance of what you have done.
Once, for example, I read in one central newspaper that Karelin supposedly has a luxurious mansion with a guest house and a huge marble swimming pool. After that, I started building a pool in my yard. True, not marble... Otherwise, I think some people who read that article will come to me, but I don’t have a pool...
Since when did you start working in the tax police?
Since 1995.
What attracted you to this job?
Our main task is to predict and promptly identify crimes against the state related to tax evasion. When I arrived, the tax police were just being created, and it was very interesting for me to participate in all this.
About ten years ago, Karelin said that he would like to become a lawyer. In response, I noted that this desire is unlikely to be realized, since it is probably impossible to both compete in top-ranking tournaments and study legal sciences..
To come to terms with this means to betray yourself. What if at sixty years old, when you remember your old dreams, you feel ashamed? After all, you did not learn what you should have learned during the time that was allotted to you. No, it’s better if it’s difficult for me now... I didn’t give up my desire, but only because of my weakness of character I gave myself a reprieve. I'm not convinced, however, that my attempt - if I decide to do it - will be successful. But then at least I can say: I tried, but it didn’t work...
While working on my dissertation, I simultaneously managed to graduate from the University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and receive a diploma in law.
One should not admire Karelin’s extraordinary versatility in his presence: in such words Alexander always seems to hear a condescending whisper: “Wow, he’s an athlete, but he can also do something, like all normal people.” But in a conversation with him it is not difficult to find out that he loves English and American literature and knows Dostoevsky very well; if he especially likes an author, he always tries to get hold of his biography in order to superimpose the events of the writer’s life onto his works, like tracing paper.
The famous film director Steven Spielberg said in one of his interviews that the duty of an artist is to understand himself as best as possible in order to become himself. In addition, he noted that if he assessed himself the same way as the audience, he would have long ago lost the ability to create something new and would constantly imitate the “great Spielberg.” Well, since sport is very close to art, I would like to ask you: have you already gotten the feeling that you have become yourself?
Sometimes it happens. But I'm still just at the beginning of my journey. I also like Spielberg’s statement about the audience. If I looked at myself the same way my fans look at me, then I would probably swell with self-satisfaction every time they show me their delight.
How are your relationships with those you meet in the corridors of power?
Today I can go anywhere in jeans and a sweater. And for me this is a kind of test to check whether I am interesting today as a person for my interlocutors. If, before some reception, they make it clear to me that I definitely need to wear a suit and tie, this will mean that no one needs me, on my own...
Which figure of Russian history is closest to you?
Stolypin. He did not wait for the country to warm up to his ideas. He was not shy about talking about what was unpopular. I have read two of his biographies and am currently studying the third. Pyotr Arkadyevich said a lot and anticipated a lot. And, in particular, he showed how to talk to the Duma...
If only it were possible to find a book that would answer all the questions... But there is none, so you have to read a lot, maybe even too much. True, you get knowledge about life not only from books. For example, I have always been lucky to find interesting and kind people who amazed me with their sincerity. And this is probably the most attractive feature of Russians.
When does your soul feel especially good?
When I am surrounded by normal people without any special creases or kinks. I like a calm, measured life, when you can, for example, just come to a cafe and, sitting with a cup of coffee, read a newspaper. I would like those who surround me to also be confident in their future: it is difficult to live among people who are constantly tormented by fears. I want everyone to feel warm. Only then can we talk about simple, everyday happiness.
Three-time Olympic champion Alexander Karelin officially recognized by the International Federation struggle best wrestler Greco-Roman 20th century style.
For me, only one place matters - the first one,” Karelin once said. - And the second or tenth - it doesn’t matter. This is a defeat.
“The only thing I confess I regretted,” says the champion’s coach Kuznetsov, “is that Karelin never, in my memory, used all his power in fights. I used to ask him: “Sasha, make a “reverse belt” for me personally.” This is his signature and my favorite move: when you throw your opponent over your back onto the mat from the height of your own height. And he always felt sorry for those who fight with him. After all, a throw is always humiliation for a partner.”
Karelin was born on September 19, 1967 near Novosibirsk. His father worked as a dump truck driver, his mother was an employee. Both are of large build. Sasha was born weighing five kilograms! Since childhood, tall beyond his years, he hunted, dashingly skied, and went swimming. But he took up wrestling only at the age of thirteen, when he was head and shoulders taller than his father. And it’s not a fact yet - Karelin would have become a wrestler if it weren’t for the first and only coach - Viktor Kuznetsov. At the age of fifteen, Sasha suffered a broken leg at a youth competition. But it was after this serious injury that he made the final choice in favor of classical wrestling.
In 1986, Karelin suffered his first defeat, losing to world champion Igor Rastorotsky - 0:1. Until 2000, it remained the only one. A year later, Alexander becomes the world champion among youth and joins the main national team.
“I first saw Karelin in Moscow, at a training camp in the Olympic Village two years before the Games in Seoul,” recalls Seoul Olympic champion Mikhail Mamiashvili. “The guys and I were sitting in the dining room and talking when he came in and stopped at the door. He looked big, awkward and very young. And he clearly didn’t know what to do with his own hands. But I was shocked by something else - the Karelian look. It was the look of a man who knows absolutely exactly what he wants. At that time, Karelin was just approaching the adult national team. But already in the Olympic year it was clear to me that he had come to the team for a long time.”
There were not so many supporters of Karelin competing as a heavyweight at the Games in Seoul. Then two-time world champion Igor Rastorotsky rightfully claimed the leading role in the team. But Rastorotsky lost the qualifying USSR championship. However, he was given a chance: the question of who exactly would go to Seoul was to be decided in a specially organized tournament.
Perhaps it was then that Karelin himself understood and formulated for himself the basic truth: “Life gives everyone a chance. It’s important that you yourself are prepared for this.” Karelin won the last qualifying fight with Rastorotsky.
And in Seoul, when the inevitable question arose within the team about who would carry the team banner at the opening ceremony of the Games, Mamiashvili proposed the candidacy of a debutant. That was a definite risk. It has long been the custom to entrust the banner to those whose victory at the Games did not raise the slightest doubt among others.
Mamiashvili, the then captain of the wrestling team, explained why he named Karelin: “When Sasha fought with Rastorotsky - that very decisive fight - few knew that his hand was seriously injured - a bone was cracked. I saw him struggle. And I realized that if to win in Seoul you need to die on the mat, Karelin will die, but will not lose.”
In Seoul, in the final, Alexander still lost one point to the Pole Grabovsky in thirty seconds, but in the end he won.
Four years later in Barcelona, Karelin was again the standard-bearer, having also replaced Mamiashvili as team captain. True, the banner was different - white - of the United Team. However, paradoxically, our team has probably never been more united. For themselves, they were still, albeit for the last time, one team.
In four out of five fights, Karelin won ahead of schedule: in one and a half minutes he sent Canadian Andrew Borodow to rest, and in just over two minutes he sent Cuban Rossel Mesa to rest. It took Romanian Ion Grigoras 15 seconds. In the final, the world champion, twenty-time champion of Sweden, Thomas Johansson, lasted no longer than the Canadian wrestler. And only Finn Juhu Ahokas Karelin won on points.
“When I stood on the pedestal,” Karelin recalled, “what I wanted most in my life was to hear the Soviet anthem. We grew up on it. And a new generation should grow up listening to new anthems.”
A year after the Games in Barcelona, Karelin became world champion for the fifth time in a row. And only after the team returned from Stockholm to Moscow, it became known that throughout the championship he had been struggling with a broken rib in the first fight.
That championship to some extent became historic for journalists. Longtime Karelin counterpart Johansson, who officially announced his retirement on the eve of the championship, for the first time managed to break the dry score of his fights with Karelin: in the penultimate fight, desperately trying to grab the Russian wrestler by the ribs, the Swede won back a point, which the next day became the reason for the appearance of an entire photo report in Stockholm newspapers . “Here it is, this moment!” Below it was: “And here’s what happened a little later.” 
It was better for the Swedes not to look at the rest of the pictures.
When Karelin was asked in Moscow why he did not withdraw from the competition due to injury, the answer was a blank look: “Withdraw? I'm the captain! This phrase had it all. And responsibility for his team, which is performing for the first time on the world platform under the Russian flag, and pride for the five victories it has already won at the European Championships in Istanbul, and much more, including pity for Johansson, whose holiday he, Karelin, ruined. (“I really feel sorry for him. After all, if you look at it, it’s been me who has been spoiling the blood of a good guy for the last five years.”)
True, Karelin “compensated” for the Swede’s failure. During the championship in Finland, Alexander made happy a hefty, fit man holding a child’s hand. Karelin signed the man’s T-shirts and baseball caps as he said goodbye and patted the man on the shoulder. It was Johansson!
On March 28, 1996, in Budapest, in the semi-finals of his ninth European Championship, Karelin was injured again. In a duel with Belarusian wrestler Vasily Dibelko, his pectoralis major muscle was torn off. The injury could not even be numbed - the muscle had torn off right under the shoulder joint, and the risk of affecting the nerve endings was too great. Karelin categorically refused to withdraw from the tournament.
In addition to the usual captain’s arguments (“When you go out on the mat, fight”), there was one more: his wife Olga was watching Karelin from the stands. Then he will say: “It’s very hard to fight when they look at you like that.” And only after putting Olga on the plane did Karelin go to the hospital.
After the operation, which lasted almost three hours (only one and a half liters of blood were pumped out of the hematoma), leading Hungarian surgeon Istvan Berkes said that Karelin would be able to train fully in two months. There were just over three months left before the Games in Atlanta.
Karelin weighed the pros and cons of continuing to fight for a very long time. He asked that details of the operation not be published for at least a couple of months. And so that the scar is not too big. The surgeons who operated on Alexander, Berkes and Attila Pavlik, kept their word. And after the Games, congratulations were sent to Karelin from Hungary on behalf of all the hospital staff: they say, with such a scale of the gap, no one could even imagine that he would participate at all.
The final fight of the heavyweights at the 1996 Olympics was scary. Karelin's rival, Iranian-American Matt Ghaffari, was raging. The stands went wild: more than anything else, they actually dreamed of seeing an American in the final. Music from the famous “Rocky 4” was going wild under the vaults. There was only one person in the hall who was absolutely calm and had no right to lose. Including because he was the one who carried the banner of the Russian team on the opening day of the Games.
When the fight ended with a score of 1:0, Karelin remained standing on the mat. And there was not even a shadow of a smile on his face.
He once came into wrestling desperately dreaming of becoming a world champion. And in Atlanta he said: “All the world championships taken together are not worth the Olympic Games.” 
After the Games in Atlanta, in an interview, the outstanding actor Yuri Nikulin, speaking about Karelin, remarked: “What I especially like as a former clown is that he has sad eyes.”
At the ceremony in the St. George's Hall of the Kremlin, when he was awarded the star of the Hero of Russia, Karelin, seeing Nikulin among those present, asked to be introduced to them and thanked him for the kind words.
“You don’t live that long in sports,” San Sanych once joked sadly to himself. - Why did I dream of performing in Atlanta? The guys on the team got it: they say that Belarus has its own three-time Olympic champion - Alexander Medved, but Russia does not. This is wrong. But in general, I believe that a person, be it an athlete or a coach, should have the right to leave. He fulfilled the contract and doesn’t owe anyone anything. It just doesn't work. Take Mamiashvili - he’s a terrible fanatic, the whole team relies on him. How will I leave him? And most importantly, there is simply no one to take my place yet.”
Karelin set a record - his goal was victory in Sydney 2000. Alexander carried out his last test at the European Championships in Moscow and, as always, won. The championship was interesting because Karelin acted as a “playing” deputy. In December 1999, he was elected to the Russian State Duma. Alexander Alexandrovich became a member of the State Duma Committee on Health and Sports.
Karelin's team name is shorter - San Sanych. Mamiashvili says:
I don’t even remember exactly when they started calling Karelin that way. I myself have been calling him by his first name and patronymic both to his face and behind his back for about six years. How else can we emphasize the degree of respect for him?
Until the final of his fourth Olympics, Alexander advanced as confidently as always. Many Russian fans, athletes, and officials gathered on September 27 in the wrestling hall, anticipating a new triumph for the Russian hero. Alas, Karelin did not win. The fate was decided by one point awarded by the judges to the American wrestler Gardner. According to many, it is unfair. Karelin did not look for excuses for poor refereeing: “I didn’t win. That means he lost. Well, the American grabbed me by the legs. So what? I've been hooked all my life. All this talk is in favor of the poor. It would be easier for me to lose to mine. Anyone, but not an American. Because I consider myself a representative of the strongest wrestling country in the world.”
In 2002, Karelin defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences at the Academy of Physical Culture named after. Lesgaft (St. Petersburg) on the topic “Sports training of highly qualified wrestlers.”
Karelin still lives in Novosibirsk, being an honorary resident of the city. Together with his wife Olga, he is raising sons Denis and Ivan and daughter Vasilisa.
“I began to be at home less,” says Karelin. - Stopped training twice a day, five days a week. There are more opportunities for creativity. However, the responsibility has also increased.
One young man asked me recently: “What are your dreams?” - "About general prosperity." “It’s not interesting to be with you,” he summed up. And I really dream that people around me will be happy. And the further you go, the more relevant the dream becomes. I understand its special relevance and necessity. Everyone should be able to work and be paid adequately for their work. Adequate by civilized, not Russian standards. Now, if the level of wages in our country becomes the same as in highly developed countries, the level of crime and everything else that is bad will simply be insignificant. When this happens, prosperity will come.”
Karelin Alexander Alexandrovich(1967) – famous Russian wrestler (Greco-Roman), Karelin A.A.- master of sports, three-time Olympic champion (1988, 1992, 1996), nine-time world champion, twelve-time European champion and thirteen-time national champion.
Alexander Karelin was born on September 19, 1967, weighing 5 kg near Novosibirsk in the family of a driver and an employee. Since childhood, Alexander respected sports: he skied, hunted, and swam skillfully. Only at the age of 13 he began training in the Greco-Roman wrestling section where Viktor Kuznetsov became his only coach. At the age of 15, Karelin broke his leg at youth competitions, but this was the turning point in choosing this sport as his main one.
In 1984, Alexander became a Master of Sports of the USSR, and in 1985, a Master of Sports of international class. Since 1986 he joined the USSR national team.
Alexander Karelin suffered his only defeat to world heavyweight champion Igor Rastorotsky, but a year after that he became the world champion in the youth team.
When selecting a participant for the 1988 Olympics, debutant Karelin was selected through a tough selection process. Until the last moment, there were two candidates: two-time world champion Igor Rastorotsky and participant only in youth competitions Alexander Karelin.
Everything was decided by the last fight between these two athletes. Karelin was also asked to carry the country’s banner, although before this incident only honored athletes were appointed as standard bearers. Karelin won and in Seoul he also performed brilliantly, taking gold.
Four years later, in 1992, at the Barcelona Olympics, Karelin brilliantly completed all sparring sessions. Almost all the fights were won by him ahead of schedule in less than 2 minutes. Karelin beat only one athlete from Finland on points. And again victory and again gold.
A year after the Olympics in Barelona, Alexander received the world champion title for the fifth time, especially during the entire championship, Karelin fought with a broken rib, showing his determination and perseverance.
During a fight at the European Championships in Budapest, Karelin’s pectoral muscle was torn off, but he not only finished all the fights, but also accompanied his wife to the airport and only after finishing all his business went to the hospital. The injury was so serious that doctors forbade Karelin to train for 2 months, and no more than 3.5 months remained before the start of the Olympics in Atlanta. Alexander decided to hide the seriousness of the surgery, continued to train and had a great time at his third Olympics, and also received the “Golden Star” of the Hero of Russia.
In 1999, Karelin became a deputy of the State Duma and a member of the group on health and sports. And at the last Olympic Games in Sydney (2000), he already acted as a “playing” deputy. His participation brought him silver.
After this Olympics, Karelin decided to leave the sport.
In addition to his sporting achievements, Karelin is also developed spiritually, being a Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences - a dissertation on the topic “Sports training of highly qualified wrestlers”, on whose scientific works more than one generation of athletes has grown up.
Currently, the athlete lives in Novosibirsk and is raising three children with his wife Olga.
Achievements of Alexander Karelin:
3-time Olympic champion in Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta
silver medalist at the Sydney Olympics
9-time world champion
12-time European champion
13-time Russian champion
Dates from the biography of Alexander Karelin:
September 19, 1967 born near Novosibirsk
1981 began training in Greco-Roman wrestling
1986 Lost once to world champion Igor Rastoretsky
1989 Competing for the world title with a broken rib.
1996 - a serious injury to the pectoral muscle, which could have put an end to his sports career.
1996 At the Atlanta Olympics he became a three-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling.
1999 became a deputy of the State Duma and a member of the health and sports faction.
In 2000, at the Sydney Olympics, he was a silver medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling and ended his sports career.
became a deputy of the State Duma three times - 1999, 2003 and 2007, since 1999 adviser to President V.V. Putin. in physical education and sports.
Interesting facts about Alexander Karelin:
He repeatedly struggled with injuries that damaged his arms and legs, but always continued to fight to the end.
At the 1962 FIFA World Cup, in a game with Uruguay, Netto, being the captain of the USSR national team, asked not to count an unfairly obtained goal, for which he received the respect of those around him. Karelin’s candidate and doctoral dissertations became the basis for training young wrestlers to conduct effective combat.
When Karelin is asked what he dreams about, his answer is “about general prosperity.”
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