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Paralympic athlete Elena Galkina was born with a congenital defect — underdeveloped fingers of both hands. Her mother abandoned her immediately after learning about the terrible diagnosis. In the orphanage, the teachers beat and humiliated the girl, and later sent her to a psychoneurological boarding school. So they tried to deprive the ward of the apartment provided by law. Bullying also came from the personal trainer. These events more than once forced the future athlete to think about suicide.
However, Galkina did not withdraw into herself, did not become embittered, and remained human. Already in her mature years, the girl found her real mother. The two-time medalist of the world cycling championships decided to talk about the most terrible moments of her life in an interview with Sport.
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“I have had a lot of stress and anxiety since childhood,” Elena admitted. “Because I was embarrassed to show my hands and was very worried about it.” Now I’m embarrassed to talk on camera, I immediately start shaking. When I was born, my mother abandoned me. I ended up in an orphanage. The teachers bullied us and beat us very painfully. Sometimes they didn’t even let me go to the toilet. Naturally, we went for ourselves, after which we received again.”
В At the age of three or four, the girl was forced to wash dishes and make beds. They hit her on the wrist if she did something wrong. Moreover, all the beds had to be made. Galkina jokes that she simply coped better than others, so the teachers always entrusted it to her.
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“When I moved to another boarding school, I thought that the torment was over. But everything continued there. The teachers hit them on the arms or back with whatever they had to — their hands, a stick, a jump rope, a whip, a belt buckle. I already knew what the pain was from (with a sad smile). I am still very afraid of water. Because they twisted my hands more than once and drowned me in cold water in the bathroom,” recalls the athlete.
Galkina lived with children from first to fifth grades. The night teacher told them: “You can’t go to the toilet, I’ll beat you.” If the children did ask, the woman would pour several buckets of water on the floor in the bedroom and force them to clean it up. Those who couldn't cope were beaten by high school students. According to Elena, one of her friends still has not recovered from that stress.
— Were you humiliated because of your defect?I couldn’t even go out to eat with them. They looked at me and called me names. It was a shame, so I told the counselors that I wouldn’t show up in the dining room.
— Mom abandoned you?
“She left me right away.” At the age of 18 I found her address. She recognized me and said: “What do you want? I won’t register you, I don’t need you.” I say: “I’m not asking for anything, I wanted to see your eyes and talk. If you don’t want to communicate, don’t.” We still don’t communicate, just like with my brother. We met with my father, but I never called him dad, I just couldn’t turn my tongue. .jpg» />
— How did you meet your second mother?
I liked that they treated me very kindly. We became friends, I consider her my mother. The one who raised. Raisa Nikolaevna Bodrova. She stood up for me in many situations and gave me a lot in everyday life.
— At what age did you meet?
— I was already 26-27 years old then. I told her: “If we had met a little earlier, it would have been much better.” And I do everything for her. I would try for my own mother, but since I didn’t have one, I want to give her unspent kindness. Raisa Nikolaevna is now 75 years old, we have quite a serious difference (Elena is 44 years old — editor's note).
She is very proud, even too much. It can be difficult with her. But I’m also stubborn and still take my own. Under no circumstances will I ever leave her, no matter how bad it gets. Because I love you very much.
— What happened when you graduated from boarding school?
— Because they didn’t want to give me the apartment required by law, they put me in another one. At first they wanted to send me to a boarding school where disabled people in wheelchairs live, and then they transferred me to a psychoneurological institution. This is «16th», located in the Kolomenskaya area. When I saw how the teachers there treated sick children and adults, I began to feel stressed again. There were moments when I just wanted to commit suicide. There were strong hysterics, everything was shaking. I just wanted to get drunk and hang myself.
The head doctor, after refusing to eat, said: “We will stuff you with pills or feed you through a tube.” And the bullying came as a shock to me. There is a sick person lying who cannot do anything, a vegetable, as many call it. If he wet himself, the nurse would wrap this sheet around his head and start beating him.
I wanted to do the same in response. But the girls said: “Lena, don’t interfere, if you interfere, then you’ll be ruined. They’ll stuff you with pills, you’ll become just like a vegetable.”
She refused people who offered to help. They would have left and they would have beaten me worse. If patients are silent, they have good reasons for it. If you want to help, do it cunningly so that your superiors don’t find out.
—You were checked by various social commissions, couldn’t they really help?
— Those gifts that sponsors brought were selected by teachers and educators and taken home or for sale. And when they came to check the commission, they were told that everything was fine. And I wanted to shout: “Why are you coming if they tell you lies?” At first we said that we were being beaten. They were surprised: “How is it, they’re beating?”
— How did you manage to knock out the apartment?
— Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov then issued an order to issue warrants for apartments to all healthy patients in psychoneurological boarding schools. They didn’t want to give it to me either, there were problems, but my mother helped me through various authorities. She told me: “Lena, when they give you an apartment, take it right away. Yes, you can look at three apartments, but if you refuse, then they may not offer it.”
Dali on Kolomenskaya. I didn’t want this, because I spent my life there in a boarding school, where they beat me and stuffed me with pills. Later the resentment went away a little. My mother and I were delighted and together we immediately furnished the apartment. She taught me to live correctly.
Boarding school children do not know how to cook or communicate normally. Nobody ever told us about this. Mom slowly suggested. This is the best, I really appreciate it. If they only help you with money, then you won’t learn anything, but will start to become impudent.
— Do you have any pleasant memories from the boarding school?— Yes, we went to camps and to Christmas parties. All my friends are like sisters now. Not everything was bad, some good things happened. But we were given almost no knowledge and were not prepared for adult life. Many then immediately sold their apartments and became homeless. If my real mother had not taught me how to live, I don’t know what would happen to me now.
— It turns out that you have been living in a stressful state for more than 40 years?
—You still have dreams about cruelty and humiliation. This stress can no longer be removed. But, to be honest, I’m very glad that I didn’t become cruel. But many of our guys later ended up in prisons or mental hospitals. This is how life raised us.
It’s good that I managed to be cunning and avoid injections. I asked a friend, what does it feel like when they inject you with four cubes in a psychoneurological clinic? She replied that your legs are paralyzed, your tongue is knotted, you sleep all the time and don’t remember anything. And it’s great that I didn’t drink myself to death. Because when I first came to this boarding school, at the age of 20, I started drinking vodka. When you see these abuses of defenseless people, children, grandmothers, you get stressed, you want to get drunk and commit suicide.
In the children's boarding school, girls are also raped. These could be teachers and high school students. But they do everything so that no one knows about it. I was lucky, it passed.
— Were you really that close to suicide?
—When I came to boarding school No. 16, yes. But something clicked in my head and stopped me. I am afraid of death, maybe because of this I managed to hold on. After everything that happened, I just wanted to live.
— How did you get into sports?
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— Since childhood I loved to ride a bicycle, I taught myself. Like ice skating, roller skating, playing badminton and table tennis. I learned to sew and knit, although it’s difficult for me, it’s hard to work with two fingers.
One day I came to a bike shop, where I met the current coach, Alexander Lagutin. This was in 2015. He suggested taking up paracycling. I answered that I wanted to, but didn’t call for a long time — I thought they were deceiving me again.
Then he contacted me, and I came to the cycling track. I liked it, but I was embarrassed to practice because everyone would see my hands. We trained with Sasha so much that one day I said to myself: “I’m shaking all over, everything hurts, but do I even need this?” But I decided to go through the pain to the end.
— When did the first serious results come?
— In 2017, she won four gold medals at the Russian Championship. My first personal trainer (not Lagutin) helped me compete more often. Gradually I became less shy with my hands, and things started to work out. I told the coach that I wanted to win again and again, there was a lot of adrenaline in my blood.
— What were your impressions after the first international starts?
— In Holland, during a road race, I took a bad turn and fell hard. The bike broke down, but she still made it to the finish line. I didn’t like the behavior of the coach, who began to scold and insult me. I believe that if an athlete falls at the first world championship, this cannot be done to him. I cried, I was stressed, and he just didn’t care.
We didn’t talk for a long time because he didn’t even apologize. Alexander, on the contrary, supported me. He said: “It’s okay, this is the first time this happens to many people.” I felt a little better.
—Why didn’t you leave the first coach right away?
“I endured it because I got used to humiliation at the boarding school.” It seemed to me that you could wipe your feet on me. I suffered, but he gave me something, I respected him. Yes, he humiliated me, but she appreciated him for some kind of good. And he continued to insult and insult him, the guys on the team saw it.
— How long did you put up with him—three years?
— About seven years. I didn’t like it when he could say in front of everyone: “You fool, you hesitated to sit here, get out.” And I respected and loved him. He sometimes had such paternal manifestations that made you feel warm. But patience always comes to an end. One day I realized that it was no longer worth communicating with him.
I broke off the relationship after he had a favorite athlete. In front of her, he began to insult me even worse. Then I found out that the bicycle that was given to me at the school where I am enrolled was sold. He said that the Moscow team does not allocate anything to us. Like, give me the money, I’ll buy the necessary parts and spare parts. I gave, and later it turned out that the organization supplied everything I needed. Just meanness.
Sasha supported me at that moment, now we are working with him. I am grateful to him, Nikita Nagnibedov, Ksenia Dzneladze. After all, they together bought me a new modern bicycle — it flies like a rocket.
— How much does this cost?
— This is the best equipment in the world. Italian, costs more than a million rubles. I am very grateful to these people, they gave me the opportunity to race well and quickly.
When they talk about successes, I answer: “This is Sasha, his merit.” He does everything for athletes, and sometimes buys spare parts with his own money. I'm even ready to deprive myself. And the former one took everything and gave it to his favorite athlete. He still owes me money, I bailed him out more than once, but now he won’t give me back. I forgot that I had to return it.
— You performed in Italy this year, how were your relations with foreigners after the start of the SVO? Have you ever felt sideways glances at you?
— No, in Italy they generally treat us well. There are a lot of people from Russia there, and ordinary Italians have a great attitude towards us. After all, conflict is created by politicians, while ordinary people are peaceful. In Italy we were greeted very warmly, saying: “Oh, Russia! Oh, Moscow.”
—Not so long ago, a colleague on the Russian national team, Svetlana Moshkovich, decided to play for the Austrian team. How do you rate her step?
“I took Svetlana’s decision absolutely calmly. Every person has the right to choose. If she is comfortable there, if she lives in Austria, then why not? I don’t think that she is a traitor to her homeland and a traitor. Each of us can live where our heart tells us. After all, she has found a loved one, she is comfortable.
— Have you been offered to change your citizenship?
— I love my homeland. But I don’t know how the situation might develop until it happens. I had no such offers. And I understood why Russia is strong. No matter how they treat us, we always try to win through incredible work. How strong a character must our person have in order to win in such conditions. It is our Russian stubbornness that helps us win in sports.
— Why didn’t you manage to get to the Paralympic Games in Tokyo?
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— I was supposed to participate, but I didn’t get in, because the former coach doesn’t know how to build relationships with people. It does not help high-performing athletes make it onto the Olympic team. The fact that you send everyone left and right will not make your ward feel any better. That’s why I wasn’t accepted to the Paralympics.
— Were there any chances of successfully performing in Tokyo?
— Yes, I prepared very hard, but as a result, I got another stress.
— Do we have the opportunity to compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games?
— I think so. The most important thing for me now is to relieve stress. We worked with the coach for seven years, and then he just left me. I don’t know when the stress will go away. I think that with Sasha’s help anything is possible. I am sure that at the Paralympic Games in Paris I can get into the top three.
— What would you say to boys and girls with physical disabilities who would like to come to sports, but are shy—If they started playing sports, then they must go to the end. Shyness will disappear over time when you are surrounded by people who will believe and help you. You have to try everything.