The bitter fate of oblivion can touch even the one who was once adored by the whole world. Five-time Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Polina Astakhova, known to her contemporaries as Russian birch, died in 2005 in her apartment in Kyiv in poverty and obscurity. Sports tells how this became possible.
The future star was born in 1936 in Dnepropetrovsk. Difficult pre-war childhood and unbearable military years: Polina and her family changed several places of residence in the evacuation. Hunger and deprivation had a bad effect on a rather active child — by the time she moved to Stalino (now Donetsk) in 1951, the girl was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Complications went to her feet, Polina almost stopped walking.
It's paradoxical, but it was the Donetsk climate that did her good. Or systematic sports activities helped — both sports and rhythmic gymnastics. She was coached by Vladimir and Zoya Smirnov. Three years later, the sickly teenager turned into a resounding athlete — Polina Astakhova competed at the USSR Championship for the first time.Australian Melbourne, 1956 — the first Olympic Games, from where Astakhova, the youngest in the team, brought two medals at once — team gold and bronze in group exercises with the apparatus. Larisa Latynina then reigned in the personal all-around. Nevertheless, at the next two Olympics, Astakhova took two gold medals in the exercises on the uneven bars. Her other strong point is floor exercises. In this type of program, she twice became the silver medalist of the Olympic Games.
In total, Polina Astakhova won five Olympic gold, two silver and three bronze medals in her career. She became a three-time world champion and a four-time European champion. The Russian birch was supposed to go to another Olympics, but a fatal accident intervened. During the qualification, the gymnast suddenly lost consciousness. Turned out to be a heart attack. Astakhova was so stubborn that she did not withdraw from the competition and even won a ticket to the Games, but subsequent health problems forced her to end her career. Since 1972, Polina Grigorievna began to coach the Ukrainian national team. Analyzing why the new generation of athletes «live» on the platform much less, Astakhova said this:
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“Everyone has become great pragmatists: it’s enough to win one Olympics to sell yourself so profitably, as we never dreamed of even after three Olympic tournaments. records of «sports longevity». I can only envy them in a good way. If then I had the opportunities of current athletes, even after Rome I would have left for the West and would have lived there like a white man. «
The bitter words of Astakhova and the well-read resentment against the reality in which she had to exist have their own reason. It is now the state that supports its best athletes, and Olympic success can be monetized. Many Soviet athletes remained out of work, despite numerous merits, and after the collapse of the USSR, everything was completely confused. It was necessary to somehow get out, which was not possible for everyone.
Polina Astakhova spent her whole life in a small apartment in Kyiv, which she was given after the first gold at the Games. She received a penny pension, which was not enough for anything. In order to buy expensive medicines for asthma and other diseases, as well as pay rent and somehow eat, she had to sell one after another her sports awards, as well as furniture and clothes. Once she turned to the authorities with a request to provide her with financial assistance, but, having received a refusal, she did not ask anyone else for anything. In 2005, Astakhova died — the organization and financing of the funeral was taken over by the president of the Shakhtar football club, Rinat Akhmetov.One can only guess about the real reasons for ignoring Astakhova by sports officials. Was it the result of simple slovenliness or hardheartedness, or in the power of the country of that time, someone came up with the idea of denying the Olympic champion because of her Russian nickname. In any case, in her latest interview for Sport-Express, Polina Grigorievna made just such an assumption.
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«For you to know, Russian birch in Ukraine is not very good now. Even rather bad. Boris Shakhlin, who lives not far from me, was more fortunate in this sense: he went down in the history of gymnastics as Zhelezny. A neutral nickname that can be used both in Africa and at the North Pole. «
The image of Polina Astakhova in the years of her popularity was placed on a postage stamp, adorned the Ogonyok magazine and even inspired painters to paint. She was applauded by the main persons of different countries, and ordinary viewers were glued to rare television screens to see with their own eyes the grace of the Russian birch.