Vakhonin Alexey Biography

Tokyo Summer Olympic Games Men 56 KG Snatch Alexei Vakhonin - Biography Alexei Vakhonin - a well -known weightlifter, winner of the union, European and world competitions in weightlifting. The winner of the Olympiad of the year. Now, only those who are directly related to heavy athletics know the name of the Soviet Seedgist Alexei Makhonin. And in the 10th years of the last century, he was almost a national hero, his name was the "miracle-stangist." After he won the Olympics of the year in Tokyo, he learned the whole world about him.

After all, he did not just defeat his opponent, also laughed at him. With a bar raised above his head, he managed to raise one leg, and so continued to hold the weight. Vakhonin became a real star, an idol for many boys, but could not stand the test of glory. He left the sport at the peak of popularity, indulging his bad habits. And he died from a wound inflicted by the closest person - a son.

Childhood and youth was born Alexei Kunov The real name of the weightlifter on March 10 of the year in the village of Gavrilovka near Kemerovo. Some sources report that the boy’s father died at the front, but this does not correspond to the truth. Alexey was born from a Czech named Kuno, one of the prisoners who found themselves in Siberia after the end of the First World War.

Alyosha was unlucky to be born in a large family, where seven more children grew up in addition to him. He found out early what hunger and physical ailments are. Since childhood, the boy was weak and very painful. He did not go to four years old, just crawled, at home in winter, in the summer - in the yard. Once he was attacked by a pig, his relatives rescued him.

And then, with the help of the local doctor, the mother managed to put her son on her feet. Aleksey Vakhonin in his youth, the boy threw the school early, had to look for a job, since only mother remained of the breadwinners. Father died early. The boy quickly rolled on an inclined plane, at eight years he began to smoke, at thirteen - to drink. Together with the same boys, Alexei participated in brawls, became a permanent “client” in the local police station.

The local district police officer tried to reason the guy, said that a little more, and he would be in prison. Perhaps, from Kunov, an average rural hard worker would have turned out, “plowing” during the day, and in the evenings applied to the bottle if he had not hit the field of view of the heavy athletics coach Ivan Zhukov. It was Zhukov who managed to consider in this low growth of the whole cm, a radical guy sports makings, helped him leave the village and settle in the district center of Guryevsk.

The coach began to deal with the guy, Kunov was pulling weights and a bar, and also gradually got used to order and discipline. A new life carried Alexei. He was sent to regional competitions, and he returned from there the winner. The coach considered him the ascending heavy athletics star, however, so far a local scale. The sports career in the year Alexei Kunov attracted the attention of another famous person - Rudolf Plusfelder, the future Olympic champion.

He took patronage over a talented guy, and did not regret his act. Rudolf told Alexei that it was necessary to engage in self -education, work out every little thing, daily, persistently, up to the seventh sweat. And he promised to provide Kunov with all kinds of support. The results of a young athlete became better, and soon he outgrown the local level, went to the national one.

He came out the winner in the weight category up to 56 kg. Aleksey Vakhonin at the competition just before leaving for the mines, Alexei arranged his personal life, married and switched to the surname of his wife. Their family life did not set, the couple broke up, but he remained on her name Vakhonin, under which the whole world recognized him. It turns out that his real surname -Kunov caused the ridicule of peers, and Alexei always complex about this.

In the mines, Rudolf helped Alexei get a job, as he had the necessary skills. In addition, physical labor helped the young man be in excellent sports form, and took enough time, preventing him from mourning in bad habits. The coach was well aware that sometimes his student allows himself alcohol. This addiction was shared by the new wife - Zinaida. Vakhonin often violated the regime, but so far it has not affected his career.

In M, he again became the champion of the Soviet Union, and now he was prepared for international competitions. A year later, Vakhonin won the European Championship and the world championship. Now completely different prospects were opened before him - the Olympic Games of the year in Tokyo. Alexei Vakhonin was considered the favorite of the Olympic Games. Only Imre Feldy, a weightlifter from Hungary, was considered a serious contender for Olympic gold.

Alexei Vakhonin raises the bar in the m years, the weightlifters competed in Troeoborye - bench press, jerk, push. The athlete had three attempts to take a bar in each of these types, and the weightlifter chose the weight himself. There were not a single free space left on the stands of the Japanese hall of Sibuya.After each of the athletes was performed by bench press and a jerk, the fans decided that the Olympic gold would take Hungarian home.

Vakhonin lagged behind the opponent 2.5 kilograms. To win, he needed to cope with a huge weight - 5 kg. Moreover, the Soviet weightlifter had the last attempt. No one believed in the Soviet athlete, the team of Hungarian weightlifting was already preparing to celebrate the victory. Eyewitnesses recalled that going to the platform, Alexei said one phrase: “X .. Vakhonin easily coped with the right weight, became a world record holder both in the push and in the three -shirts.

However, this was not caused by the shock of those present. When the attempt was already recorded by judges, Alexei, with a bar raised above his head, managed to bend in his knee and raise his left leg. Like a real circus, he uttered one word-“HO-PA”. In the publication of British journalist Neil Allen is a description of this moment. He said that at that time Vakhonin's eyes almost got out of the orbits, his face began to have a bugrive, but he lifted the bar and held the bar.

And then the face of the shoulder player became normal. The next morning, all the world media published this photo, and called Vakhonin a “miracle-stangist”. The mayor of Tokyo was so struck by the act of the Soviet athlete that he decided to personally congratulate him on a well -deserved victory.

Alexei Vakhonin with a medal home, the Seedgist returned to a real star. He was accepted in the government of the Soviet Union in Moscow. From Alexei Kosygin, the then chairman of the Council of Ministers, the athlete heard many good words, a long conversation on the topic of sports and life took place between them. Alexei was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor, a prize, and gave a warrant from a spacious, new apartment in the city center of the mine.

Now Alexei no longer needed, he dressed well, ate deliciously. There were always delicacies in the refrigerator of the bar. Almost every evening, feasts were arranged at home, with several dozens of invited, Vakhonin no longer counted every penny, wasolating money left and right. It seemed that his sports career was in his prime, and he did not have worthy opponents.

They may be familiar.