At the end of a dizzying sports career, Irina worked in the Central Committee of the Komsomol, as a coach, teacher, radio host, and was engaged in social and state activities.
At the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the sports star, the guests tried to find out from her the mysterious secret of the eternal youth of Macropolus, which Irina probably knows, because she still remains a young soul, has an active life position, full of strength, positive and soulfulness. She herself took the serious date as her usual highest score of 6:0.
Childhood of Irina Rodnina
The future legendary figure skater was born in Moscow on September 12, 1949 in the family of a soldier and a nurse. My father was from the Vologda village of Yanino, my mother was from Ukraine. To improve the health of her daughter, who had had pneumonia 11 times by the age of five, her relatives chose ice skating. 
At first, they took their child to the skating rink in the Taganka Children's Park. N.N. Pryamikova, then - to the garden. Zhdanov in Sormovo. Irina's first teacher was Yakov Smushkin, who himself competed in figure skating at that time. Under his guidance, she mastered the technique of sliding, the first spirals, jumps, spins and other mandatory elements on ice.
The girl became physically stronger and fell in love with skates. Having successfully passed the preview, the diligent and capable student entered CSKA. At first she was a single skater, later she skated with Oleg Vlasov.
The beginning of the career of Irina Rodnina
In 1964, Stanislav Zhuk became the mentor of the 15-year-old athlete, and Alexey Ulanov became a partner. After 2 years, they already successfully performed at international competitions. In 1969, at the European Championships in Germany, the skaters became winners, despite the fact that they arrived at the tournament without their coach, because his trip abroad was banned. 
At the World Championships, after 5 years, they again became the first, having earned the approval, in the form of the maximum score, from all the judges. The next year turned out to be less successful for the athletes - mistakes were made at the national championship. But, thanks to the brilliant performance of the free part of the program, they retained their leadership.
In subsequent years, the couple continued to be the undisputed leader, in 1972 she won the gold of the Olympics in Sapporo.
On the eve of the 1972 World Cup in Canada, during training, Irina fell from high support. She suffered a serious head injury but showed real courage by performing despite being unwell and winning first place.
However, after the incident, the couple broke up - according to rumors, Ulanov allegedly deliberately dropped his partner, as he was married to Lyudmila Smirnova and wanted to perform with her, which he did later.
Sports career of Irina Rodnina after injury
Having recovered from the injury, Irina began performing with a new partner, Alexander Zaitsev from Leningrad. The figure skater noted the amazing feeling of reliability of the partner, and the judges - the unity of their actions and amazing consistency. At the European Championship in 1973, they won, beating, by the way, a pair of Smirnov-Ulanov.Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev - Kalinka-Malinka
At the World Championships of the same year, the Rodnina-Zaitsev pair were again in the lead. Moreover, they skated in extreme conditions - in the middle of the performance, the musical accompaniment was turned off for technical reasons.
Irina Rodnina and Tatyana Tarasova
In 1974, the skater graduated from the State Central Institute of Physical Education. In October, the star couple had a coach change. There were several versions of what happened - from the growth of the independence of the athlete to the unwillingness to endure the behavior of Stanislav Zhuk. 
Together with the new mentor Tatyana Tarasova, who brought more creative imagination to the performance of the masters, Rodnina and Zaitsev won the 1975 World Cup.
At the Olympics a year later, they again won gold medals. Season 1978-79 the skaters missed it due to family reasons: in February 1979, their son was born.
But soon the couple began training again. Irina's third Olympic victory in 1980 was especially memorable and touched by the audience, because of the tears that she could not hold back during the performance of the USSR anthem at the medal ceremony.
Career coach Irina Rodnina
After finishing the performances, the athlete for some time was an employee of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, was busy with coaching and teaching activities. 
In the period from 1990 to 2002, at the invitation of the International Figure Skating Center, Irina worked in the USA. There she, despite the personal problems associated with a divorce from her second husband, managed to gain a reputation as a brilliant specialist. This circumstance became especially evident when her pupils - Kovarzhikova-Navotny - became world champions.
Returning to Moscow, the figure skater took part in various television programs, was active in social activities - she was a member of the presidium of the League of Health of the Nation, the head of the All-Russian Voluntary Society Sports Russia. 
In 2003 and a year later, Irina tried to become a deputy of the State Duma, but was defeated in the elections. Two years later, she took a seat in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.
In 2007, Irina became a deputy of the State Duma of the 5th convocation from United Russia, taking the position of deputy chairman of the education committee. After another 4 years, she again became a member of the State Duma, becoming a member of the Committee on CIS Affairs.
Personal life of Irina Rodnina
For the first time, Irina Rodnina married her figure skating partner Alexander Zaitsev. Since 1972, they began to train together, and after winning the 1975 World Championship, the young people got married. Moreover, even US television came to the grandiose wedding of athletes. 
In their marriage on February 23, 1979, Alexander Jr. was born. He is an artist. Until 1997, he lived and worked in the United States, and then returned to Moscow. In 2008, he gave his famous parents a granddaughter Sofia.
Together, Irina and Alexander lived for 8 years and maintained friendly relations. But the couple divorced after the end of their sports career. Everyone had their own plans for the future.
Irina's second husband was Leonid Minkovsky, an entrepreneur from Dnepropetrovsk, a film producer. They had a daughter, Alena, in 1986. She is not married. Lives in Washington, DC, works as a correspondent.
The couple moved to the USA, because in Russia there was no work for Irina after the decree, and in America she was able to train new “champions”.
Irina noted in an interview that, living in America with her husband and two children, she constantly experienced a lack of communication, language and culture. A few years after the move, the couple broke up. As stated in some media, the husband went to her friend.
The athlete is included in the Guinness Book of Records as a figure skater who has never lost in international competitions. Rodnina has many awards, including the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, "For Merit to the Fatherland."
Earlier, Rodnina noted that she did not plan to marry again. However, not so long ago, her friendship with the doctor Pavel Niderman grew into a strong feeling.
Irina Rodnina today
In 2010, the famous and most famous figure skater in the world, according to a VTsIOM survey, entered the Top 10 idols of the twentieth century in the Russian Federation - simultaneously with such outstanding personalities as Gagarin, Solzhenitsyn, Vysotsky. 
She holds the position of a member of the Council for Physical Culture and Sports under the head of state, oversees a number of sports projects.
Working in the State Duma, she is engaged in children's and youth sports, leads many specialized projects, making trips to all corners of Russia. In 2013, she opened the season at the Omsk Ice Palace named after her, where Omsk residents from three years of age train.
She often appears on television, in particular, in the programs “My Hero”, the film “Irina Rodnina. Invincible ”, created using newsreels from her personal archives, as a captain, together with Lev Leshchenko, Vladimir Zhirinovsky insulted Rodnina during a speech and, instead of an apology, left (along with members of his party) the hall. The reason for this behavior, his associates consider the unacceptable remarks of the athlete, which she allegedly allows to be released to the deputies speaking on the parliamentary rostrum, sitting in the front row. Irina Konstantinovna replied that “rudeness” should be punished, so she filed a complaint with the State Duma Commission on Ethics.
A few days earlier, one of the readers of my articles and a conference participant asked if I had read Irina Rodnina's new book “A Tear of a Champion” and, if so, what I thought of it. I honestly answered that I had not read either this or previous books by the named author.
Literally a few hours later, another conference participant sent me a book in electronic form, for which I am eternally grateful to her. For the next three days I read this book and for another three days I reread it, making notes. After that, the fingers reached for the pen and, not finding it, climbed onto the keyboard.
I want to immediately warn the reader that my attitude towards Irina Rodnina is by no means unambiguous. As a figure skater, using whom Stanislav Zhuk settled scores with the "Leningrad school" in the faces of Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov and turned pair skating from an art into a craft, I have no special respect. Although, of course, Irina and Alexei Ulanov became not even pioneers, but pioneer leaders other style of pair skating, sports. As a courageous person, extremely industrious and, to the extent possible, independent - with great sympathy. I also liked Irina a little as a woman, and for almost forty years I have had a few of them at the side. Like a cunning woman who deftly let out a champion's crocodile tear while raising the Soviet flag and shouting out slogans like: “I dedicate my record to you, Party!” - with distrust.
Not so long ago I read a funny story on the Internet: a six-year-old girl, in tears, angrily shouts to her four-year-old brother: “Give me the candy, it's not yours! I already ate yours!“ Isn’t it written with Rodnina?
But athletes with an angelic character do not become Olympic champions, and, moreover, three-time ones, so a positive attitude towards Rodnina prevails. Therefore, in the review of her new book, Tear of a Champion, I will try to be as objective as possible.
I'll start, perhaps, with the publishing nonsense called Abstract: Irina Rodnina, according to a VTsIOM poll in 2010, was included in the top ten idols of the 20th century in Russia - along with Gagarin, Vysotsky, Zhukov, Solzhenitsyn ... We have many great athletes, but people have not yet rated any of them so highly.
Some kind of pagan cult of idols and idols from Perun, Semargl, Veles and company. The Christian religion clearly teaches: Do not make yourself an idol.
Where, one might ask, is Partyarch Gundyaev looking? Yes, and VTsIOM, apparently, is revealed as the “All-Russian Center distortion public opinion." This is not surprising, considering how the search site describes the tasks of this organization: “Research conducted as part of a monthly survey on a representative sample of the Russian population aged 18 years and older. Information about the level of fame parties, party leaders, etc.“
It was not Rodnina who wrote this, and it is not worth attributing this stupidest populization to her account. Read on.
The first words of the author - I wrote an honest book, so it's tough. Anyone who knows me well will not be surprised. I never gossiped about anyone behind the eyes and always spoke directly“. These words of Irina I am ready to confirm almost completely. "Almost" because the second chapter immediately unsettled me.
Mom without a name, without a patronymic, without a nationality
The chapter is called "Mom, Dad, Valya and I" and begins like this: " My father, Konstantin Nikolaevich Rodnin, is from Vologda. More precisely, from the village of Yanino, located right under Vologda. Now it is already absorbed by the city. When I was very young, they took me there to my grandmother. My father's sister, Aunt Nadya, still lives there…. And first of all, Valya, because she is the eldest ...“.
Neither here nor elsewhere in the book does Irina's mother have a first name, patronymic, or maiden name, and is referred to everywhere exclusively as "mother."
Irochka Rodnina
Photo spletnik.ru
It is only known that she comes from Ukraine, cooks well, is musical and studied medicine. Dad has a full name, sister Valya and even Aunt Nadia have names, but mom doesn’t. What was the great figure skater embarrassed to tell about her mother? For what sins before her daughter her mother even died nameless - I quote: “Just a few weeks before the putsch, my mother died”. Grandmother and other relatives from my mother's side (Ira went to visit them in Ukraine) also remained in the book without family and tribe.
I thought for a long time and the only thing that came to my mind was lines from a song by Alexander Galich: “Here he writes in his biography - Russian, / True, pure, at least stand on display. / And he was born, by the way, in Bobruisk / And my grandmother’s last name is Katz!”
I do not presume to condemn the true, pure, Russian athlete of peasant origin, Irina Rodnina, for the fact that in Soviet times she carefully concealed her, as it was called then, "disability of the fifth group." Many Jews and half-Jews were written as Russians not out of a sense of anti-Semitism, but simply out of fear. Everyone knew perfectly well that it was almost impossible for a Jew or Jewess to break through to the very top, and they were allowed to go abroad only in the most exceptional cases. I also knew this, so on December 4, 1971, for the first and last time, I left the USSR without a passport and without citizenship, but with a one-way visa “for permanent residence in the State of Israel.”
I know many athletes, including figure skaters, who hide the "Jewish flaw" in their biographies. I remember how quite a long time ago, in 2000, in the article “Jews sew not only liveries” (about Jewish athletes), I called one charming figure skater Jewish. At the next championship, she appeared with a cross around her neck and proudly told me: “I am Russian!” She is still listed as Russian. Only Natalya Bestemyanova revealed her secret in an autobiographical book. But what prevented Rodnina from naming her mother by name and patronymic? in 2010, and how the fact of the cover-up fits in with her assurance that the book is honest? Let's leave the answer to this question on the conscience of the author. *)
Further reading of the book surprised me with illiteracy in writing names and titles. Here are some examples:
Coach Samson Glyazer, known to the entire older generation of skaters, is called Glaizer, figure skaters Yulia and Ardo Rennik are called Reiniki, coach Gennady Ackerman is Ackerman, the world-famous dance coach Igor Shpilband is called Shpilman, and no less than Shpilband, but the infamous Alla Shekhovtsova is called Shakhnovskaya.
The only students of Rodnina who have reached the European and world level are Radka Kovazhikova and Rene Novotny. In one place of the book they are Radka Kovarikova and Rene Novotny, in another they are Radka Kovarzhikova and Rene Novotny. As if written about different people.
There are no less errors in American names and titles.
The American figure skater Linda Fratienne was changed to Frontiani by the book. The famous ice show Ice Capades is called "Ice Capets" - it's still good that it's not "Ice Pesets", otherwise the Protopopovs would be ashamed to admit that they worked in this show. The town where Rodnina worked for 10 years is called Lake Arrowhead and is written in Russian as Lake Arrowhead, and Irina writes it "Lake Aerohett", knowing that the name is translated as "Arrowhead Lake". Aero is air, arrow is Arrow. Even if we assume that Rodnina did not read books by Walter Scott as a child, did she really not learn English at least at this level in 10 years? The city of Memphis is named in the book as the capital of Arkansas. But in another book, about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, which I read as a child, Mark Twain attributes Memphis to the state of Tennessee, and I tend to believe him more, a Native American.
Of course, we must not forget that Rodnina's stable education ended in the eighth grade of a school specialized in in-depth study of the German language. Ira got the rest on the run, between training and competitions. She writes about it herself. But she didn't write the book herself!
Although to call all four spirals "todes" - that is, spirals of death- only she could, and only to humiliate her main rivals, Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov. To the "spiral of death" that existed before them, Lyudmila and Oleg came up with three more, and called them the "Spiral of Life", "Spiral of Love" and "Cosmic Spiral", which Rodnina is well aware of. Under these names, the Protopopov spirals are registered with the International Skating Union. Today, no one in the world will be able to complete all four spirals - you won’t earn levels on them. You don’t need to reach a good level, but jump.
I asked Irina, who did the literary recording of the book for her? Was this person literate enough? It turned out that it was a very competent and very famous publicist Vitaly Melik-Karamov, who made a literary record and books by Tatyana Tarasova "Beauty and the Beast", with whom he has been friends for a long time. Why, then, did he allow such a disgrace? Accidentally? I do not believe. By distraction? I will never believe. Hastily? But the manuscript lay in the publishing house for more than three years. So, in the publishing house itself, the editor of the book was a man who had never been interested in figure skating, who had never read books by foreign authors and Soviet newspapers. Or it was a person who deliberately skipped all the blunders in order to expose Rodnina in an unsightly light. Is it possible that someone asked the editor about this, about whom Irina spoke impartially in her book?
Always sins with subjectivity
In the address "From the author" Rodnina writes: “A story in the first person is always subjective. I see the situation in this way, but someone else who was involved may have a completely different view of the events I have described. I tried not to gloss over my memories, which is really very difficult. It is not easy to offend people who were around.“
I was not a participant in the events, but I was a witness to many things described in this book. I can testify that the majority of sports functionaries, starting with Piseev, deserved the characteristics given to them by Rodnina. I would even say that the same Piseev, Shekhovtsova-Shakhnovskaya and Tarasova, Irina Konstantinovna, just in case, “did not finish it”. But she writes about herself with such love and adoration that it seems: her best friend's name is not Oksana Pushkina, but Alla Velichiya. Most of all, I was amused by the lines in which Rodnina claims: Tamara Nikolaevna and Igor Borisovich Moskvins borrowed a lot from her. Did Moskvina's coaches borrow a lot from Zhuk's student and Tarasova? Fresh story....
Laughing, I remembered a similar incident. Salvador Dali wrote a memoir in which he did not speak well of his friend, Pablo Picasso. After some time, they met in Paris, and Picasso asked his friend what he had done to deserve an unflattering characterization. To which Dali calmly replied: “You see, Pablo, I wrote my memoirs not about you, but about myself.”
Rodnina also writes about herself, so there is nothing to complain about her. When a person like her is at the very top of a sports career, he gets what is called "dizzy with success." In this state, it was already difficult for Irina to distinguish a party congress (no matter which one: the CPSU, United Russia, or any other ruling party) from the congress of her own roof. Motherland, by the way, is no exception. For example, world champion Alexei Tikhonov, a very good figure skater, was modest until, due to his great physical strength, Ilya Averbukh put the most magnificent brisket and the heaviest ham of the so-called "stars" of the Russian stage, cinema and TV into Tikhonov's muscular arms. Having had enough of his fill, Alexey decided that he was an unsurpassed male, a handsome man, a talented film actor and a "star" of the first magnitude. I have already written about Evgeni Plushenko's cult of his own personality, while I am silent about Anton Sikharulidze.
It is a pity that, when listing in the “American” part of her biography the names of famous figure skaters whom she helped train at the request of their coaches, Irina did not tell about her brother and sister Stigler, American figure skaters whom she raised and herself brought to the level of world championships among juniors. Later, she seems to have given a couple to Alexander Zaitsev. I met Rodnina with the Stiglers at several tournaments, they were a very good sports couple. But most of the time, Rodnina in the USA worked not for a record, but for the cashier - like most Russian and Eastern European coaches from the USA, therefore, one should be very careful to count six American years in her professional experience as a coach in the usual Soviet sense. But the money she earned helped her raise her daughter and, especially, her son.
Rodnina returned to her homeland
Watching from the sidelines the collapse of the Soviet Union, where she was part of the nomenklatura, Rodnina realized that her future was in her past. It was time to return to Russia, where a certain category of the privileged population got a chance to earn a lot of money. But she was not going to go to the coaches, under the almost unlimited power of the same “Piseus the Permanent”, she was not going to. Having stood in California for six years on the ice, Rodnina wanted to sit down and relax. Sit down, of course, in a chair. Yes, not simple, but leading. No sooner said than done. The stages of her long journey Irina Konstantinovna mentions almost in detail in the book - the director of the "Palace of Irina Rodnina", a member of the International Olympic Committee, the chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee. Neither there, nor there, nor there, Rodnina's candidacy was supported. Despite the fact that the tough businessmen who were supposed to build the “Palace” for her assured: a luxurious office with a sign on the massive door “Director – I.K. Rodnina has already been scheduled and the additional salary will be delivered to her monthly.
Photo pedsovet.su
The returnee had the opportunity to become the president of the FFKKR, but she did not dare to climb into the painfully familiar jungle of intrigues. In the end, old connections helped her become a deputy of the State Duma and get the coveted seat in Sports Russia. The October-pioneer-Komsomol member-Communist Rodnina, as one would expect, became a member of the ruling party.
The book ends with a life-affirming line:
“Is it time to take stock? If it has come, then the main one is this: it’s too early to sum up the results.
Is this book worth reading? The answer to this question is also not clear. Those who live inside the Soviet, and after the collapse of the USSR, Russian figure skating, will not be surprised by anything. All the events and facts mentioned in it are known. But for fans of figure skating, his fans and lovers to gnaw every fried fact to the bone, the book will give a lot of interesting facts that they still either did not know or knew from rumors. And Rodnina writes from herself, that is, from the first person.
I ask only one thing. While reading, do not forget the Christian commandments, especially chapter 7 of the Gospel of Matthew: "You are not judged, that you be not judged." I informed Irina that I could not understand some passages of the new book that were absolutely not characteristic of her and would be forced to “go over them” in the review. Here is what she replied:
You have the right to write everything! For more than three years I did not give consent to the book, the contract expired, and the publishing house did IT: (((Edited by Melik-Karamov, you know, I'm not a writer :))))
Knowing Irina for almost 40 years, I believe her. Lies have never been her weapon. Maybe one of her many ill-wishers really wanted to set Rodnina up with the release of this book?
*) In the photo section of the book, mother is mentioned once by name and patronymic. Her name was Yulia Yakovlevna.
World copyright by Arthur Werner. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, printing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
Name: Irina Rodnina
Date of Birth: 12.09.1949
Age: 69 years old
Place of Birth: Moscow city, Russia
Activity: figure skater, Russian statesman and public figure
Family status: divorced
Irina Rodnina is a famous Soviet figure skater who repeatedly won the title of Olympic champion. She has a large number of victories in international figure skating competitions. We can say that it was she who raised the sport of her native country to an unprecedented height. Many fans are interested in questions not only about the sporting achievements of Irina Rodnina, but also about her personal life, as well as the nationality of the athlete. All the details about the figure skater can be found in her rich biography.
Biography
Irina was born on September 12, 1949 in Moscow. Her family was no different from many others. Parents were ordinary Soviet people. My father was a military man all his life, and my mother worked as a nurse in a hospital. It is worth noting that Irina inherited Jewish roots from her mother's side, so from an early age she showed her strong-willed character and incredible talent, which led her to success.
Irina Rodnina in childhood
From childhood, the girl was wrapped in special care, because her body often failed, and she often got sick. Therefore, in order to strengthen her immunity, doctors advised her to be outdoors more often and play sports.
At first, parents took their daughter to a children's skating rink, and they learned to skate together. Irina liked the classes so much that she wanted to take this sport seriously. After a while, the girl was enrolled in the figure skating section, where Yakov Smushkin became her first coach. Thanks to his support, Irina mastered all the essential elements of skating on ice: jumps, spins, spirals. With the help of increased physical activity, her health improved significantly.
Irina Rodnina in her youth
Therefore, Irina continued to do what she loved. Very soon she managed to get into the figure skaters section of CSKA. Until the age of 15, Rodnina practiced single skating, and then began performing with a partner, Oleg Vlasov. Since then, sport has become not only a part of her biography, but also her personal life. Some time later, Irina married her partner, Alexander Zaitsev.
The beginning of the sports path
In 1964, the athlete met her new coach. They became the honored master of sports in figure skating - Stanislav Zhuk. A few years later, Rodnina, together with her partner Alexei Ulanov, won prizes in international competitions.
In 1969, the skaters went to the European Championships in Germany. Despite some circumstances, the athletes managed to snatch a well-deserved victory from their rivals. After this performance, the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR appeared in the biography of Irina Rodnina. She had no time for her personal life, but her sports career continued to grow.
Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov
The figure skater showed excellent results in various competitions. But in 1972, Irina had to endure a serious injury. During the training, the partner could not keep Rodnina, and she fell from the support.
In the hospital, she was diagnosed with a concussion and an intracranial hematoma. But even this could not prevent the athlete from performing with dignity and representing her country at the World Championships.
With his second partner Alexander Zaitsev
Successful career
Then, in the sports biography of Irina Rodnina, a period of recovery began. And only a few months later she managed to return to the ice. Alexander Zaitsev became her new partner, thanks to whom not only her career, but also her personal life changed. Almost immediately, mutual feelings flared up between them, which were noticeable to everyone around. In addition, many judges have repeatedly noted the well-coordinated work of the skaters.
Famous ice skater
In 1973, the athletes took part in the European Championship, where they defeated the equally outstanding pair of Smirnova-Ulanov. A year later, the couple began cooperation with a professional trainer - Tatyana Tarasova. Thanks to their new mentor, Rodnina and Zaitsev won the 1975 World Championship.
Irina Rodnina with her medals
In the early 1990s, Irina moved to the USA. There she very quickly managed to gain a good reputation. In 2005, changes took place in the biography of Rodnina. Her interests were also replenished with political activities: she became a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. And two years later, Irina was elected to the State Duma of the fifth convocation from United Russia.
Personal life
The biography and personal life of Irina Rodnina has always been full of the most vivid emotions and achievements. Irina met her first husband in 1972. It was her partner in figure skating - Alexander Zaitsev. Joint training very united the guys and they began a relationship.
With first husband Alexander Zaitsev and son
After 3 years, Alexander made an offer to Irina, and they got married. In 1979, Rodnina gave birth to her first son, Alexander. Joint life ceased to suit Irina after 8 years. And, despite the fact that the couple divorced a long time ago, they maintain quite friendly relations.
With second husband and daughter
The second husband of the skater was Leonid Minkovsky. At first, relations in the family were ideal. Leonid immediately found a common language with his wife's son, and then the couple had a daughter.
After a while, Irina was offered a job in America, and she and her family moved there for two years. A year later, Rodnina began to suspect that Leonid was cheating on her, so she filed for a divorce.
Irina Rodnina Deputy of the State Duma
Not so long ago, changes took place in Irina's biography and personal life: the skater began a relationship with Pavel Niederman.
Three Olympic gold medals, ten consecutive victories at world championships, eleven gold medals at the European Championships and six champion titles in the Soviet Union - any figure skating federation in the world could be proud of such a list of achievements in 12 years. The more difficult it is to believe that all these awards belong to only one athlete from the Soviet Union - Irina Rodnina.
And it all started with a simple passion for figure skating. The story is as old as the world: a little girl, a father who taught me to ski and skate, a mother who enrolled in the figure skating section. It all started with a simple hobby - the ultimate dream was to put on skates and, with a running start, having performed some kind of pirouette, crash into a small snowdrift at the edge of an open ice rink, where little Ira learned the basics of great art.
The girl grew up. Study, which the mother continued to consider the main thing in life, gradually faded into the background. Figure skating dragged on more and more. And now Ira is already 15 years old, and she works under the strict supervision of the great Soviet coach Stanislav Zhuk.
- © Photo from wikipedia.org
© Photo Russian Look
© Photo Russian Look
© Photo Russian Look
© Photo Russian Look
© Photo Russian Look
© Photo from wikipedia.org
© Photo from wikipedia.org
© Photo Russian Look
© Photo from wikipedia.org
© Photo Russian Look
© Photo Russian Look
Pair
“All that I achieved as a single skater was to look good in free skating,” Irina Rodnina herself recalls that period in her autobiography “A Tear of a Champion”, an honest and tough book that she presented almost a year before the opening of the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.
The fate of the “queen of figure skating” could have turned out completely differently. The key moment came in 1966, when she became the winner of the union championship and a candidate for master of sports. Realizing that she had reached her ceiling as a single skater, the girl decided to try herself in pair skating and pair up with Alexander Tikhomirov. But for this it was necessary to get away from Stanislav Zhuk, who at that time devoted very little time to Irina.
The coach, having learned about the plans of his ward, began to almost beg the girl to stay with him, promising to find her a partner as soon as possible - apparently, he saw the talent, it was just that his hands did not reach to cut this still young diamond. A couple of weeks later, Zhuk offered Rodnina her first partner - Alexey Ulanov. In order to ride with Irina, Alexei had to break up his own pair - with his sister.
But the new couple quickly made itself known already in the 1967/68 season, taking third place in the championship of the Soviet Union. At their debut European Championship, Rodnina and Ulanov became only fifth - still not bad for a debut.
Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov. 1970 Photo: RIA Novosti / Moreno
Taste of victory
But from her mother, the girl inherited the character of the winner - everywhere and in everything she had to become the first. The very next year, the same third place, possibly unfair, because the points were withdrawn due to problems with the tape recorder, which played music too quickly, was followed by brilliant victories at both the European Championship and the debut World Championship. It seemed like a brilliant result.
Yes, if you do not know the further fate of the girl. From 1968 until the end of her career in 1980, Irina Rodnina won absolutely every competition she took part in - she simply did not know how to lose, she did not know how to do it. 1970 and 1971 - victories at the national, European and world championships.
And now the long-awaited 1972 comes - the debut Olympics for Rodnina, which she and Ulanov win with a clear advantage over all other couples, except for other Soviet figure skaters, Ludmila Smirnova, spouses Ulanov, and Alexey Suraykin- from them the gap was only two judicial votes.
On the podium, the winners in pair figure skating at the XI Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo: champions - Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov (USSR); silver medalists - Lyudmila Smirnova and Andrey Suraikin (USSR); bronze medalists - Manuela Gross and Uwe Kagelmann (GDR). 1972 Photo: RIA Novosti / Dmitry Donskoy
Gap
In 1972, there was also a victory at the European Championships and winning gold at the world championship, when Rodnina, who fell from support during training, had to finish the program in a semi-conscious state. Nothing - did it. But then an even bigger blow awaited her - Ulanov announced that he was leaving to ride in a pair with his wife, Lyudmila Smirnova.
Few people know, but at that moment Rodnina was ready to end her sports career - the partner’s decision hit her so hard.
Honored Coach of the USSR Stanislav Zhuk with his students Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev. 1973 Photo: RIA Novosti / Dmitry Donskoy
Only the ingenious Beetle found a way out - he invited Irina to pair up with a young skater Alexander Zaitsev, who was three years younger than his partner. But there is nothing to do - you have to agree.
And then Rodnina did not lose. In the very first season with a new partner, she leaves behind her former partner and his wife at the championships of the USSR, Europe and the world, winning gold medals. 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978 - all these years, the Rodnina-Zaitsev pair did not know defeat, proving over and over again that they are the strongest in the country, on the continent, on the entire planet.
Even the change of coach did not affect the results. In 1974, the girl was tired of the patronizing attitude from the Beetle, believing that she was already out of childhood. The beetle continued to treat his wards like children. Together with Zaitsev, Rodnina goes to the then young coach Tatyana Tarasova, not knowing then that Tatyana Anatolyevna's coaching star will eventually outshine both Zhuk and all the other mentors who worked in figure skating before her. The relationship of the couple with the coach was no longer like that of children with their father, but as between equals - partnerships.
A little later, Rodnina already in practice proves that she has become an adult - she accepts a marriage proposal from her partner Alexander Zaitsev. And in 1979, their firstborn, Alexander Alexandrovich Zaitsev, was born. Rodnina made her husband a gift for Defenders of the Fatherland Day - on February 23, as she specially guessed.
In 1979, Irina and Alexander are quite logically forced to miss the season. But by 1980, the best pair in the history of figure skating is again fully armed - this is the Olympic year. They already had one joint victory - in 1976. For Rodnina, she was the second, for Zaitsev, the first. But Irina wants the third gold of the Olympics - at that time no figure skater in the world had such a collection.
The victory at the European Championships allows you to easily qualify for the Olympic Games, where Rodnina and Zaitsev again, for the last time, had no equal - the third gold medal, which in 1998 will allow inspectors from the Guinness Book of Records to enter the name of the Soviet figure skater as a record holder for the cumulative number of victories.
Champions of the XIII Olympic Games in Lake Placid in pair skating Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev. 1980 Photo: RIA Novosti / Vladimir Sergeev
Return to the Olympics
But the 1980 Games were not the last Winter Olympics for Rodnina, where she appeared in pairs. In 2014, when she had already tried herself in the coaching field and found her place in big politics in Russia, becoming a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, she was invited to take part in the Olympic torch relay in Sochi-2014.
Together with an outstanding domestic hockey player Vladislav Tretyak Rodnina had the honor of being the last in a chain of thousands of torchbearers. From her hand, the main torch of the Olympic Games in Sochi was lit.
Vladislav Tretyak and Irina Rodnina at the Olympic cauldron lighting ceremony at the XXII Olympic Winter Games. year 2014. Photo: RIA Novosti / Matt Slocum/AP/POOL
The famous Russian figure skater, three-time Olympic champion, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
Biography of Irina Rodnina
In childhood Irina Rodnina was not in good health. The girl had pneumonia 11 times. After another illness, in order to somehow improve the health of the child, the parents brought Irina to the skating rink. It is thanks to the care and attention of parents Rodnina in her biography, she became seriously interested in figure skating. The girl was talented and diligent, so she soon ended up in the figure skating section of the CSK.
In 1974 Rodnina Graduated from the Institute of Physical Culture.
Career of Irina Rodnina
The first serious victory of the athlete came in 1963, when Irina became the third in the youth competitions of the USSR.
After Irina began to train and perform in tandem with Alexey Ulanov(coach S. Zhuk), the victories literally rained down, although they got it with serious work. In 1967 - victory in the competition "Moscow skates", twice (in 1968 and 1969) the couple became the third in the USSR championship. Take first place at the European Championships in the biography of the figure skater Irina Rodnina succeeded in 1969. At the same time, the athlete received the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. The first victory at the World Cup falls on the same 1969.
In September 2013, it became known that Rodnina posted a photo collage on her Twitter account, in which black Barack Obama and his wife are depicted against a banana, regarded by part of society as racist.
After a successful period in biography Irina Rodnina failures followed. At the USSR Championship in 1970, the Rodnina-Ulanov pair took only fourth place. In 1972, just a day before the World Championships, Irina received a serious injury (concussion, hematoma), but still decided to perform. In the same year, her partner leaves. Then Irina Konstantinovna in her biography decided to leave the sport. But the coach paired her with a talented skater - Alexandra Zaitseva.
At the next European Championship, Zaitsev-Rodnina get a record number of points. In 1973, at the World Championships in Bratislava, the skaters continued their performance, despite the lack of music. In 1975, speaking at the World Championships (under the guidance of coach Tarasova), the couple again took first place.
At the 1973 World Championships in Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), an incident occurs that went down in the history of figure skating. There was a short circuit in the radio room, the soundtrack turned off during the free program of Rodnina - Zaitsev (later it turned out that the circuit was deliberately organized by a Czech employee who was trying to take revenge on the USSR for suppressing the Prague Spring in 1968). The coach from behind the side instructed to continue the program, and the couple skated without music to the applause of the audience. Referee Karl Enderlin, noting the “will to win” of the couple, nevertheless instructed to reduce the marks due to skating without music (the couple, of course, refused to perform the program at the end of the competition), because of which not a single mark of 6.0 was given.
“In the first seconds, we did not understand anything. And thank God that at that moment I was next to the coach. He managed to give us the task - to continue the performance. Of course, we did everything. For us, the coach's words are law. And the law is undeniable, ”the athlete explained.
Personal life of Irina Rodnina
In 1975 Rodnina married Zaitseva. The couple continued to perform, showing excellent programs at the 1976 Olympics, the 1977 World Championships. She was able to win the Olympics for the third time in 1980.
In 1985 she divorced Zaitsev and remarried to a film producer Leonid Minkovsky. They had a daughter, Alena. After that, the family soon moved to the United States.
“For me, as for any person, the most important thing in life is children. I am happy that I have a daughter and a son. As for sports, this is a part of my life, a huge segment of it. And, of course, all achievements, all positive and negative emotions will forever remain in the memory. But children are something else. This is everything for me, ”says Irina.
In 1999, Irina Konstantinovna divorced Minkovsky and returned to Moscow.
In 2007 Rodnina was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. She passed on the list of the ruling party "United Russia" from the Omsk region. In the Duma, she took the position of deputy chairman of the Committee on Education.
Irina often takes part in various television programs and shows, including "Relish" and "Let them talk."
As an athlete who has not lost in her entire career in any tournament, Irina Rodnina was included in the Guinness Book of Records.
She was awarded the Order of Lenin (1976), two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1972, 1980), the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (1999), the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (2009) and the bronze Olympic Order. Twice winner of the National Prize for Public Recognition of the Achievements of Women in Russia "Olympia" for 2002 and 2003. Laureate of the "Russian of the Year" award (2005) in the "Triumphant" nomination.
Sports achievements of Irina Rodnina
With Alexey Ulanov
Winter Olympic Games (1st place in 1971-72)
World Championships (1st place in 1968-69, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1971-72)
European Championships (5th place 1967-68, 1st place 1968-69, 1969-70, 1971-72)
USSR Championships (3rd place 1967-68, 1968-69, 1st place 1969-70, 1970-71)
Tournament for the prizes of the Moscow News newspaper (1st place 1967-68, 2nd place 1968-69, 1st place 1969-70).
With Alexander Zaitsev
Winter Olympic Games (1st place 1975-76, 1979-80)
World Championships (1st place 1972-73, 1973-74, 1974-75, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1977-78)
European Championships (1st place 1972-73, 1973-74, 1974-75, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1977-78, 1979-80)
USSR Championships (1st place 1972-73, 1973-74, 1974-75, 1976-77)
Tournament for the prizes of the Moscow News newspaper (1st place 1977-78)