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Champion of the USSR, Europe and the world in artistic gymnastics, Olympic champion, holder of the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR - Zinaida Voronina was justly proud of her achievements. But the gymnast ended her life sadly: she left her own son and was deported 101 kilometers along with other asocial elements on the eve of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. What led the athlete to such a tragic ending?
Takeoff
As a child, Zinaida Druzhinina attended many different circles and sections in order to stay at home less. It was all about the parents of little Zina: they abused alcohol and, in fact, before the daughter grew and develops, they had nothing to do with it.
In the artistic gymnastics section, the girl's talent was immediately noted by the coach Antonina Levshevich. In her opinion, Zinaida had all the data to become a champion: she performed even the most difficult exercises with incredible ease, grasped the correct technique on the fly, was hardworking and persistent, never left training without achieving her goal.
True, by the age of 14, when Zinaida Druzhinina had already won many regional and All-Union youth competitions, the girl suddenly wanted to leave the sport, arrogantly declaring her superiority over other rivals. It took Antonina Levshevich a lot of strength and patience to cope with the athlete's star disease, to show her further prospects and opportunities for a sports career.
Very little time passed, and Zinaida moved to Moscow, joined the Dynamo sports community and began to show excellent results at competitions of various levels. The 18-year-old athlete, during her participation in the USSR Championship, took second place and was admitted to the USSR national team.
In 1966, Zinaida Druzhinina took part in the World Championship along with such experienced gymnasts as Larisa Latynina and Polina Astakhova. The team won silver, and Zinaida Druzhinina brought the team bronze for floor exercises.
A year later, at the European Championships, she won two bronze and one silver medals, and at the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968, the gymnast became the champion in the national team, brought the team one silver and two bronze medals.
The girl, who grew up in an unfavorable environment, surprised those around her not only with her sports achievements, but also with her impeccable taste and erudition. The athlete could easily maintain a conversation on any topic and demonstrated extensive knowledge in various fields. In addition, Zinaida Druzhinina was an incredible beauty.
She always had a lot of fans, but Zinaida herself responded to the feelings of the two-time Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Mikhail Voronin. He incredibly beautifully looked after the girl, dedicated poetry to her and surrounded her with care and attention.
The fall
As soon as it became known about the romance of the two titled gymnasts, they were immediately dubbed the most beautiful couple in the USSR. And more than a hundred athletes from the USSR national teams were invited to their wedding as guests. As a wedding present, the newlyweds received an apartment from Goskomsport and a very decent monetary reward.
In spite of everything, the athletes were determined to continue their sports careers.A year after the birth of her son Dmitry (born 1969), Zinaida Voronina began training, quickly regained her athletic form and was able to show good results at the World Championships in Ljubljana, becoming the champion in the team championship and bringing the national team three bronze medals …
But this was the last successful competition of the gymnast. In addition to the fact that the athlete began to clearly lose to younger colleagues, she increasingly began to consume alcoholic beverages. At first, they did not attach much importance to this, and then … then it was already too late. Together with her friend on the national team Tamara Lazakovich, Zinaida Voronina went on "spree", they openly violated the sports regime, tried to treat colleagues and were rude to the attempts of the coaches to reason with them.
The end of a sports career only exacerbated the problem. Zinaida Voronina stopped paying attention to her family, did not take care of her son, but preferred to spend time in cheerful companies. The patience of the gymnast's husband soon ran out: he filed for divorce and achieved the right of sole custody of his son. The life of Mikhail Voronin was quite successful: after the end of his sports career, he went to coaching, raised his son, married a second time, from 1992 and until his death served as president of the Dynamo gymnastics club.
After the divorce, Zinaida Voronina seems to have completely forgotten that she once had a family. She refused to communicate not only with her husband, but also with her own son, in fact, leaving him. Colleagues of the athlete on the national team suggested that the reason for this behavior of the gymnast could be a reluctance to injure the child. She realized her dependence on alcohol and stepped aside, deciding that Dima's father would be better.
On the eve of the 1980 Olympics, the Olympic champion fell into the circle of unreliable persons to be exiled a hundred kilometers from the capital. Some sources mention that the athlete has a criminal record for petty theft and serving a sentence in the Mozhaisk women's colony.
It is known that for six years the former gymnast worked as a farmer at a foundry and mechanical plant in Balashikha. Zinaida Voronina preferred not to dwell on the past, and therefore many colleagues did not even know which legendary person would take a shift with them every day. She was in good standing, worked diligently, and drinking was not considered a big vice at the enterprise.
Men tried to look after the woman, but she was never able to build a serious relationship with anyone. In 1992, Zinaida Voronina retired from the plant and now nothing prevented her from spending time in a company with alcohol. From 1992 to 2001, there is no information about how Zinaida Voronina lived, with the exception of one case. In the same 1992, she came to her native Yoshkar-Ola and stood for a long time at the stand dedicated to her in the Museum of Sports Glory.
In March 2001, Zinaida Voronina died in Balashikha. The authorities of Yoshkar-Ola decided to pay their last tribute to the famous countrywoman. They transported the body of the gymnast to their homeland and buried it with all due honors. Son Dmitry came to say goodbye to his mother, and the ex-husband, apparently, could not forgive her.
Zinaida Voronina was not the only athlete whose life was ruined. Each had their own reasons - someone went to jail, someone was stopped by a severe injury, and someone repeated the fate of the hockey player Gurin from the movie "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" and could not cope with alcohol addiction …
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