Why the life of the first Soviet Olympic champion figure skater ended so early: The ups and downs of Kira Ivanova

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

She was the first Soviet figure skater to bring the country the very first Olympic medal in single skating. The first trainers of Kira Ivanova noted: the athlete has a sense of purpose and hard work, along with the obvious ability to master the most difficult elements. She was able to climb the podium, the whole world applauded her, the actress Keira Knightley was named after her, but was Kira Ivanova happy outside the ice arena?

On the way to the goal

Kira Ivanova's childhood could hardly be called happy. He grew up an orphan with living parents: his father left the family when his daughter was still quite small, and her mother was too busy with her own personal life, in which the main place was occupied by a hobby for alcoholic beverages. Kira was raised by her grandmother, who replaced both mom and dad for the baby.

Lyubov Gavrilovna, it seems, was the only person who loved the girl and wanted her to have a normal life. It was the grandmother who first brought her granddaughter to the rink, having correctly decided: even if the girl does not become an outstanding athlete, classes will certainly not be able to harm her.

At the rink, the girl was noticed by Irina Anikanova, the coach of the Spartak sports school, who taught Kira the basics of figure skating. Irina Anikanova immediately noted the student's extraordinary sense of purpose. She could work out complex elements for hours. She fell, got up, started everything from the very beginning and did not leave the rink until she brought the difficult jump to perfection.

When Irina Anikanova, together with her pupils, came to work as an assistant to coach Eduard Pliner in the experimental group, Kira Ivanova became the best in the team. After the group was disbanded, the young figure skater began to train with Viktor Kudryavtsev, under whom she won a silver medal at the World Junior Championships. Before Kira Ivanova, figure skaters who represented the Soviet Union in single skating had never climbed the podium at world championships.

True, the achievement of Kira Ivanova faded, since in the same 1978 Elena Vodorezova won a bronze medal at the adult European Championship. But Kira continued to fight hard, her program became more difficult, and her achievements became more significant. The only thing that the skater lacked was artistry and charisma, but she compensated for them with endless hard work and perseverance.

She became number one in single skating in the USSR, began to take part in adult tournaments. Failures did not break her, she did not give up after unsuccessful performances at the European and world championships and the Lake Placid Olympics. She left Vladimir Kudryavtsev and began to study with Vladimir Kovalev, who became not only her coach, but also her husband.

From rise to fall

Under the leadership of Kovalev, Ivanova became the winner of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in 1982, but did not come to the mandatory doping control procedure, which led to the disqualification and expulsion of the skater from the Soviet Union national team. The reason for the failure to appear, according to rumors, was simple: the girl, along with her coach, was so carried away by the celebration of her own victory that she simply forgot about everything in the world.

It seemed that her career was over, because it would not be easy to return to big sport. But Kira Ivanova was able to prove again that she had no equal: the girl won the USSR Cup in 1983 and became a member of the national team. At the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, she won a bronze medal. It was a real breakthrough for Soviet figure skating, because before Kira Ivanova, no single skater had ever climbed the Olympic podium.

For several years, Ivanova became the silver medalist of the European Championship, losing only to Katharina Witt, the situation was repeated at the World Championship in Tokyo in 1985. But the Olympics in Calgary ended in failure for Kira: due to gross errors in the short and free programs, she took only seventh place and decided to end her sports career.

Having said goodbye to sports, Kira Ivanova seems to have lost her footing. She had nothing more to strive for, and there was no one to support the girl in that difficult period. She broke up with Vladimir Kovalev, later married Konstantin Tarelin, who worked in the Moscow ice ballet, however, this marriage did not bring happiness to the skater.

In 1991, she went to work in Turkey under a contract and there she realized that she was expecting a baby. The forced abortion did not save the girl from termination of the contract, and three months later she returned to Moscow completely devastated and broken.

Tragic ending

Fate seemed to test Kira Ivanova for strength: her grandmother died, Kira herself survived a car accident, and then lost her younger sister, who voluntarily took her own life. The former skater began to drown her misfortunes in alcoholic beverages, her husband left her, she could not hold on to the position of Dynamo coach because of the complaints of the pupils that the coach appears at work drunk.

Soon psychostimulants were added to alcohol. She understood that she was destroying herself, several times she turned to specialized clinics for help, but she could not cope with her addiction. In the fall of 2001, after another course of treatment, Kira Ivanova made an entry in her diary that turned out to be prophetic.

On December 20, 2001, neighbors of Kira Ivanova, who lived in a house on Dekabristov Street, noticed the door opened to the former champion's apartment. Entering, they saw a terrible picture: Kira Ivanova was brutally killed, and her cropped hair lay around. Later, experts will report that there were 17 stab wounds on the body of the young woman. There were no traces of the famous figure skater's medals and cups in the apartment. They were all sold long ago, because Kira Ivanova always needed money for alcohol.

She was only 38 years old, and the one who committed the crime was never found … As well as the details of the tragedy that happened on Dekabristov Street remained unknown.

The legendary Soviet figure skater, coach, the first Olympic champion in ice dancing Lyudmila Pakhomova was given only 39 years, but during this time she managed to achieve a lot. They said that together with her partner, Alexander Gorshkov, they changed the style of ice dancing, and their tango "Kumparsita" made the whole world applaud. Why did the athlete, full of strength and energy, not live to see her 40th birthday?