Natalya Bestemyanova and Igor Bobrin: a red-haired beast and a sleeping cowboy

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

Natalia Bestemyanova and Igor Bobrin are two world-class figures in figure skating. Each of his numbers was a sensation, each performance she paired with Andrei Bukin brought Olympic medals. Everyone believed that Natalya and Andrei not only ride together, but are also life companions. Fate wanted only once on the ice to connect Natalia and Igor, so that their hearts beat in unison.

Red beast

Natasha was born in Moscow in January 1960 into a happy family. Mom was a real radio operator who kept in touch with polar explorers, and dad worked as a teacher, and then as a leader in the education department.

At home, the mom and dad of the future star were amazingly loving, wise and sociable people. They were ready for anything for the sake of their children: Natasha and her older brother Petit. When the baby was only 4 years old, she had a small mass in the knee area removed, after which she simply began to be afraid to walk. Doctors pronounced a verdict: playing sports will help to strengthen the muscles and over time the fear will pass.

The fear really passed, but the love for figure skating remained forever. At first, she was engaged in single skating and was known as a very hardworking girl. She didn't have any special abilities, but she had a strong will to win. When at the training camp everyone went to rest after training, Natalia changed clothes and went to run. And in 1976 the first significant success came to her. Natalya Bestemyanova won the USSR Figure Skating Championship and Cup among juniors.

At the same time, the sixteen-year-old girl understood that she had reached her peak in this. She began planning her transition to ice dancing. Her coach Eduard Pliner was very painful in the athlete's departure. But she herself had already made a decision by that time and was not going to retreat from it.

In 1977, Natasha Bestemyanova began to skate with Andrei Bukin with coach Tatyana Tarasova. Together they will win every imaginable and unthinkable award in ice dancing sports. And Natasha will meet the most important man of her life - Igor Bobrin.

Sleeping cowboy

Igor Bobrin was born in November 1953 in Leningrad. At the age of seven, his parents brought him to the Izmailovsky skating rink in Leningrad. There, the capable boy was noticed by Tatyana Loveiko, who became for him not only a coach, teacher, friend, she was, in fact, his second mother. With her, he studied the alphabet of figure skating and with her he first went out on the big ice. At the age of 11, he showed his number "Shalun" before the performance of a popular band from Sweden.

Igor got into big sport thanks to Igor Moskvin. Now life as a teenager began to feel like one big workout. At the age of 18, he won his first bronze medal at the USSR Championship.

Thanks to Igor Moskvin, Yuri Potemkin, a dancer of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater, personally studied with Bobrin. With the "Pictures at an Exhibition" program, prepared by Moskvin and Potemkin, Igor got to the World Championship for the first time and immediately declared himself, taking eighth place. There will be many victories in the life of a skater, but the highest levels of European and world podiums will never be subdued to him, except for the only time in 1981, when Igor Bobrin became the European champion in terms of the sum of results.

For the first time Igor got married quite early. On Natasha Ovchinnikova, figure skater. In 1977, Natalia and Igor had a son, Maxim. But this marriage could not last long. After all, fate has prepared for him a meeting with Natalia Bestemyanova.

Ice and fire

Of course, young Natasha Bestemyanova already knew Igor and was even fascinated by him. However, almost all the women of the Soviet Union fell in love with Igor as soon as he went out on the ice, but Natalia did not look like a gray mouse during her performances. On the ice, a modest, shy, eternally blushing girl was simply transformed. Instead of her, a bright, incredibly artistic, very emotional skater appeared.

When in one of the programs the skaters went to the finals on the ice, then by lot she got an exit with Igor Bobrin. It was at that moment that she turned from a fan of a talented skater into a Redhead in love. She understood that Igor was not just attractive to her. But I couldn't even imagine that her feeling was mutual.

In Canada, Igor Bobrin somehow came to her room to explain himself. It instantly became clear that they were experiencing exactly the same feelings. This was the very beginning of their long journey of love.

Happiness to love

Natasha was not going to take her beloved away from the family. She was just happy that he is in her life. After the competition, they dispersed to different cities: he went to Leningrad, where he lived and trained, she to Moscow. He called her constantly. And everything inside her turned upside down from the sounds of his voice. Even now, her eyes glow when she talks about it. She was just happy, not even for a second thinking about what would happen next.

Of course, the entire sports environment discussed the romance of Natalia and Igor. Tatyana Tarasova in every possible way warned the girl against this relationship, especially since she was familiar with the family of the skater's first wife.

The lovers even had to pretend they had a falling out. They sat in different places on the bus, they did not speak to each other. But in fact, they did not stop communicating for a second. They spoke with their eyes, over and over again declaring their love to each other.

When Igor's wife found out about this novel, she herself filed for divorce. Surprisingly, the former spouses were able to maintain a normal relationship.

All life is love

Even after the divorce, Igor Bobrin was in no hurry to propose to his beloved. But when they suddenly began to quarrel because of Bobrin's jealousy, Natasha herself made him an offer. And in early 1983 they became husband and wife.

34 years have passed since then. And they still look at each other with youthful fervor. Now they are always together: at work in the Theater of Ice Miniatures by Igor Bobrin, at home, on tour and on vacation. They never managed to get bored with each other, because this is true love.

Knowing how to love and being loved is a truly great gift that only a few people get. Ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and composer Rodion Shchedrin this gift was meted out in full.