BERBEROVA NINA NIKOLAEVNA Nina Nikolaevna Berberova (1901-1993). Russian poet, prose writer, publicist. The most significant creative heritage of N. Berberova is prose. The first prose work is "Biyankur Holidays"; further - the novels "The Last and the First",

ANDREEVA, Nina Aleksandrovna (b. 1938), teacher of chemistry at the Leningrad Technological Institute, since 1991 leader of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) 215 I cannot compromise my principles. Title articles ("Soviet Russia", March 13, 1988) Usually quoted: "I can't

BERBEROVA, Nina Nikolaevna (1901–1993), writer 212 I am not in exile - I am on a mission. "Lyric Poem" (1924-1926), 2, 3? "Modern Notes", 1927, no. 30, p. 227, 230 In the form: "We are not in exile - we are on the mission" - this line became the motto of the "first emigration" and was often attributed

CHAVCHAVADZE, Nina Alexandrovna (1812–1857), wife of A. Griboyedov 6 Your mind and deeds are immortal in Russian memory, but why did my love outlive you! The inscription on the grave of Griboyedov in the monastery of St. David in the vicinity of Tiflis

On August 19, the first USSR Olympic champion, discus thrower Nina Ponomareva died. She was 87 years old. In 1952, at the Olympic Games debut for the USSR team in Helsinki, Ponomareva excelled with an Olympic record of 51.02 m.

Izvestia got through to a close friend, colleague, honored trainer of the USSR in discus throwing Alexei Ivanov.

- Alexey Alexandrovich, what happened? Was Nina Apollonovna sick? Did you feel bad?

No, it all happened unexpectedly, in one moment. Nina Apollonovna was at home, talking with her student Gena Tishchenko, suddenly said: "I feel bad, I have nothing to breathe." She began to choke. When the ambulance arrived, she had already died. Most likely, a blood clot came off. Several years ago she underwent surgery on her joints, the operation was unsuccessful, she walked with a cane ... In the same way, in 10 seconds, my student, discobolist Yuri Dumchev, died. I was writing an application in Adler, and suddenly said: "I feel bad." He put his head on the table and died. This is how athletes die.

- Where will the athlete be buried?

This is a sore point. She herself wanted to be buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow. But there was a problem. Her son Sasha wants to cremate his mother's body in the Khovanskoye cemetery and bury it in Ukraine.

- Why in Ukraine?

It is impossible to understand. She played for Moscow all her life. She left for Ukraine in 1963, then even from Ukraine got to the Olympics in Tokyo, where she did not perform very well, but helped her eternal rival Tamara Press to win the Olympics. Tamara did not get along with the technique, Nina controlled her, and Tamara was later grateful to her. In Ukraine, Ponomareva was engaged in coaching, but she returned to Moscow. She wanted to be buried in Moscow at Troekurovsky. She told me about this on several occasions. The last time was a year ago, during my wife's funeral. All athletes are buried here. Vasily Stalin is buried here, who did a lot for her. I brought her to the grave of Vasily, when he was reburied, she fell to her knees and said: "Vasya, thank you."

You have known Nina Apollonovna all your life. What do you think allowed her to become the first Olympic champion?

She had a unique physique. She was born in the village, she was a large woman with a powerful hand and a wide range of arms. Nina is 176 cm tall, and her arms span is about 194. Now, of course, everything is going to increase. Now the discus throwers are more than 190 cm tall, and our Savenkova's arm span, for example, is 207 cm. But, by the way, of the modern discus throwers, Natasha Sadova is the most similar in figure to Nina Apollonovna. And it is no coincidence that she became the champion of Athens.

- Now Nina Apollonovna's record has been surpassed by more than 20 m.

He is unsurpassed. Nina Apollonovna was and remains the first and only champion. She won her gold in the non-steroid era. Before the advent of steroids, women fought, fought and could not break the world record set by our Nina Dumbadze. She set this record - just over 50 meters - in Gori, on Stalin's birthday, many said that the numbers were attributed to her, well, it doesn't matter now. For a long time this record was held, but then Tamara Press appeared. She, due to special physiology, broke the world record. But already in the 1960s, women's drugs appeared, on which they began to break all records.

- Is the result of Nina Apollonovna non-steroidal?

Absolutely. I didn't even know the scent. The maximum, what kind of doping was in the USSR, is to drink coffee. Until 1968, as a coach, I did not know the words "pharmacology", "steroids", "anabolics", until my student Gushchin, who came from Mexico City, told what the Americans were stuffing him with.

By the way, Ponomareva's record could have been even higher, if not for a bobble. She threw the disc at 58.30 in Kiev at the USSR Championship, but it seemed to her that the disc broke and the result was not counted. Meanwhile, he was half a meter better than the result of champion Tamara Press. I have witnessed these things.

- In all sports, the results of women are more modest than those of men. But not in discus throwing.

Yes you are right. For women - 76 m, for men - 74 m. Can you explain why? First, the disc weighs 2 kg for men and 1 kg for women. Secondly, there was a period when many hermaphrodites came to women's sports. Then a scandal erupted, many women were indignant at why they had to act on an equal footing with men in fact. And, thirdly, steroids are more powerful for women than for men. So, as a coach, I tell you this, Ponomareva's record is unsurpassed. She is a great woman. No steroids, great woman.

Nina Apollonovna Ponomareva(nee Romashkova; April 27, pos. Smychka, Sverdlovsk region, RSFSR, USSR - August 19, Moscow, Russia) - Soviet athlete, discus thrower, eight-time USSR champion, the first Olympic champion in the history of the USSR, two-time Olympic champion, world record holder.

Biography

Nina Romashkova was born in the village of Smychka, Sverdlovsk Region (now a district of the city of Nizhny Tagil), where her parents were in exile. Father - Apollon Vasilyevich - painter-artist, later - a participant in the Great Patriotic War. Mother - Anna Fedorovna. In 1936, the family settled in the city of Essentuki, Stavropol Territory.

Nina Romashkova got into sports, becoming the third in the Komsomol cross-country of the Spartakiad of Promcooperatsii, the order for participation in which came to the cooperative grocery store in the city of Essentuki, where nineteen-year-old Nina worked. In 1948, Nina entered and began to seriously engage in athletics. Initially, she tried her hand at cross-country disciplines, later retrained as a discus thrower.

Immediately after the Olympic Games at the competition in Odessa, the athlete set a world record by sending a disc of 53 meters 61 centimeters. From 1952 to 1956, and then in 1958 and 1959 - the champion of the USSR. At the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, she won the bronze medal: the reason for the uncertain performance was an injury received the day before the final competition. But at the 1960 Roman Olympics, Romashkova again celebrated her success, becoming a champion with a new Olympic record - 55 meters 10 centimeters. At the 1964 Tokyo Games, Nina Ponomareva was only 11th.

In 1966, the athlete switched to coaching, moved to Kiev, where she trained young athletes.

Since 1998, Nina Apollonovna Ponomareva has lived in Moscow. in 2013, her bronze bust was unveiled on the CSKA Walk of Fame, and the CSKA Sports School in Athletics was named after her. ...

Died on August 18, 2016. She was buried at the Khovanskoye cemetery in Moscow on August 22, 2016. ... On September 26, 2016, Ponomareva's ashes were reburied at the memorial cemetery of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in Mytishchi, thus, she became the first athlete buried there. The reburial took place at the initiative of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. A bust will be installed at the burial site.

A family

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Literature

Based on materials V. Malakhov. One hundred great Olympic champions. - Moscow: Veche, 2006 .-- S. 144-149. - ISBN 5-9533-1078-1.

Links

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An excerpt characterizing Ponomarev, Nina Apollonovna

As soon as Pierre lay his head on the pillow, he felt that he was falling asleep; but suddenly, with the clarity of almost reality, there was a boom, a boom, a boom of shots, groans, screams, the slapping of shells, there was a smell of blood and gunpowder, and a feeling of horror, fear of death seized him. Frightened, he opened his eyes and raised his head from under his greatcoat. Everything was quiet outside. Only at the gate, talking with the janitor and splashing in the mud, was some orderly walking. Above Pierre's head, under the dark seamy side of the canopy, the doves startled from the movement that he made, getting up. Throughout the courtyard, the strong smell of an inn, the smell of hay, manure and tar, was spread, peaceful for Pierre at that moment. A clear starry sky was visible between the two black awnings.
“Thank God that this is no more,” thought Pierre, again closing his head. - Oh, how terrible the fear and how shamefully I surrendered to it! And they ... they were all the time, to the end were firm, calm ... - he thought. In Pierre's understanding, they were soldiers - those who were on the battery, and those who fed him, and those who prayed to the icon. They - these strange, hitherto unknown to him, clearly and sharply separated in his thoughts from all other people.
“To be a soldier, just a soldier! Thought Pierre, falling asleep. - To enter this common life with the whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so. But how can one throw off all this superfluous, diabolical, all the burden of this external person? At one time I could be this. I could run from my father as I wanted. After the duel with Dolokhov, I could have been sent as a soldier. " And in Pierre's imagination there was a flash of dinner at the club, where he summoned Dolokhov, and the benefactor in Torzhok. And now Pierre is presented with a solemn dining box. This lodge takes place in the English club. And someone familiar, close, dear, sits at the end of the table. Yes, it's him! This is a benefactor. “Why, he's dead? Thought Pierre. - Yes, he died; but I didn't know he was alive. And how sorry I am that he died, and how glad I am that he is alive again! " On one side of the table sat Anatol, Dolokhov, Nesvitsky, Denisov and others like that (the category of these people was as clearly defined in Pierre's soul in a dream as the category of those people whom he called them), and these people, Anatol, Dolokhov shouted and sang loudly; but because of their cry, the benefactor's voice was heard, incessantly speaking, and the sound of his words was as significant and continuous as the rumble of a battlefield, but it was pleasant and comforting. Pierre did not understand what the benefactor was saying, but he knew (the category of thoughts was just as clear in a dream) that the benefactor was talking about good, about the possibility of being what they were. And they from all sides, with their simple, kind, firm faces, surrounded the benefactor. But although they were kind, they did not look at Pierre, did not know him. Pierre wanted to draw their attention to himself and say. He got up, but at the same instant his legs grew cold and bared.
He felt ashamed, and he covered his legs with his hand, from which the greatcoat had really fallen off. For a moment Pierre, straightening his overcoat, opened his eyes and saw the same awnings, pillars, courtyard, but all this was now bluish, light and covered with sparkles of dew or frost.
“It’s dawning,” thought Pierre. “But that's not it. I need to listen to and understand the words of the benefactor. " He again covered himself with his greatcoat, but neither the dining-box nor the benefactor was already there. There were only thoughts clearly expressed in words, thoughts that someone said or Pierre himself changed his mind.
Pierre, recalling these thoughts later, in spite of the fact that they were caused by the impressions of that day, was convinced that someone outside of him had spoken them to him. Never, as it seemed to him, he in reality was not able to think so and express his thoughts.
“War is the most difficult submission of human freedom to the laws of God,” said the voice. - Simplicity is obedience to God; you can't get away from him. And they are simple. They do not speak, but they do. The spoken word is silver, and the unsaid is golden. A person cannot possess anything while he is afraid of death. And whoever is not afraid of her owns everything. If there were no suffering, a person would not know his own boundaries, would not know himself. The most difficult thing (Pierre continued to think or hear in his sleep) is to be able to combine the meaning of everything in his soul. Connect everything? - Pierre said to himself. - No, don't connect. It is impossible to connect thoughts, but to combine all these thoughts - that's what you need! Yes, you need to pair, you need to pair! - Pierre repeated to himself with inner delight, feeling that by these, and only by these words, what he wants to express is expressed, and the whole question tormenting him is resolved.
- Yes, you need to pair, it's time to pair.
- You need to harness, it's time to harness, your Excellency! Your Excellency, - a voice repeated, - you need to harness, it's time to harness ...
It was the voice of the master waking Pierre. The sun was beating right in Pierre's face. He glanced at the filthy inn, in the middle of which, near the well, soldiers were giving water to thin horses, from which carts drove out through the gate. Pierre turned away with disgust and, closing his eyes, hurriedly fell back onto the seat of the carriage. “No, I don’t want this, I don’t want to see and understand this, I want to understand what was revealed to me during my sleep. One more second, and I would have understood everything. What am I to do? Match, but how to match everything? " And Pierre felt with horror that all the meaning of what he saw and thought in a dream had been destroyed.
The driver, coachman and janitor told Pierre that an officer had arrived with the news that the French had moved under Mozhaisk and that ours were leaving.
Pierre got up and, having ordered to lay and catch up with himself, went on foot through the city.
The troops left and left about ten thousand wounded. These wounded were visible in the courtyards and in the windows of houses and crowded in the streets. In the streets near the carts that were supposed to take away the wounded, shouts, curses and blows were heard. Pierre gave the carriage that overtook him to a wounded general he knew and drove with him to Moscow. Dear Pierre learned about the death of his brother-in-law and about the death of Prince Andrew.

O there are more legends with which you meet - and you do not fully realize your own luck. Everyone thinks that these people are no longer there - and they are quite alive to themselves. They go out for a walk in their Biryulevo, like Nina Ponomareva. Their memory is bright, their spirit is unbending. These people are embarrassed to walk in front of guests with a stick.

We hold in our hands the very first Olympic gold medal in the history of Soviet sports. Helsinki 1952. We believe and do not believe.

They say everything about doping, about doping ... - the two-time Olympic champion in discus throwing greeted us and waved her hand towards the TV. In "news" discussed the next disqualification of Russian athletes.

- In your days there was no doping, Nina Apollonovna?

Is that coffee will be drunk for cheerfulness. By the way, there was a whole story with coffee. He was taken for sale abroad, in the Soviet Union a kilogram cost 50 rubles. Once Igor Ter-Hovhannisyan got burned on this. When they made a scam at the hotel, I rushed to cover my tracks.

- How?

There would be no way to pour these grains into the toilet, but he is in the bidet. Everything is in sight, it floats. Well, I would have brought a kilogram with me. So he has half a meal! Soon coffee went up to 200 rubles in price. Carry no point.

- Football player Viktor Serebryanikov said that in the 60s the players of the USSR national team were given pills.

Sometimes they gave us some. But we had no idea why. The active introduction of doping began when I had already left the sport. She worked as a trainer in a Kiev boarding school. The kids were growing up, I warned: I find out that someone is eating anabolic steroids, not yet having given birth to a child, I will step on one foot, I will pull out the other!

- Did it work?

- So noticeable?

Of course. When you take poison, it is sure to be reflected on your face.

Barrack

- If not for sports, how would life have been? So would you work as a saleswoman in a store?

Unlikely. I remember the first day in a commercial grocery store, where my father's friend took me after the war. They brought a herring. I take it out of the barrel, wait for the brine to drain, weigh it. He saw - grabbed his head. He pulls out the herring, throws it on the scales - and there is more brine than fish.

- Cleverly.

I physically could not carry weight, for me it is torment. And in trade, you either weigh the buyers, or yourself. By the evening I was constantly in the red.

- They would have learned.

For sure. But sport saved me from this shame. I'm almost 86, and I'll tell you this: each of us has a road mapped out in advance. I was born in a Gulag barrack, but I got to the very top.

Yes. Sverdlovsk region, village Smychka. I was little, I didn't know that I was serving time with my parents. I thought the enthusiasts, of their own free will, went to cut the forest.

- Why did you go to jail?

Dad is from a family of a clergyman, mom is a "kulak offspring," as they used to say. She was exiled at the age of 16. Returning home from work, grandmother laments on the stove: "Oh, Nyurka, the boy came, confiscated his boots. He took them off his feet ..." She cut off the layers. So I ran to the village council. Happiness, the guy did not find him. But she was with a knife - that was enough to send the girl to the camp.

- Were there any criminals in the barracks?

No, only repressed. More than a hundred families. All we had were two trestle beds on the floor, fenced off with rags. There are bugs all around. Parents will work so hard in a day that if only they could make it to bed. They fell and fell asleep. And I look at the sleeping father - bugs are crawling in his palm. So beautiful!

- Ugh.

I take them, examine them and do not understand anything. Suddenly mom wakes up: "What are you doing ?!" I was restless - horror. I will always climb somewhere, I need everything. Mom said: "If Ninka were a guy, I would not know grief." Here is a quiet brother. I used to beat him and all the boys were on the street. Two times she almost died.

- What happened?

Stuck in a chest when playing hide and seek. And they forgot. I already have decompression sickness, I am suffocating, I let bubbles ... Thank God, my parents returned and opened it.

They also brought water to the workers at the felling. All children, like children, follow the path. And I climbed through the stacks of tarred trees. Telegraph poles were made of them. In the taiga, they screwed in screws so that later they could put on white caps ... I'm very sorry, but I have to show you this. Look, what a scar on the knee!

- Horror.

Climbed on a pile, and the pillars are loosely stacked. They rolled at me. One pierced through! Lost consciousness. I woke up in the guards' house. When they were dragged through the door, they hit the jamb. I screamed, my mother cried: "Alive ..."

- In what year were the parents released?

- Cossacks are a kind of people.

Quite. Years later, I already entered the institute, returned to visit my relatives. I walk in sports shorts, a T-shirt - my mother's neighbors whisper: "Nyurka, don't show us your Ninka, otherwise we disdain ..." For them it was a complete nightmare.

- It's funny.

You laugh, but everything was serious there. People are devout, abortion is not accepted. They gave birth as much as they could. Baba Pasha lived nearby - she has 20 children! In 1941, she escorted 8 sons to the front, and all of them perished. At the first call, the children were thrown into the front line, cannon fodder.

1952 year. Nina PONOMAREVA at the Helsinki Olympics. Photo - Alexander YAKOVLEV

KEROSENE

- During the war, you ended up in the occupied territory.

I especially remember the day when our people fled from the city. In the morning, with a new bucket, I went for kerosene. Suddenly, a string of cars met, followed by carts. Then the rulers.

- What's this?

Cart. People sit on both sides. The entire city administration is leaving by cars. Ordinary people with suitcases on carts. Our kerosene line saw - and ran too.

- Next?

Some follow, others - to loot. To rob sanatoriums. And I'm home with an empty bucket. The road past the station, there is a tank of kerosene. Someone is already upstairs, scooping up a bucket.

- Well, you would have scooped up.

So I wanted! I climbed onto the tank and left the bucket at the bottom. I shout: "Give mine." Where there! Kidnapped!

- It's a shame.

Believe me, I still feel sorry for this bucket. I trudged home - no bucket, no kerosene. But she was all smeared. But there is no soap.

- How to be?

You collect the ashes in a bundle - and you wipe yourself off. I washed the braids in the brook. I look, people are pulling cake from the oil mill. She rushed there, but got a piece. All have already been snapped up. By evening, the Nazis appeared. We had endured fear, did not know what would happen. Maybe they'll all be shot at once. But the Germans were not particularly seen. It seems like the city is under them, but they are not. I traded in seeds. I walked 50 kilometers a day - so that in a distant village I could exchange a rag.

- Hard.

I'm not a frail girl. There is one well in the village of 45 houses. The chain is weak, the bucket was constantly breaking. Immediately to us: "Ninka, come on ..."

- Climbed?

Yes. The well is deep, twenty meters. Feel the ledge with your foot - get up. Below, below, below. You rest your hands on the walls. The kid won't get in - but I can easily! Several times a day! I was a braggart. I climbed, for example, up the fire escape, without holding on to my feet. For fun: can I or not? Later, in Moscow, I dragged the refrigerator on my back to the third floor.

- Dashing.

The genes are good. At the age of 55, my mother pulled herself up five times in front of my eyes. And grandfather had such hands that he grabbed the horse's tongue and pulled it out.

- God. What for?

She was angry, biting. Snapped - so he was furious. At first I didn't believe my mother: "You're kidding." - "My child, what a joke if a horse had to be killed. Where is it fit without a tongue ..." And I almost hit the judge with a disk!

- You are in vain.

Twice! Especially memorable came out in Belgrade. The disc slipped off - and into the shoulder of the judge. He managed to jump onto the table, otherwise his brains would have been blown away. With fright, she herself fainted. This is how I lost the European Championship.

- Were there any deaths?

1951, Medic Stadium. Then the disc is thrown, and it occurred to someone at the other end of the stadium to arrange a high jump competition. A boy from Uzhgorod took the girl's skull with a disk. The crunch was such that I still cannot forget.

1952 year. Nina PONOMAREVA is the first Olympic champion in the history of Soviet sports.
Photo - Anatoly BOCHININ

"MARUSYA"

- Among the Olympic champions of 1952, gymnast Viktor Chukarin, weightlifter Ivan Udodov and classic wrestler Yakov Punkin stand out. All three were in German concentration camps. Have you communicated?

No. At the Games, people are irritated, their nerves are at the limit. Once again, no one will stop, they will not talk ... But I was at the final fight of Yasha. Even now, tears are welling up. He wins, the judge throws up his hand - and everyone sees below the elbow a thousand of some kind left over from the concentration camp. The judge seemed to be shocked. He rolls up his sleeve - he also has a number of numbers pinned up. Hugs our fighter tightly. It turned out they were in the same camp!

- Fencer Mark Midler told us that Soviet athletes were trained as spies for the 1952 Olympics. They expected provocations.

They severely punished: "If foreigners ask where you live, answer: Skatertny lane, building 4". The Sports Committee was located there. We spoke.

- Were there many committee members?

We called them either "Marusya" or "Petya the oblique brother". All these crooks were from the Komsomol. Before it seemed to me that every such person has it written on his face who he is. They stood out in any crowd. Suddenly it was revealed by chance that my comrade Nikolai Kalinin, a judge of the all-Union category, had worked in the authorities for thirty years. Nobody could even imagine!

And there were indeed provocations. The Americans treated us best of all. The rest hated. There were many Vlasovites at every competition, they crawled out from somewhere. Some nasty stuff, but they came up with it.

- What the hell?

1954, we fly to London for the Great Britain - USSR match. They say - there is, they say, a gift for you. A local millionaire wants to donate to Leningrad a gold ring with 33 diamonds that once belonged to the Romanovs' house. The only condition is to hand it over to Vladimir Kuts personally at the stadium. He was wildly popular.

- So what?

Our people were on their guard. Developed a plan. They take out a ring on a pillow, hold out Kutsu. Nearby is the head of the delegation, Pushnov. It was he who jumped forward, grabbed the box. Kuts did not touch.

A newspaper with a photograph, where Volodya allegedly holds the ring, is already being carried around the stadium. Signature: "Will Kutz be the record holder?" Hinting that he received a valuable gift and violated the status of an amateur athlete. For this they could be disqualified - which means, goodbye, the Olympics in Melbourne.

- Scandal.

Not that word! It is clear that the picture was concocted beforehand. Our people filed a protest, refused to speak. The British immediately wrote a letter of repentance. The competition was delayed by three hours.

BERIA

- At the 1952 Games, Adi Dassler personally measured your foot. Horrified by the rubber slippers.

Well, how can you know that? You are not Petit oblique brothers?

- We swear - no.

Dassler let me down - he gave me a pair of slippers that were smaller than mine, as if on my leg. And they are uncomfortable, running out. I urgently asked for new ones, although I had already decided that I would perform in mine. It turns out she deceived. But won't he take it back?

- In Helsinki, Nina Dumbadze was considered your main rival. They say she posed for Vuchetich in the studio, sculpted the figure of "Motherland" from her.

I hear it for the first time. Nina never talked about it.

- And about the affair with Lavrenty Palych?

Too. But about Beria - the truth. He idolized Nina. Therefore, much was forgiven her. Sometimes he will disappear from the team for several days - no one will utter a word. Or imagine: the USSR track and field championship, the Dynamo stadium. We made a markup. Suddenly Nina declares: "I'm used to the government tribune on the left." Everything is quickly redone. Because it is more expensive for yourself to quarrel with the favorite of Lavrenty Palych, who will personally come to cheer for her.

- Was Dumbadze married?

Yes, my son grew up. Surely the husband knew everything. But he's an athletics coach. And he is a marshal ... However, women like Nina are doomed to receive increased attention.

- Beautiful?

Unusual. Tall, smart, charming. Although she was disliked for her whims and arrogance in the national team. When we arrived in Helsinki, I was not quoted at all. Number three, foundling. But in the final, Dumbadze did not go right away. Liza Bagryantseva does the same. I am in a panic: "If the experienced ones have faltered, then where should I go ..." I release the disc in dead silence. At first I jerked, then I looked - it was leveled. Flies, it seemed, for an eternity. Falls - and the roar of the stands! 51.42 - Olympic record! And for a long time I still could not realize that I won gold.

- Was it more difficult in Rome?

Simpler. There, she never doubted her success. Felt great and could score higher than 55.10. The rain has confused the cards.

- In Melbourne, chronic sciatica prevented you from performing better?

I don’t consider him an injury anymore. All my life I suffer, I'm used to it. There was no hot water in our stadiums. After training, I washed myself cold - and that's how I got sciatica. As the cold set in, it grabbed the lower back. From the endless pricks, the skin in this place resembled a soldier's belt. Sometimes the doctor rested his foot in order to stick a needle in there!

And in Melbourne, during the warm-up, I tore my groin muscles. I barely hobbled into the sector. In this situation, bronze is not the worst option. Especially if you remember that I spent a month and a half before the Olympics in prison.

- Do you mean the Soviet ambassador's apartment in London?

Well, yes, an apartment. But I couldn't go anywhere! I sat around the clock in four walls!

- Have you been accused of trying to steal a lady's hat?

Not hats - a rim with feathers. At the cost of £ 5. It happened at the match between the national teams of the USSR and Great Britain - two years after the scandal with Kuts. Only now I was in the role of the victim. On the weekend they brought me to a shopping center. I chose the bezel, put it in my bag, paid. And she ran to look for a girlfriend who was buying a dress.

Suddenly invited into the room. I thought, the fitting room, the girlfriend was there. But this is a completely different room. I remember looking at my watch - 10.22. A minute later, the emergency door opens, a young man enters, says in Russian: "I am a translator." I answer: "No one has asked who I am, where I am from. Maybe I'm French? Or German?" I was finally convinced that this was a provocation when the local newspaper was brought in for dinner. With a cap on the front page: "Ponomareva is not going to Melbourne! The Soviet team is losing the gold medal!"

- But.

A representative of the embassy was summoned. They began to investigate, in vain they asked to withdraw the cash register in order to find a check, which I did not take ... And in Great Britain the law: any controversial issue is resolved in court. But when Khrushchev was reported to Moscow, he snapped: "No ships! Our man has no place there!" When I didn't show up there the next day, I was automatically arrested. After that, she could only take refuge in our embassy.

- What were you doing there?

Sobbed all day. It scratched on nerves. Then she began to turn gray. At 27 years old! Since then I have been wearing a short haircut. You have no idea what I went through ... The apartment and our embassy were separated by a road. So under the windows at night reporters, onlookers were on duty, set up tents. They watched me not to slip through.

- How did it end?

All the same, I had to go to court. With a lawyer, papers. It turned out there - not only was I not guilty of anything, but I was also swindled by three shillings. The question was closed. But I asked to be sent home by steamer.

- Why?

I was afraid that they would suddenly be removed from the flight, or they would come up with some other dirty trick? Better by sea, then a ship went from London to Leningrad. I returned on it. And almost immediately - to Melbourne. There, at the airport, a crowd was greeted, from all sides rushing: "Nina! Nina!" I burst into tears. I understood that people were waiting for me and thought: if I fly to the Olympics, then it’s definitely not my fault.

1972 year. Nina PONOMAREVA

PANTS

- Is it true that in that team there were ... how shall I say ... not quite women?

Yes men! What more! You can see them. Everyone knew everything. They brought medals and records to the country. And the bosses closed their eyes until sex control appeared. Have you heard of Shura Chudina?

- Of course. Unique - she won almost all the disciplines of athletics. Plus a three-time world volleyball champion.

We come to the competition in Hungary. Olga Dyarmati, Olympic long jump champion in London 1948, comes to us. She spoke a little Russian. Without hesitation, he climbs into bed with Chudina and shakes his finger: "Screwdriver, I can set a world record. If you interfere, I'll take your pants off."

- High relationships.

The next day Olga won, though without a record. And Shurka, when she jumped, tucked her legs - just not to fly far ... She lived in the full sense of the word with Zinka Safronova, a runner. And I’m on the team - sew it on.

- That is?

I took my little son with me - not everyone likes this kind of neighborhood. And Shura and Zinka did not mind, they settled with them. I involuntarily watched their relationship. Fights including.

- Why did you fight?

Zinka was jealous. As a result, Yulia, a cashier from the Rossiya cinema, became Shurka's "wife". Incredible beauty. She bequeathed the apartment to her. Shura died in 1990, in recent years she was ill - tuberculosis, gangrene, leg amputation. Actually, as a person, she is very good. Bright memory.

- Chudina ended her career in 1963. Three years later, a gender test was introduced at the European Athletics Championships in Budapest.

And they all finished right away. In "Pravda" they described in detail - who has a mother in the hospital, who twisted his leg, who injured his back. Previously, such details were not published in the newspapers. But one must somehow explain the sudden absence of leaders. Of those suspected, only Yolanda Balas, a two-time Olympic champion in high jump from Romania, came to Budapest. But she discovered that ours were not there, and immediately starred under some pretext.

- Such athletes in the national team kept themselves apart?

Of course. They always came into the shower after us. Nobody wanted to live in the same room at the training camp with them.

I remember in the 50s the thrower Arzumanova. The same field is a berry. She reached out to my girlfriend, hurdler Maria Golubnichy. When he sees her, he narrows his eyes, opens his mouth, begins to breathe heavily. Maria was afraid of her. She asked: "Just don't leave me alone with Arzumanova!"

VLASOV

- How did you help Tamara Press in 1964 in Tokyo?

I myself have already lost my chances for medals. And she, after several unsuccessful attempts, fell into a stupor. I didn’t understand anything. I ran around the sector with glass eyes and repeated: "Well, I'll show them!" To get out of this state, I had to curse her. How I screamed! "Damn it, if you don't listen to me, I won't let you out of the circle! I'll hit you in the head with a disk!"

- And she?

I was dumbfounded. Then she exhaled: "Yes! Yes! Good!" She immediately calmed down. This is what I wanted. Her strength is incredible. The disc was thrown so that they could hardly dig it out. First he soared high, high, and then entered the ground.

- Did the technique let you down?

In such cases, the proverb is appropriate: there is strength - no mind is needed. I explained what needs to be done, corrected the movement. As soon as she swung, I realized - this is the winning throw. After the award ceremony, Tamara held out a medal: "Here, she's yours!" And years later, at the Olympic ball, when everyone was talking about themselves, she said loudly: "If it weren't for Ponomarev, I wouldn't have won anything in Tokyo!"

- So why did you take 11th place at that Olympics?

- "They helped." Gathering in Khabarovsk three weeks before the Games. I am already 35, I work according to my plan, I dose the loads so that I can be at my peak in Tokyo. In the morning, an estimate. Mitropolsky, the coach, comes up: "Today I have to throw 55 meters. You are in doubt. If there is no result, you will go home with Kulkova ..."

- Which Kulkova?

Barrier from Leningrad. A talented girl. But she met her husband at the wrong time - and had an abortion half a month before the Olympics. Was not included in the composition. And I just didn’t have enough brains to let Mitropol'sky’s words go deafening. Think that he is the coach of Zhenya Kuznetsova, and he has his own interest.

- Which?

Disable a competitor. Nobody was going to unhook me, the estimate was a formality. But I started up. That year at the Union Championship she showed the third result. I decided to prove that I am going to the Games for a reason: "Oh, you want 55 ?! Get it! With a margin!" In each attempt, the disc flew 56 meters. Best result of the season.

- What's wrong?

At 35, such things do not pass without a trace. Instead of giving her all in Tokyo, she spilled everything in Khabarovsk. To the bottom. She flew to the Olympics completely empty, she could not even straighten her shoulders. It was not me in the sector - the shadow.

- The Tokyo Olympics are a disappointment not only for you, but also for weightlifter Yuri Vlasov. The key episode of his battle with Jabotinsky happened before your eyes?

Yes. I have no words to describe it ... I was friends with Yura, with his coach Suren Bagdasarov, who raised three children alone. Vlasov is a complex person. Closed. Extremely decent, well-mannered, concrete. Will not waste time on trifles, to find out something. He could not even imagine such deceit on the part of Jabotinsky. Although he is cunning - he never trained in the presence of Yura. Except that he was warming up slightly.

- Someone will object - Vlasov himself is to blame, he did not calculate the situation.

They live in the same room. They breathe the same air. They eat one bread. Zhabotinsky says to him: "Yura, I can't." And then he lifts the record bar. Vlasov was stronger at times! And in life I would not have lost to him if I knew the truth.

- How did the national team take Jabotinsky's victory?

If it were possible, they would trample him right there, in Tokyo! Yura had to fill Zhabotinsky's face. I would have done so in his place. Vlasov, after that Olympics, lay in a madhouse.

- News for us.

Yes, it was! You were cheated insolently, and even in front of the whole world ... I perfectly understood Yura - after Tokyo, sports ceased to exist as a topic for him.

- Do you like his books?

Honestly? No. Male brains and female brains are different things ... We haven't seen each other for forty years. Vlasov does not appear at any Olympic balls, meetings with veterans.

"VOLGA"

- How much were paid to the Olympic champions in those years?

Officially - 20 thousand. On hands with all deductions - over 14 thousand. This is for Rome. They didn't give a dime for Helsinki at all. For the bronze of Melbourne I received 7 thousand ... Once the famous Petya Bolotnikov was pinned down for selling raincoats. He exploded: "Yes, I trade! Why? The Humanite prize must be won, there is not enough for food. And I have a wife, two children ..."

- Did you also carry raincoats?

I never took anything for sale. So brought up. I can only give it back. This was used, often deceived. How many times have I borrowed, but they have not returned to me ...

- The most offensive case?

I sold a dacha near Kiev for 8 thousand, a neighbor asked for this amount in debt. And she did not return it. But God punished her.

- Did you have a car?

Not for long. After Melbourne I bought the Volga. There was no extra money, I borrowed from friends. I sold what I could. Even the woolen underpants that my husband brought from Sakhalin. At the same time, neither he nor I had any rights. On the second day, a deer was cut down from the hood. On the fifth, the caps were stolen. My husband also reached into the bottle: "I am not going to be your driver. Rewrite the Volga to me."

- What did you answer?

She was indignant: “Why on earth? And she lost it to the cyclist Vita Kapitonov. Since then I have been using public transport.

- Are you talking about the first husband?

About the second. The first is the hammerhead Romashkov. I don't remember him.

- ???

We lived together for 14 days. With a sore back I went to Tskhaltubo for treatment, but he got bored in Moscow. One day my mom pulled him out of a neighbor's room. I immediately filed for divorce. Then she married Volodya Garin, a doctor. The son Sasha was born. This marriage broke up after 21 years.

- Why?

Jealous, buzzed, drank. I could not get along with Sasha's wife. I endured for a long time, but at some point it became unbearable to live under one roof.

- Is your son still in Kiev?

Yes. Trains young fencers. He gave me two granddaughters and a grandson. Anka is an epee fencer, five-time world champion. Manka is far from sports. Sanka is a football goalkeeper. They call, visit when there is time. Like many of my students. By the way, one of them advised me to return to Moscow in the mid-90s.

- Why? Kiev is a wonderful city.

I did not become mine there, even though I lived thirty years, and my mother is a Ukrainian. The pension is scanty. There was not even enough to pay for utilities. Here the Olympic Committee helped with the apartment - bought it at the state price. I changed my passport. I feel good in Moscow.

- Is it difficult for one?

I got used to it. I don't like to complain.

- Do you go to the store yourself?

And who is? There are two sticks in my hands, a backpack behind my back is normal. Here is a plot in Podolsk, I will probably sell. It’s hard to get there. But when they are invited to the school to meet with the children or to any other events, I always agree. I think: "Who, if not me?" Show off to you?

- Do me a favor.

Look, here are my medals - gold in Helsinki, Rome, bronze in Melbourne. But others are the most expensive. Pay attention to the year.

- 1994th. Wow.

Count how old I was. 65! She won the World Veteran Championship in Australia. Both in the disk and in the core!

- Many of your generation sold out their medals in the 90s. Have you been contacted with such proposals?

No. I would send right away. And those who sold medals are worth a penny on a market day. So write.