Biography of Inga Artamonova

The story of the outstanding skating of Inga Artamonova cut heart. The history of post -war skating sports is replete with the names of Soviet champions. From the year, girls from the USSR only once missed the championship title in the all -around. Isakov, Selikhov, Stenina, Skoblikova - this is the incomplete list of athletes who created something unimaginable on the ice.

But all of them were able to surpass Inga Artamonova, who for the first time in history won four titles of the world champion. However, the fate of an outstanding athlete is difficult to call happy: she never performed at the Olympics and did not live up to 30 years - she was killed by her cruel and jealous husband. The war, tuberculosis, the rowing of Inga had an ordinary military childhood - heavy and hungry.

The war broke out when the girl was not even five years old. The family did not go, Inga was often sick, and the doctor’s next visit and completely upset the whole family - the girl found tuberculosis. The doctor recommended that relatives prepare for the worst: in difficult conditions of wartime it was almost impossible to recover, for this it was necessary for good nutrition and comfort.

Fortunately, the exacerbation of the disease in Inga did not happen often. And a couple of years after the war it became easier to live: my mother got a job on the steamer, which he walked along the Volga and received a decent salary, although she had not been at home for weeks. Grandmother Evdokia Fedotovna, who loved the granddaughter of Inga, looked after the children.

The windows of the old house on Petrovka, where the Artamonov family lived, went to the Dynamo stadium, and Inga in childhood disappeared for hours at the stadium rink. It used to be, just wrapped circles there, when no one of the peers had fun with. But when it came to serious playing sports, the girl was given to an academic row. This sport helped to develop the chest and fight tuberculosis.

And in the age of 18, I managed not only to cope with the disease, but also to fulfill the standard of the master of sports, as well as become a contender for getting into the national team of the Soviet Union. However, the girl did not really fall in love with the row-the passion for skiing was stronger. Two laurel wreaths “Rowing is not mine,” Inga said to her coach. He retorted: “You have a growth of centimeters!

And the skates need short muscles. ” But Artamonova firmly decided to go to the skating sport: “Think! I will show everyone with my long!

But not right away. At the championship of the USSR in the year, the athlete took only the place, but stubborn training had fruit: next year she became the absolute champion of the country, setting a new world record for the sum of the all -around. However, the competition in the national team of the Soviet Union was colossal, and they did not take the Inga team.

They really believed in it only in the year. Artamonova first went to the World Cup in Imatra and immediately became the owner of the champion's laurel wreath. The audience was so delighted with the girl’s performance that after the end of the competition, they pumped her in her arms for several minutes. The laurel wreath of the happy Finnish spectators pulled on souvenirs.

However, a year later, Inga still managed to bring a memorable prize home. In Christinehamn, the Soviet skating won the second title in a row. And from Sweden, Artamonova brought memories of the first serious love. At the tournament, she met a wealthy Swede from an organizing committee named Bengt. It became known about the romantic relationship of the Soviet champion and the Swedish millionaire when, one of the evenings, Ingu was not read during the campaign in the cinema.

She came to the hotel in the morning, explaining her absence that she rode with Beng in a car. Such behavior in the years was considered unacceptable. At home, the athlete was waiting for the trial. The Non -Train Champion Artamonov was trendy popular in the country, thousands of fellow citizens worried about it at internal and international starts, but this did not prevent the KGB for several years to close her abroad.

Because of this, the strongest Soviet athlete did not go to the winter Olympics of the year. Inge was not easy and the beginning of the new Olympic cycle-the athlete, due to problems with the lungs in childhood, was difficult to perform on high-mountain rollers. However, due to the characteristics of his character, Artamonov never retreated to difficulties. She managed to overcome them this time: in the year, Inga for the third time became the absolute champion of the world, repeating the achievement of Maria Isakova and upgrading along the way a number of world records.

Thousands of fellow citizens worried about Artamonov at internal and international starts, but this did not prevent the KGB for several years to close her abroad. It seems that the family life of Inga also changed for the better. Even before the Olympics, she married the skater Gennady Voronin. However, it soon became clear that the husband was far from the ideals of the girl.

He was an unpleasant, cruel man and was jealous of the victories of his wife. The more she won, the more often he raised his hand, trying to assert himself. Voronin struck so that the bruises were not noticeable to anyone, and his wife hid discord in family relationships.After the victory in the year of Inga, the Moscow lightning rod began to pursue failures.

In the year, she went through a long course of ulcer treatment. The athlete almost recovered to the USSR championship and even fulfilled the conditions that the team coaches set before her - she got into the three winners at one of the distances. However, Voronin was not taken to the World Cup. She did not go to the Olympics, which took place in the Innsbruck. However, even after that, the athlete did not give up, but continued to fight with rivals on the ice.

At the championship of the USSR at the end of the Olympic season, she again proved her strength to everyone, ahead of Lydia Skoblikov, who won four gold awards in Austria at once. The World Cup, held in the Finnish city of Oulu, was marked by the confrontation of two Soviet athletes: Inga Voronina and Valentina Stenina. Valentine was close to winning her third title and equal to Inga.

The fate of the championship wreath decided the outcome of the race by meters. Voronina was two seconds faster than her compatriot and became the first four -time world champion in the all -around in the history of skating. She won 10 times at the world championships at separate distances, almost one and a half times updated world records and, perhaps, could achieve more, because she was only 29 years old.

It only remained to go to the Olympics and win gold there. Inga did not dare to submit for a divorce for many years, believing that this story would become a bad example for thousands of Soviet people. However, on the eve of the year, the decision to divorce was still made. Gennady and Inga, by mutual agreement, decided to put an end to family quarrels and scandals. Before the New Year holidays, Inga turned to Dynamo with a request to help with the exchange of housing.

The chairman of the club’s council wrote a note to Voronin with a request to come to his meeting on January 4. However, in the morning he did not go to Dynamo, but to the store. Having bought a bottle of wine there, Voronin drank it, not snacking, and went to his mother -in -law, where his wife lived recently. He was let into the house, asked what he needed, and he, quietly and calmly saying “my paw, paw”, hit his wife with a knife in his heart.

One blow was enough: the ambulance doctors did not have time to save the champion. Thousands of people from all over Moscow came to bury Artamonov. Some wreaths especially resembled bay - those that Inga received four times. And the day after the funeral, it seems, someone noticed an inconsolably crying richly dressed foreigner. It was rumored that he seemed to be a certain Beng.