A small town in the Vladimir region with the poetic name Gus-Khrustalny gave the sports world a wonderful athlete who managed to stay forever in the hearts of biathlon fans of our planet. This is Rostovtsev Pavel Alexandrovich. The athlete's year of birth is 1971, and his birthday is September 21. If you believe the eastern horoscope, then Virgo men born in the year of the pig have great talents that they can fully reveal throughout their lives due to natural industriousness and innate tenacity. This characteristic is fully consistent with the life path of Pavel Rostovtsev. It is not enough to have talent from birth, it is much more important to be able to fully realize it. Pavelās sports career is an excellent confirmation of this thesis.
What is he, the famous Russian biathlete Rostovtsev Pavel Alexandrovich? The athlete is 187 cm tall and weighs 80 kg. Attractive man in his prime. Has a higher education, specialty - mechanical engineer. How was his life? What did he manage to achieve? You will learn about this by reading the article.
Childhood
Having lived in the city of Gus-Khrustalny until 1977, the Rostovtsev family decided to move to Velikiye Luki. It was in this city that Paul went to first grade. Three years later, a new relocation. In 1980, Pavel and his parents ended up in the small town of Kovrov, Vladimir Region. It is in this city that Paul begins to seriously engage in sports. In a provincial town, there were no particular options for starting a sports career. The decisive factor was the fact that Pavelās father, Alexander Nikolayevich Rostovtsev, was recruiting a group of children to practice in the sports section for skiing. Thus, the first coach of Rostovtsev can safely be considered his own father.
First steps in biathlon
Initially, there was no talk of biathlon. Rostovtsev Pavel Aleksandrovich was engaged in cross-country skiing, giving preference to long-distance running. When Pavel was fourteen years old, there was an option to try his hand at a cross-country sport - biathlon. Pavel was so captured by the new sport that clean skis faded into the background. Now all the teenagerās thoughts were only about biathlon. At first it was very difficult - Rostovtsev, who looked confident on the track, did not differ in stable shooting, which negatively affected the final results of biathlon competitions. But the high potential of the young athlete was clearly visible to biathlon specialists. At some point, it became clear that Rostovtsev Pavel Alexandrovich outgrew the level of provincial Kovrov. And in order to grow professionally, you need to radically change something in your life. At the family council, it was decided to move Pavel to Krasnoyarsk.
The beginning of a professional career
One of the important arguments for moving to Krasnoyarsk was the fact that the famous biathlon coach Valery Stolnikov showed personal interest in Pavel Rostovtsev. Work with Stolnikov almost immediately bore fruit. A number of victories were won at domestic biathlon competitions. And already in 1995, after moving to Krasnoyarsk, Pavel was called up under the banner of the national team.
Russian biathlon team
At the end of 1995, in the Slovak city of Osrblie, Paul made his debut in the Biathlon World Cup. More than eighty athletes took part in the race, and all the more honorable was the ninth place taken by the Russian biathlete in his debut race. Finally, Rostovtsev Pavel Aleksandrovich, whose biography is presented to your attention in the article, entrenched in the national team in the 1996-1997 season. In the same season, the first personal success in the international arena took place. The first sprint race of the 1996-1997 World Cup brought Pavel third place, and the very next day Rostovtsev improved his position in the pursuit race, finishing in second place. Rostovtsev Pavel Aleksandrovich - a biathlete who is seriously considered by the coaching staff of the national team as the main candidate for a trip to the Nagano Winter Olympics.
Loss of loved ones
However, these plans were not destined to come true. In the spring of 1997, Valery Stolnikov, a trainer who discovered Pavel Rostovtsev for the biathlon world, tragically dies in a car accident. In the fall of the same year, Pavel will face another serious shock. Pavelās father, Alexander Nikolaevich Rostovtsev, is dying. The psychological shock experienced by Paul negatively affected his results. I had to forget about the biathlon team for a while.
His future wife, also a biathlete, Julia Dykanyuk, helped Pavel get out of the depression. She, along with Pavelās new coach, Konstantin Ivanov, helped the athlete find herself, the former.
Triumphant return to the national team
In the 1998-1999 season, Rostovtsev is again the main participant in the biathlon team of Russia. Following the results of the cup season, Pavel becomes the owner of the prestigious Small Crystal Globe in the standings of individual races. In the same season, Paul came the first success at world championships. At the 2000 World Championships held in the Norwegian Holmenkollen, Paul won the silver medal in the first 10 km sprint race. The next day, Rostovtsev was second again in the pursuit, losing only three seconds to German champion Frank Luke. The next race was a 15 km mass start. And again a silver medal. Nevertheless, Paul won his gold medal at this World Cup. As part of the Russian relay team, he beat the great Norwegian U. E. Bjƶrndallen at the last, fourth stage.
Golden take
Personal gold of the world championships appeared in Paulās collection after competitions in Slovenian Pokljuka in 2001. Already in the first race at a ten-kilometer distance, our athlete had no equal. Paul developed his success the next day. In the pursuit race, another victory was won with a noticeable superiority over rivals. This championship was the most successful in Paulās sports career. Two gold medals of the championship, received within two days, are a result that deserves all respect.
Team captain
Stability of results and successes at the largest world competitions positively influenced the authority of Paul. Since 2000, he is captain of the national biathlon team. The 2001-2001 season is successfully developing for Paul. Showing consistently good results at the World Cup stages, Pavel approaches the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City as one of the main favorites of the biathlon tournament. But, experiencing tremendous psychological pressure, constantly being in the center of attention of fans and journalists, Pavel failed his first Olympics. The relay race, in which Paulās unsuccessful shooting at the last stage, deprived our team of chances for Olympic medals, became a particular disappointment . The disappointment from the unsuccessful performance at the Olympics was so great that Paul spent the ending of the season very badly. A real chance was lost to win the World Cup.
Ending a sports career
The following seasons brought the athlete continuous disappointment. For several years, Paulās asset is only one hit on the podium in personal races. This happened at the World Cup in Anholz, where Pavel took second place in the mass start. Increasingly, Rostovtsev began to have thoughts about ending his sports career. In addition, in 2004, at a training session, Pavel Rostovtsev received a rather serious injury and was forced to miss all the pre-season training. However, innate persistence helped Pavel return to the world biathlon elite and get a well-deserved Olympic medal. This happened in 2006 at the Winter Olympic Games in Italian Turin. As part of the relay team, Pavel perfectly passed his third stage, which allowed the Russian team to win Olympic silver. This season was the last for Pavel Rostovtsev as a professional athlete.
Life after a sports career
Having completed his professional career, three-time world champion Rostovtsev Pavel Aleksandrovich does not say goodbye to sports. He remains in big sport as an administrative employee. He was offered the post of head of the Agency of Physical Culture and Sports under the administration of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In 2009, Pavel Rostovtsev was elected vice president of the Russian Biathlon Union. In the spring of 2011, Pavel Rostovtsev decides to switch to coaching. He was appointed coach of the Russian women's biathlon team. His responsibilities included shooting training for athletes. Having worked in this position for three years, Pavel resigned in 2014 together with the coaching staff of Wolfgang Pichler. Also in the asset of Pavel Rostovtsev there is work in the rugby club "Krasny Yar" from the city of Krasnoyarsk and the post of Minister of Sports of the Irkutsk region.
Rostovtsev Pavel Alexandrovich: personal life
Paul was married twice in his life. The first wife of Paul, Julia Dykanyuk, also professionally engaged in biathlon. Pavel and Julia met at a training camp in 1994. For several years, the relationship between them was purely friendly. The chain of tragic events that occurred in the life of Paul in 1997 (the death of his father and the death of a coach) plunged the athlete into a deep depression. It was Julia Dykanyuk who managed to help Pavel overcome this difficult life period. In April 2000, they officially registered their relationship.
Does Pavel Alexandrovich Rostovtsev have children? The wife Julia gave him a son before the wedding. At the time of the official marriage, they already had a four-month-old son, Alexander. Julia had to sacrifice her sports career for the sake of family life. Moreover, in 2006, the young couple had a second child. It was a boy again. Parents called him Artemy. A terrible blow for the family was the news that Julia was diagnosed with leukemia. All attempts to cope with a terrible disease were fruitless. At the age of 35, Julia died.
In 2011, Pavel Rostovtsev entered into a second marriage. His wife was Olga Turovets. Pavel met her in his hometown of Krasnoyarsk. The future wife of Pavel was a lawyer by training, but worked as an editor on the regional Afontovo channel. Acquaintance occurred during the filming of a telecast with the participation of Paul. For some time the future spouses met, and in 2011 decided to officially register their relationship. It was Olga who helped Pavel to make a difficult decision for him to head the biathlon team of Russia.
Now Pavel is 45 years old, and there is no doubt that we will hear more than once about this great athlete who has presented many victories to Russian sports.