Galina Kulakova is a skier who is considered one of the most titled athletes in the history of the USSR. She was also remembered for the fact that almost all of her victories were in a fairly adult age. And this is especially noticeable in the pictures from the competitions, which depict Galina Kulakova. Photos from numerous races indicate that she almost always competed with a much younger generation of skiers and, despite this, won awards. Sports enthusiasts still proudly recall the Saporro Olympics. Then, in 1972, it was Galina Kulakova who won all the gold medals in her sport.
Biography
The name of this simple village girl today is known to almost all sports fans. The year of birth of Galina Kulakova - 1942 - came at a time when war was raging in the country. She was born into a large family in the village of Logachi, Votkinsk district, Udmurtia. The girl had two brothers and seven sisters. She learned the hardships of life in early childhood, when her father died at the front. Already in her youth, she began to help her mother, getting a job as a milkmaid at the state farm. Even then, the girl showed incredible stamina and hard work - character traits that are so necessary for athletes. Galina Kulakova, whose biography at first was in no way connected with skis, nevertheless knew how to ride them, because the school was three kilometers from her house, and in winter it was sometimes impossible to get into it. But despite her physical stamina, the girl did not think about a sports career at all, since she needed to help her mother raise her brothers and sisters. And when she graduated from high school, then, deciding to connect her life with teaching, she entered a pedagogical school.
Youth
It was at this time that Galina Kulakova again, after a long break, got up on her skis. And after some time, when she already seriously begins to engage in cross-country skiing, the girl decides to connect her life with this sport. In 1962 she graduated from the Izhevsk Pedagogical School. After some time, Kulakova enters the Prokopyevsky gymnasium and begins to seriously train under the guidance of a talented and very strict coach Pyotr Naimushin.
First success
Until 1967, she performed only at tournaments at the city or regional level, but already in the same year a very important event took place in her life. The girl falls into the national team and a few months later, in 1968, she goes to her first Olympics in Grenoble. There, Galina Kulakova receives her first international award - silver at a distance of five kilometers, and a day later - bronze for the relay. Experts believe that Kulakova could become an Olympic champion in Grenoble, but she was just unlucky, and fortune smiled at Swedish Gustafsson. Our athlete, winning a five-kilometer race, literally “flew” to the finish line, ahead of her opponent in time. But five hundred meters downhill she was thrown out of the track. Galina fell, on which she lost a little more than ten seconds. The trainer says that the girl lacked experience and vigilance. Later it turns out that for gold she lacked only three seconds. A year later, at the championship of the Soviet Union, the first place was taken by Galina Kulakova, a skier, whose biography as a famous athlete had just begun.
Failure and victory
Before the world championship, which took place in the High Tatras in 1970, the press “gave” all the gold to the girl in advance, but ... Unforeseen happened. From the ski run of the USSR Cup races, Galina was taken to the Sverdlovsk hospital, where she underwent surgery. The girl could not get to her feet for a long time. And when she came to, she had to learn to walk again. Of course, there was no question of skiing. As a rule, after such an operation, patients need to lie for several months, gaining strength. But Galina, who by her nature could not wait so much, did everything possible to return to duty as quickly as possible. Contrary to all the forecasts of the doctors, she, getting up a few weeks later, immediately started training, and this incredibly amazed all the medical staff, including the Aesculapius luminaries. When she won the five-kilometer race at the world championship in Czechoslovakia, on the ski track in the Tatra Mountains, few people knew what this fantastic victory cost her.
Dizzying success
In 1972, Galina Kulakova again took part in the Olympics. It was in Saporro that she showed truly incredible results. Even despite her age, and she was already thirty years old at that time, the skier became the owner of the first three awards at once. Two years after this dizzying Olympics, Galina performs well at the World Cup, after which three more gold medals were added to her collection. It is believed that the period from 1972 to 1976 is the peak of achievements of this amazing athlete in international competitions. In subsequent years, she managed to win only one gold at the Olympics, all awards were either bronze or silver. It is impossible to ignore the fact that it was Galina Kulakova who managed to win the first World Cup - a tournament that took place in 1978, when this Soviet skier was already thirty-six years old. However, despite such an impressive age for the athlete, she managed to win.
It is interesting
Galina Kulakova is a skier whose biography is worthy of imitation. In 1976, during the Winter Olympics, she was accused of doping. This happened after the Soviet skier won bronze at a ten-kilometer distance. It turned out that the positive doping test was due to the fact that literally on the eve of the competition Galina used drops from a cold. Repeatedly Kulakova surprised doctors with her phenomenal health. After all, even in spite of her hungry and difficult childhood, this woman, in addition to a mild cold, never suffered from anything else. In 2013, the Bank of Russia issued a commemorative coin with the image of G. Kulakova. It was made of silver and today it is stored in the personal museum of this great skier.
Awards
Given that the Soviet skier G. Kulakova managed to achieve incredible heights, the state could not help but note her achievements. In 1972, immediately after the Olympics, she was awarded the Order of Lenin. In her collection, Galina has a medal "For Labor Distinction" and immediately three Badges of Honor. She is an honorary citizen of both Udmurtia and Izhevsk. Even after the collapse of the Union, the new government repeatedly celebrated the champion. In 1997, for example, she was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, and already in 2008 she became an honored physical education worker.
Not only Russian, but also foreign organizations noted the achievements of Galina Kulakova. In 1982, Juan Samaranch himself gave the athlete the Olympic Order, which is awarded only to those who make a special contribution to the
Olympic movement.