Soviet sports, of course, was one of the best in the world. There were athletes in our country who forced the whole world to radically revise their views on a particular sport. After all, they argued that they can do what until now was considered physically impossible. Athlete Valery Borzov also belongs to such athletes.
Unique Athlete
Throughout his career, he twice became the Olympic champion - in 1972 and 1976. Also Borzov Valery Filippovich was repeatedly the champion of Europe and the winner of many other competitions. And he entered the history of athletics as a completely unique sprinter, in a sense creating this sport in its modern form.
Valery Borzov: biography, childhood
Many prominent people began their development in early childhood. Valery Borzov is no exception. He says that he loves to run from the age of four. Then he ran with his dog Tuzik: at first the boy chased him, and then the dog followed Valery. Very quickly, the boy liked to run so much that he began to run after any car that drove along the street. Constantly falling, breaking legs and arms in the blood. Mom was not particularly happy every time she met her beloved son in this form, but it was impossible to re-educate the future champion.
According to Valery Borzov, of all the physical abilities of a person, speed is formed first of all. Constant running contributed to his continued success.
Talented young man noticed by coaches
Almost no one knew that Valera would ever become a high-class sprinter and winner of world competitions. Young Borzov was the most ordinary child, short and full. What did Valery Borzov become in his best years? The height and weight of the athlete were in the perfect ratio: with a height of 183 cm, he weighed 80 kg.
Valery loved to run, but few of the boys at that age did not like this thing. However, Borzov did not want to just run and at the age of twelve he entered the children's and youth sports school of New Kakhovka. The famous coach Boris Ivanovich Voitas worked there, who noticed Borzov’s talent. He became the first mentor of the young sprinter and even gave him his photo with the inscription: “To the future Olympic champion Valery Borzov”. Mysticism or psychological suggestion, but the inscription turned out to be prophetic.
Boris Voitas raised many more great athletes, in particular, until his death, he coached the Saudi national team. However, Valery Borzov was for him the best student.
Smart running
Valery Borzov is famous for bringing a truly “smart” run to athletics. This means that during running, not only the legs and body work in general, but also the head. Borzov was able to assess the situation on the track in a matter of fractions of a second and change the speed in accordance with the information received. One German journalist, commenting on Borzov’s style, said that before him it was impossible to imagine that there could be any tactics in running 100 meters, because at such a distance the athlete does not have time to reorganize. Valery Borzov destroyed this stereotype and showed that it is possible to change tactics at such a distance several times. In addition, his performances have always been beautiful and easy.
White Sprinter Triumph
For a long time, leadership in short-distance running was retained by black American athletes. In 1960, the first white European, the German runner Armin Hari, became the winner in Rome, but this victory did not last long, and soon the American became the champion again. In the future, only Valery Borzov could push black athletes from the top. Moreover - he managed to maintain his champion status for many years.
In the same 1972, in the 200-meter race, Borzov Valery Filippovich made a “golden double” and at the finish he overtook three Americans at once.
Borzov’s achievements did not go unnoticed, especially since he demonstrated the superiority of Soviet people over Americans - at that time even sport was given political meaning. The athlete was awarded all kinds of awards, including the Order of Lenin, Friendship of Peoples, Badge of Honor, and the highest awards of the Lenin Komsomol.
How Borzov trained
Many people believe that the athlete comes to victory when he overcomes himself many times, takes on uncharacteristic loads, does what is beyond his capabilities, but also generally human. But this mythology was destroyed by Borzov, or rather his mentors Voitas and Petrovsky (the latter coached the champion when he already entered the institute). These teachers deliberately limited young athletes, forced to run only at the level of a standard training and to avoid overloads. They especially sought to protect the runner’s nervous system from overstrain, which is a very important indicator in this sport (and in any other). Such an attitude made it possible not to exhaust the physical and psychological potential, fostered perseverance and perseverance, the desire to win. All this the young athlete perceived and subsequently used in his activities. After all, Valery Borzov is not only a practitioner, but also a scientist who has written many works on sports topics.
Studying at the Kiev Institute of Physical Education at Petrovsky, Borzov first learned how to run a hundred-meter race in exactly ten seconds. I must say that Petrovsky was a very unusual coach for his time. He used an innovative scientific approach in the education of athletes, using mathematical calculations. After analyzing the results of many athletes, Petrovsky derived for Borzov a special formula, one might say, the formula for success. This trainer was also interested in the possibility of cybernetic control, which he later put into practice.
Modest, intelligent athlete
Once in the Soviet team, Valery Borzov at first did not particularly stand out. It can not be said that he was uncommunicative, but he behaved quietly and modestly, preferring to listen more than talk. But these he liked the trainers, who noted his perseverance and methodicality in achieving the goal.
His first significant victory in an international tournament was a gold medal at the 1969 European Championships in Athens. At that moment, no one thought that this unremarkable athlete would somehow prove himself. But he won - it’s so simple, without a hitch. The leadership was not even in a hurry to acknowledge his victory - Borzov got the medal only after a careful study of photo materials. But from this its significance only grows, because it is obtained in a bitter struggle.
Valery Borzov, whose photo you see in the article, is not only a wonderful athlete, but also a loving spouse, a caring father. They, along with his wife Lyudmila, raised their daughter Tatyana. You see their happy family in the photo.
Valery Borzov is an athlete, the level of which everyone needs to strive for. He is the pride of his country. You should always take an example from such people.