Shakhlin Boris Anfiyanovich - an outstanding Soviet gymnast, Olympic champion, master of sports. Many more good words can be said about this wonderful person ...
Boris Shakhlin: biography. Champion childhood
Born in Ishim in 1932, at a large junction station near Tyumen. When he was 12 years old, his parents died. Then he was raised by his grandmother with his older brother.
In the courtyard of their house stood a horizontal bar, on which Boris loved to practice. In 1944 he was admitted to the gymnastics section. The first coach of the future champion was V.A. Porfiriev. It was he who laid the special attitude to sport and naturally developed the strong character of the boy. Coach Porfiryev had a very strong character. After the illness, he could not bend, but did not complain, he worked. His example inspired students a lot.
The training room in which Shakhlin was engaged was so small and so low that when working on the bars the children touched the ceiling with their feet. We trained a lot on the street. Bathed in a local river. We went skiing. We ran along the grass.
Shakhlin won his first victory at the All-Union Spartakiad among schools, held by the Ministry of Transport. He performed in the third category.
The period of growing up and the beginning of a stellar career
In the Sverdlovsk gymnasium, Boris got to the wonderful coach E.F. Runge. Already at this stage, Shakhlin switched to the program of masters of sports. Pulled up his physical condition, the ability to work on the rings. In their native Ishim, they could only be practiced on the street in the summer.
After graduating from college, Porfiryev and Runge advised Shakhlin to go to study at the Kiev Institute of Physical Education. There A.S. Mishakov studied with the future champion. The joint work of a wonderful trainer and a talented student gave a positive result. As a sophomore, Shakhlin received the title of Master of Sports of the USSR.
In 1954, the first world championship was held in Rome, in which athletes from the Soviet Union participated. The team, which included Shakhlin, included Chukarin, Muratov, Korolkov, Azaryan and Vostrikov. At these competitions, Shakhlin received a silver medal for performing on the crossbar and a gold medal in team competitions. After returning home to compete in Kharkov, Boris competed with his World Cup comrades and received the title of Absolute Champion of the USSR.
The heyday of a sports career
Shortly before the Olympics in Melbourne, arriving at a training camp in Odessa, Shakhlin met his future wife, a student at the medical school, who was part of the national gymnastics team. After the Olympics, they played a wedding in Kiev and Odessa. Modestly, without a white dress and rings. The athlete later presented the engagement ring to his wife in Moscow. Until the end of his days he himself walked without this attribute of a married man.
He received his first gold medal at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. He won in horse and team competitions. Boris Shakhlin is a master of sports who participated in twelve Olympics. In three, he fought for the victory. At nine he was a judge.
In 1958, at the championship in the capital of the USSR, the main competitor was the brilliant Japanese Tokashio Ono. Shakhlin received a gold medal for team performances on horseback, parallel bars and horizontal bar.
Getting the prefix "iron" to the surname
At the competition in Rome in 1960, the Japanese rival Ono was again. Shakhlin was psychologically more prepared. Tokashio got nervous and lost ground. Shakhlin won on rings that he had never loved.
They began to add the prefix “iron” to the athlete’s surname after a leather pad had burst on his arm at the beginning of the exercises on the bar. In such cases, athletes interrupt the performance. Running a program without a pad is fraught with a fall from the bar and serious injuries. But Shakhlin could not refuse to speak. He fully completed the program at a high level. Completed it successfully. A hand without a lining turned into a continuous wound, was erased. Smiling at the audience, Shakhlin did not show that he was in great pain.
Boris Shakhlin is an Olympic champion who received 4 gold, 2 silver and one bronze medal at competitions in Rome . Bronze - for the performance without an overlay, it was actually with one hand.
At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Shakhlin was the only athlete from the Union to win gold. He also received 2 silver for performing in the team and personal championships and bronze for performing on the rings.
Ending an Athlete's Career
For ten years, Boris Anfiyanovich Shakhlin was a leader in gymnastics in Ukraine, the USSR and on the world stage. During this time he won 97 medals. Actively participated in competitions until the age of 35. For gymnastics, this is a lot.
And then the negative habit, which appeared back in school years, affected. The athlete combined smoking with great physical exertion. He smoked shag and Belomorkanal. As a result, at thirty-five years old he received his first heart attack. From training, he was taken to intensive care. Athlete's career is over. I could not train either.
The way out for a world-famous athlete was found in refereeing. Since 1968, Shakhlin took part in the Olympic Games as a judge. And in the seventies he was elected vice president of the technical committee of the International Gymnastics Federation.
For his contribution to the sports and Olympic movement, as well as for personal sports achievements, Boris Shakhlin received:
- in the international press the title of the most outstanding athlete of the twentieth century;
- Silver Order from the IOC;
- in 2002, the “International Hall of Gymnastic Glory”, which is located in America, included Shakhlin on his list.
In addition, Boris Anfiyanovich worked in the gymnastics department at his native Institute of Physical Education in Kiev, and was an assistant professor. Managed the Olympic Reserve Development Fund.
What was Shakhlin in life?
Boris Anfiyanovich was modest. I didn’t ask for anything. But for others he sought help often. And he didn’t wait when he was asked. He loved and spoiled his wife and daughter. Boris Shakhlin, a gymnast who played chess well, was fond of billiards. He was an interesting conversationalist.
When the athlete’s elder brother died and his nephew from Tyumen wrote that there was nothing to bury his father, Boris Shakhlin sold his medals. He left only two of his granddaughter and daughter as a keepsake. He gave the money to his nephew.
He died at the age of 76 in 2008. The great athlete was buried at the Bike cemetery in the city of Kiev.