At the last World Paralympic Games, Russian athletes won a record number of medals - 28 bronze, 38 silver and 36 gold. In the team event, they took second place, only slightly losing the national team from China. Such results cannot but evoke a sense of appropriate pride in the high achievements of these athletes. But it is especially fascinating what kind of struggle they are waging with their personal limitations, not allowing those to break themselves. Their thirst for life is truly inspiring.
Olesya Vladykina is one of the champions of the Paralympic Games and a vivid example of a strong personality. Eight years ago, in a terrible accident, she lost her close friend, with whom she had been swimming for 10 years, and her left hand. However, at that terrible moment, she did not allow panic and later also did not allow herself to become discouraged. On the contrary, since then Olesya Vladykina grabbed hold of her life even tighter. Her biography has changed dramatically, but has changed rather for the better.
Key Biography Facts
Vladykina Olesya Yurievna was born in Moscow on February 14, 1988. In 2008, Olesya lost her left hand in a car accident. In the same year, at the Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing, she won gold and became the world record holder in swimming 100 meters. In 2012, at the Summer Paralympic Games in London, she also won gold in the 100 meter bracelet, setting a new world record. In 2014, Olesya was the ambassador at the Olympic Games in Sochi.
A variety of children's hobbies
In childhood, Olesya had many hobbies. It seemed to her mother that the girl should do art, namely music and ballet, and she did. She studied in the dombra class at a music school, played the guitar, went to ballet, and danced acrobatic rock and roll. In addition to all this, Olesya studied English in depth. Such employment and simply crazy pace of life tempered the character of the future champion. Even then, the will to win was laid in Olesya’s baby heart with a loving mother’s hand.
Pool and swimming
Parents gave Olesya a swim to help the girl cope with the panic fear of water. This step clearly illustrates that Vladykina’s family from childhood taught the girl to never “hide her head in the sand” and not give in to difficulties. So Vladykina discovered a swimming pool and water sports. She was engaged in professional swimming in the Skiff Sports School for 10 years. Gradually, swimming classes supplanted everything else and became the main hobby in the girl's life. Such a craving for sports in Olesya can be considered hereditary. Her mother was engaged in athletics in her youth, and later taught shaping, her brother is seriously involved in hockey, and for many years the family of the Vladykins had a tradition of skiing and jogging in Tsaritsyno Park. As a result of hard and dedicated work, Olesya Vladykina entered the Moscow swimming team and became a master of sports.
Leaves the sport
At the age of 16, Olesya entered Moscow State University of Railway Engineering to study sports management. In parallel with her studies, the girl had to work hard, because her parents divorced, and it was not easy for mother to support two children. Olesya got a job as a seller at the Central Department Store, in the fashion boutique Armani. So in her life something completely new appeared - fashion, night clubs, parties, cinema. There was absolutely no time left for sports training, and it seemed that everything that could be achieved in youthful swimming had already been achieved. However, the main victories of Olesya were actually still ahead.
Turning point
In February 2008, Olesya went with her friend Alexandra Malochueva on her first long-awaited vacation in the amazing country of Thailand. No one could have imagined that it was here that a terrible disaster would happen that would change everything. On the way to Bangkok, a sightseeing double-decker bus, in which girlfriends rode, rolled over on a flyover. It was later established that the bus driver had lost control. It was raining that day, and he was driving at too high a speed, which, unfortunately, cost some people the most precious thing - life.
At the time of the accident, Olesya was dozing and did not even have time to understand what had happened. In that disaster, Olesya Vladykina lost her arm and received many other serious injuries, including a broken nose, shoulder blades and sacrum. A friend of Olesya Alexandra died on the spot. In an instant, life literally turned upside down. However, from the first minutes, Olesya gave herself the command not to give up. Subsequently, her swimming coach, Sergey Zhilin, admired that the girl was then incredibly courageous and, until the doctors arrived, she squeezed her mutilated hand to stop heavy blood loss.
Recovery period
Within a month, Olesya Vladykina underwent a rehabilitation course in Bangkok, the material costs of which were able to be covered by insurance. Upon returning to Moscow, just a month later, the girl resumed sports training. At that time, the support of her mother and loyal friends helped Olesya come to terms with the changes that took place and accept that her life now simply became different, but did not become worse. In her interviews, the athlete will repeatedly emphasize that it was thanks to many caring people and especially close ones who were always there that she had more strength to deal with new difficult circumstances. And returning to the sport opened new horizons for Olesya and helped to see that she could set herself and achieve many more good goals.
New life
After five months of training, Olesya passed the selection for the Summer
Paralympic Games in Beijing. To achieve this was also not easy. The Russian team was staffed, it seemed, to Olesa, an athlete that no one else knew, could not get there. Nevertheless, Vladykina succeeded in what was considered impossible. Having gone for her personal funds to the European Cup, which was held in the Czech Republic, the girl immediately won three gold medals, showing everyone her huge potential and desire to win. So the young athlete was noticed, and then, by coincidence, the place in the national team was just freed up, and Olesya got to the Paralympics. Here, in the final race with a 100m race, a single-minded girl won a gold medal and set a new world record.
From this moment, Olesya Vladykina is a Paralympic champion. However, this was not her first gold, having set her Olympic record, the athlete was also not going to stop. She was determined once again to exceed the achieved result. After that Olympic victory, Olesya gave a lot of interviews, met with the President of Russia, went to the Economic Forum held in St. Petersburg, she was appointed Ambassador of the Olympics in Sochi in 2014 - in short, life has become more saturated than ever.
New victories and rewards
In 2012, Olesya Vladykina again took part in the Summer Paralympic Games, this time held in London. Here she managed to win a gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke and set a new world record. Olesya also received a bronze medal in the 100-meter swim in the back.
Among the awards of the athlete can be identified:
- Awarding the title of "Honored Master of Sports of Russia".
- Prize of the Paralympic Russian Committee “Return to Life” in 2008.
- Order of Friendship for a significant contribution to the development of physical culture and sports and high achievements at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
- The Order of Honor for a significant contribution to the development of physical culture and sports and high achievements at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
It is not surprising that, as Olesya Vladykina shared, her personal life after the accident not only did not end, but also became much brighter. And if earlier she considered herself a rather whiny and depressed person, now she realized that she could gather strength at a critical moment, fight and win the fight even with very serious difficulties.
Exemplar
Now Olesya leads not only an eventful, but also a truly happy life. What a strong and positive person Olesya Vladykina, photos and videos with her sports performances and interviews demonstrate very clearly. Among them, among other things, you can notice how sincerely the girl smiles and how her eyes burn. Stroking at her, you understand that life is always worth it.
Olesya often attends sports training for children with disabilities, each of whom wants to someday become a Paralympic champion. She talks about the fact that sport opens up many new opportunities for a person, as well as that life is an invaluable gift that needs to be valued, enjoying every moment. It is only natural that in the hearts of these children Olesya Vladykina herself became a real role model . How she lost her hand, she, of course, is scared to remember, because that event deprived the young girl of the usual life that her peers lead, but it was this loss that revealed in her character such qualities of a true fighter as courage and stamina.