It rarely happens that an athlete only wins await throughout his sports career. Often, sport is an intricate set in which the joy of victories, successful performances and the bitter disappointment of failures, of the inability to realize their sporting ambitions are closely intertwined. The heroine of this essay, Anisimova Olga Viktorovna, was waiting for her first success at a high level for twenty long years. What the athlete had to go through over the years, she knows only one ...
Childhood
Anisimova Olga was born in the small town of Balakovo, which is located in the Saratov region. It happened on January 29, 1972. An ordinary working family, a small provincial town - initially there are very few chances to break into a big sport. But if fate gives you this chance, then you need to do everything in your power not to miss it. Anisimova Olga grew up as a sports girl, physical education teachers and her skiing coach noted this. However, to achieve something more in his native Balakovo was not possible. It was necessary to grow further, and for this it was necessary to move to another place where there would be more opportunities to grow professionally. And in 1987 Olga Anisimova decided on this step.
Leningrad
After graduating from the 9th grade of a comprehensive school in her native Balakovo, Olga was faced with a sharp question about getting further education. At that time, the girl no longer saw herself outside the sport. The choice fell on the Leningrad School of Sports Reserve. It was there that the fifteen-year-old Olga Anisimova went to act. The girl arrived without any problems, despite the fact that the competition in a prestigious sports institution was quite serious. Learning was easy, sports training brought joy. The first successes were not long in coming either, already in her second year Olga was included in the junior team of the Soviet Union in such a wonderful sport as biathlon (women).
First medals
The first major success in international competitions came to Olga in 1989. Speaking at the Junior World Championships as part of the USSR national team, Russian biathlete Olga Anisimova became a real hero. At her debut world championship, the athlete managed to win two gold and two silver medals. In the biathlon world, they seriously started talking about the appearance of a rising star from the USSR. Despite the age so young for this sport (at that time Olga Anisimova was only 17 years old), she perfectly combined two main qualities: running and shooting. It would seem, a little more, and our team (biathlon (women)) will receive an excellent athlete for many years. However, everything turned out to be much more complicated.
Birth of a child
In 1991, Olga Anisimova got married, and a year later a son, Vitaliy, appeared in the family of young spouses. For several years I had to forget about biathlon. The return to the big sport was very difficult, the loss of the most defining, in the sporting plan, years affected. Restoring its former shape was incredibly difficult, literally step by step moving towards the intended goal. In addition, there were problems with the financial plan, the 90s stood in the yard, and there was an incredible amount of money in sports. The situation of Olga Anisimova was almost hopeless: lack of housing, a tiny scholarship. In addition, it was time to send my son to school. Russian biathlete Olga Anisimova decides to leave St. Petersburg and try her luck in a new place. For all the time spent in this city, the athlete only performed several times at the stages of the world cup. The best result shown by Olga - 10th place in the individual race in Ostersund. It was necessary to change something ...
Moving to Khanty-Mansiysk
The Tyumen region has always been the patrimony of domestic biathletes. In Khanty-Mansiysk was one of the best biathlon bases in Russia. The personal trainer of Olga Anisimova was a well-known coach Valery Zakharov. Step by step, the athlete gradually restored her athletic condition. But break into the main team of Russia was incredibly difficult. And then Valery Zakharov advised Olga to break into the main team through participation in the European Cup. Despite the sonorous name, it was the second tier of the biathlon elite. Most of them were young biathletes who did not qualify for the main teams. Gradually, Olga began to think about ending her sports career. At this time, in parallel with biathlon, a woman received higher education, studying in absentia at the Faculty of Economics.
Minsk 2004
Gradually, through the starts at the European Cup, Olga Anisimova approached her optimal form. Send victories in individual races, prizes. Despite the serious age, by biathlon standards, Olga again began to be considered as a candidate for getting into the main national team. The first step towards this was taken in 2004 in Belarus. The next European Biathlon Championship was held in Minsk, and Olga Anisimova joined the Russian team. The 4x6 km relay race became a triumph for our women's team. Olga started at the first stage. Having perfectly shot the spoon, the athlete made one mistake when shooting while standing. However, this did not stop her from finishing at her second stage, only 4 seconds losing to the Belarusian biathlete Ekaterina Ivanova. In the future, our girls by the efforts of Svetlana Chernousova, Natalia Sokolova and Irina Malgina managed to noticeably break away from their pursuers and win European gold in the relay race.
The next season, Olga continued to compete in the European Cup, and she did it so well that already two stages before the end of the European season Anisimova became inaccessible to her rivals.
Return to the main team
Successful performances at the stages of the European Cup did not go unnoticed by the coaches of the Russian team. After the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italian Turin, a number of biathletes completed their careers in the national team. And Olga Anisimova at the end of her career achieved what she wanted, got into the national team of Russia. The 2006/07 season can be safely called the most significant in the career of an athlete. Stably speaking at almost all stages of the World Cup, Olga took 21st place in the total. Also, she had a permanent place in the relay team of Russia. At the stages of the World Cup, the Russian team with Anisimova in the composition twice became the first. Such results allowed us to consider our team as the main favorite of the relay race at the World Championships in Italian Anterselva. However, in this race our team faced a major setback. Olga Anisimova, who played for the Russian team in the third stage, could not cope with the shooting from a standing position. As a result, two penalties discarded our team from the podium. Only the seventh final place with a lag behind the German team for more than two minutes. Nevertheless, despite the failure in the relay race, this season for Olga Anisimova could be added to the asset.
Ending a sports career
Despite the good results of the performances, it was understood that age no longer makes it possible to fully realize oneself on the track. Olga Anisimova continued to perform at biathlon competitions for some time, alternating her participation in world cups with her return to European cups. The 2010/11 season was the last in the sports career of an athlete. The last were the Russian Cup race and participation in the traditional Izhevsk Rifle biathlon tournament. At the age of 39, Olga Anisimova decided to end the career of a professional athlete.
One can only admire a woman who sacrificed at a certain stage her career for the sake of the family, for the sake of raising her son. And she found the strength to return to big sport after several years of break, and not just to return, but also to achieve major sporting success.