Many did not believe that the “age” skier would be able to achieve something. But everything was ahead. Hard training, many kilometers of daily runs, soaking wet clothes and wild fatigue. And in the evening he said that tomorrow we need to do more, work harder and go better. Because his goal is to justify trust, to reach, endure and conquer.
Vedenin Vyacheslav Petrovich. Biography
Vyacheslav Vedenin was born in the village of Sloboda, Tula Region on October 1, 1941. There was a war, leaning on people with a severe ordeal and exorbitant grief. This cup has not passed the Vedenins family. The father of the family left to fight when the spouse was in position. He sent her a photograph from the front with the inscription: "Kiss my daughter." 2.5 months before the birth of his son, he died near Smolensk.
Childhood, as Vyacheslav Petrovich recalls, was difficult, hungry. You can’t even find nettles in the village - they ate everything. They ate an old swan. The only dainties were teruns. They collected frozen potatoes from the fields, removed the skin and baked pancakes. Vyacheslav Petrovich Vedenin says that he had terrible rickets from hunger.
Saves the sport
They smoked a lot, in the second grade he already did not have enough packs a day. Once grandfather pulled a shag and smoked before hallucinations. They soldered them with milk. He quit smoking in the 5th grade, when a new gym teacher was sent to school. A healthy man, a front-line soldier caught them with cigarettes in the toilet, grabbed Vyacheslav by the legs and held him above the hole in the floor, threatening to dunk him there with his head. Since cut off, quit smoking.
The teacher, an ardent admirer of a healthy lifestyle, began to introduce village children to sports. Each lesson is a training, on Sunday - a competition. He taught the children the art of staging the hull, skiing with wide strides, and turns. The most important thing a school teacher taught them is to fight for their dream.
They worked a lot along with adults, so there was no strength to stand up. Once I even got to the hospital. In addition, they left him in the second year. I didn’t want to learn German at all. They released from school with a certificate of completion of 7 classes. You won’t get anywhere with such a document. I stayed at school to finish ten years.
Decisive moment
I read in a book about Ivan Poddubny that you can tie a rope to a weight and lift it with your teeth. Trains the back and neck. He was pulling easily 30-kilogram weights. But somehow, with the crossbar, he was unlucky, climbed up and wanted to spin - he fell downside down. I woke up in the ward, as my sister said, next to patients with the last stage of tuberculosis. Persuaded the staff to give him things and left the hospital.
I waited at the station for a passing commodity, jumped into it, and there - the prisoners. He jumped off the train, and the guards thought that the convict had escaped. Caught, spent a long time in the police. As they released me, I decided to go to work - to cut down the forest. I went to the office, got an advance, left my passport - and ran to the market for pies.
Meeting with a trainer
There he was met by his cycling coach. I went down and took back Vyacheslav’s passport, and sent him to Dynamo himself. Vedenin Vyacheslav Petrovich says that only sport saved him. I traveled to Tula for 40 km on a freelance bike ride. After the tenth grade, he entered the railway college in the regional center. I went to the famous coach section. He was engaged in a lot and selflessly. But my mother fell ill, and I had to return to the village.
The trainer insisted that Vedenin take the bicycle with him, which they fastened to him. In a week, 2-3 times I got out to train in Tula - on a bike back and forth 80 km. Passion for skiing receded into the background. In 1960 he became the champion of the Tula region and received the badge of master of sports.
Start. First victory
In the fall of the same year he was enrolled in the Moscow Higher School of Border Troops. Here, of course, he liked everything except one “but” - there was no bicycle section. As it turned out, the ski section was beautiful. His coach at Dynamo is the 14-time champion Vasily Smirnov. In 1966, Vedenin Vyacheslav Petrovich (photo below) fell into the USSR national team, taking 6th place in the 50 km race and the 4x10 km relay. And already without any doubt he should go to Grenoble for the Games.
Training in Sweden
In December of the same year, the Sports Federation received an invitation from Scandinavia to send a Soviet athlete for joint training. They chose Vedenin. As he recalls, they were sent there without money, without everything. With him 2 pairs of skis and boots, which in a few days fell apart. And the boots were Kolchin, his coach, in whom he played for about 20 years. He sits in the room, patches his boots, and then the Swede comes in the door.
Vedenin Vyacheslav Petrovich immediately recalled the KGB parting words: do not communicate with foreigners, do not accept gifts. The Swede grabs his boots, throws it out the window and says that tomorrow they will bring everything new. And left. And Vyacheslav trudged to seek his good in a snowdrift. Found and finished. Early in the morning he was brought 3 pairs of skis, boots, a training suit, sneakers. You can’t take it. He went to the leader of the group, he allowed to accept gifts, but ordered to take nothing more.
Olympic debut
To the capital of the X Olympic Games - Grenoble (France), Vedenin arrives as an already recognized athlete. Masters of the track welcome him as an equal. Sports observers remember to mark him as a possible winner. But at the same time they doubt whether he has enough chances next to the "ski stars".
Extraordinarily strong, experienced athletes participated in the Games. Give it to them - there would be nothing to be ashamed of. But he managed to leave everyone behind, he lost only to the Norwegian Ellesfert 16.7 seconds. Vedenin Vyacheslav Petrovich became the silver medalist of the 1968 Olympics in the 50 km race. In the morning in the local newspapers on the front page was a portrait of a Soviet racer and the inscription: “Vedenin is a sensation!”
Double victory
Enormous success came to Vedenin in 1970 in the High Tatras (Czechoslovakia). At the World Championships, he won gold at a 30 km race, and silver at a 50 km race. The 4 x 10 km relay race brought another gold medal. Now everyone has recognized him as an outstanding rider. The victory made me think a lot. Vedenin and his coach Kolchin understood that in Sapporo it would be much more difficult for them.
And then there was Sapporo
At the opening ceremony of the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo (Japan), Vedenin was the standard bearer. An instructor approached him and reminded that etiquette obliges the flag of the emperor of Japan to bow the flag. Hockey players were indignant, they say, raise our banner higher and advance forward. As Vedenin jokes, Vyacheslav Petrovich, whose height is 164 cm, the view of the column of hefty hockey players standing at the head was so impressive that he had no choice but to do exactly that.
By evening, all the newspapers had a photo from the parade and an inscription that the USSR had challenged. Officials from the Sports Committee attacked Vyacheslav that this is a political question, and will have to answer for everything. But after 2 gold medals in the 30 km race and the 4x10 km relay, no one remembered the incident. And the Japanese emperor personally congratulated him on his victory and presented a wooden mask.
In Sapporo, he not only wins a gold medal, but also becomes the first Soviet skier to take first place in this sport. In the relay race, Vedenin accomplishes almost a feat - he wins off Norwegian Harviken for more than a minute. In these Olympic Games Vedenin Vyacheslav Petrovich also wins silver in the 50 km race. Robert Rozhdestvensky dedicated a poem to the winner.
At the games in Sapporo, a funny thing happened. During the 30 km race, when more than half of the skiers went the distance, sticky and thick snow suddenly fell. A couple of minutes before the start, Vedenin decides to smear the skis according to weather conditions. One of the Japanese journalists came up to him and asked: “Do you think it will help? What a snow it is! ”
What Vyacheslav answered, only the Russians would understand, and the Japanese newspapers came out the next day with the headlines: "The Russian skier cast the Dahusim spell and won the Olympics." The word that Vedenin Vyacheslav Petrovich said, “dahusim”, is still shrouded in legends in Japan, many people think that this is a special conspiracy to win.
Further career
Vedenin did not qualify for the next Olympic Games. For 12 years he worked as a head coach at Dynamo.
- Since 1996 - member of the editorial board of the magazine "Skiing", since 1998 - the magazine "Skiing".
- Member of the Public Chamber of the Tula region.
- Member of the Committee for the Control of Cross-Country Skiing.
- Honorary citizen of the cities of Kandalaksha and the Tula region.
- He was awarded the Orders of Lenin (1972) and the Red Banner (1970).
Now Vyacheslav Petrovich is actively involved in social activities and is supporting children's sports. Every year there are children's skiing competitions in the village of Voskresenskoye and Extreme Cross in Podrezkovo. Their organizer is Vedenin Vyacheslav Petrovich.
A family
Wife Larisa is also a skier, leads the ski section, performs at competitions of sports veterans. Vedenin’s son, Vyacheslav, followed in his father’s footsteps. He is a Russian skier, coach, sports judge. Vyacheslav Petrovich is now 74 years old, but he tries not to lose his form - he goes skiing every winter.