The tragedy that occurred several years ago in the sports complex of the city of Chekhov near Moscow is still fresh in the memory of fans of the Omsk “Vanguard”. The death of Alexei Cherepanov did not leave anyone indifferent. How this could happen remains incomprehensible to this day.
The way to big hockey
It’s not a secret for anyone that the chance to make a career in big sport opens first of all for those who were destined to be born in the capital or big cities. Alexey Cherepanov is not included in this list. He was born on January 15, 1989 in the village of Ozerki, Talmensky District, Altai Territory. His childhood passed in the deeply provincial Barnaul. On the ice, he first came out at the age of three. This happened at the initiative of his father, a hockey and football coach. Until the age of eleven, Alexei Cherepanov trained in Barnaul, in the sports school of the Motor Club. It was here that the talented young hockey player noticed the coach of the Avangard club Igor Semenov. The further life of Alexey took place in Omsk, in the youth school of the Avangard hockey club.
Omsk "Vanguard"
A few words should be said about that city and about the team where Alexei Cherepanov got. In the Siberian city of Omsk, hockey is certainly more than just a popular winter sport. People who are indifferent to hockey are not so easy to find in Omsk. And the Avangard hockey club enjoys unquestioned authority in the city. He has confirmed it many times with victories in the Continental Hockey
league. Far beyond Omsk, “Vanguard” is loved by many for their ability to win, it would seem, in
hopeless situations. The Omsk club is known throughout the hockey world and many eminent hockey players consider it an honor to play for it. In Omsk, they are used to seeing stars of world hockey on their ice. And the financial situation of the team allows them to be invited to their ranks. In particular, in the 2008 season, the great Jaromir Jagr played for the Omsk club.
At the Vanguard
The young athlete, of course, was lucky that he was in the “Vanguard”. It is with this famous hockey club that the entire short and vibrant biography of the athlete is associated. Here he managed to reveal himself in all his might. Since 2006, Aleksey Cherepanov has been playing in the first team, in the role of the second-level forward. He played along with Popov and Kuryanov. It was the brightest debut in the history of the Continental Hockey League. Already in the spring of 2007, the record for the performance of the Super League debutant was broken. Its owner was Aleksey Cherepanov. The hockey player scored seventeen goals during the debut season, which exceeded the achievement previously owned by the famous Pavel Bure. Of hockey regalia Alexey managed to earn only
youth and junior titles of 2007 and 2008 and a bronze medal of the 2008 Russian Championship.
Style features
Forward Alexei Cherepanov played open dynamic and high-speed hockey. He was able to perfectly see the field, interact with partners in the link Popov and Kuryanov, instantly make decisions that later led to the correct result. Most importantly, he knew how to learn, his skill was growing steadily. Alex was a follower of a bright, combinational style of play. Of great importance was the opportunity to communicate with the superstar of world hockey Jaromir Jagr, who played for several seasons for the Omsk “Vanguard”. Without the slightest exaggeration, Alexei Cherepanov was the country's most promising young athlete and a candidate for the national team. But fate turned out so that it turned out to be included in its expanded composition just a few hours before its tragic death.
The fate of the hockey player
The career of the rising star of Russian and world hockey was interrupted at the time of a rapid take-off. Nothing portended a similar outcome. The match with Chekhov's “Vityaz” was far from the most important for Omsk “Vanguard”. Nonetheless in
the last match in his life, Alex managed to score an abandoned puck. Death overtook the young hockey player on the bench. The young hockey player suddenly stopped heart. Help on the spot tried to provide doctors of both hockey teams. After all that had happened, when the experts analyzed what had happened, they made confident assumptions that they could have saved Alexei if the doctors had a special electric device. But the defibrillator was only in the called resuscitation machine. When she arrived at the sports complex, precious minutes were already lost. Officially, the death of Alexei Cherepanov was recorded only in the emergency hospital. Resuscitators for a long time tried to fix the irreparable.
Information Resonance
The tragic event in the city of Chekhov near Moscow shocked the hockey world. The death of a young hockey player has become central news for all the world's leading news agencies. A lot of newspapers, even quite distant from sports topics, were published the next day with the name of an Omsk hockey player on the front page - “Alexey Cherepanov - Death on Ice”.
In Omsk itself, a lot of Avangard fans and just indifferent people watched the messages on the Internet all night and refused to believe what had happened.
Parting
The funeral of Alexei Cherepanov took place on October 15, 2008. The ceremony was held at the base arena of the Avangard hockey club in the Left Bank region of Omsk. The Siberian city has not seen such a funeral in its nearly three hundred year history. Despite the weekday, more than sixty thousand people came to say goodbye to the young hockey player. The funeral procession proceeded through the whole city. Aleksey Cherepanov was buried in the honorable alley of the Old North Cemetery. All Continental Hockey League clubs and the New York Rangers hockey club from the NHL expressed official condolences to Alexei’s family and friends. A memorial site dedicated to the memory of Alexei Cherepanov has been created and still exists on the Internet. In honor of the hockey player, an official trophy was established - a prize to the best debutant of the season of the Continental Hockey League.
Death investigation
The tragic death of a young hockey player could not but cause a powerful public outcry. Many people, even very far from hockey and
professional sports, I was interested in the answer to the question of why nineteen-year-old Alexei Cherepanov died. The cause of death was announced in the official opinion of the medical commission. According to the conclusions of forensic experts, the young hockey player was ill with myocarditis. In other words, with such a cardiac pathology, a person could not medically engage in sports in general. At the same time, the athlete never complained about his health and felt great on the last day of his life. During the game with Chekhov's “Knight”, he received neither blows nor damage, except for a light collision at the side with a player of his own team. According to experts, cordiamine was found in the athlete's blood. This drug belongs to the category of doping. But he was officially assigned to the hockey player to maintain the heart muscle in the necessary tone. This fact rejects all allegations against the athlete in the use of doping, but leaves many questions open. In particular, about who should make decisions on admission to sports of a person with diseases in which a sports career becomes deadly.