In the late 70s, a modest, thin girl shone on the gymnastic platform. Then she was one of the strongest gymnasts in the world. In 1978, she defeated the seemingly invincible Romanian Nadia Comaneci, becoming the absolute world champion, and, perhaps, would have become an Olympic champion if not for ...

This “if not for” is perhaps the blackest page in the history of not only gymnastics, but sports in general. The eve of the Moscow Olympics - 1980, July 3. Trainings are held in the chic for those times Minsk Palace of Sports. The hard-working Lena Mukhina, who missed the 1979 World Championships due to injury, is literally working hard. A one and a half somersault with a 540-degree turn - a new, most difficult element for the free program, prepared by coach Mikhail Klimenko, no doubt, had to impress the judges and leave all competitors behind.

Is Lena really striving for Olympic gold? As Elena Vyacheslavovna herself recalled, on the eve of the Games, she only dreamed of resting, even at the cost of injury. Well, perhaps it was said in a moment of weakness. Now hardly anyone can say for sure.

Before the fatal workout, she had never done this somersault without a mentor's insurance. But it was on this day that Mikhail Klimenko left for Moscow - just for one day, in order to finally approve his pupil in the national team. According to the recollections of people who knew him, he was a very tough coach and did not spare his wards. Some even blame him for what happened. As they say, it's not for us to judge. Lena Mukhina stepped onto the platform and decided to perform her fatal somersault on her own.

As her colleague on the national team, five-time Olympic champion, and now the president of the technical committee of the European Union of Gymnastics Nelly Kim, Lena did not get a full rotation, the girl hit her back on the platform and did not rise again. She was taken to the hospital, and in the evening a terrible diagnosis became known - damage to the cervical vertebra.

“She was operated on only on the third day,” recalls Nelli Vladimirovna. - It just so happened: summer, doctors are on vacation ... It's good that they saved me at all.

Doctors could only save lives

The rest of her time - 26 years - she spent almost completely immobile. After numerous operations, she was not even able to turn the page of the book.

How to live for so many years, daily, and maybe even hourly, remembering that single moment that might not have been, a step that could not have been taken, a jump that became the last movement in life. But this did not happen with Elena Mukhina. And if it happened, then she took it with her into oblivion.

Best of the day

- She did not give in to despair, did not withdraw into herself, - says the honored coach of Russia Tamara Zhaleeva, then the head coach of Moscow. - At first, in the early years, we took her out in a wheelchair for walks, but then she got tired of it, she refused them. She never blamed anyone for what happened. I just wanted the best, who knew what would happen ...

Tamara Andreevna supported Elena all these years and did not leave her literally until last day. Perhaps, after Elena’s grandmother, Anna Ivanovna, she was the closest person for the athlete.

According to the story of Tamara Andreevna, before the tragedy, Elena was overcome by numerous minor injuries (this is not counting the broken leg), but, despite the fact that they were not completely healed, the coach heavily loaded his ward.

Bedridden graduated from college

- Lenochka was left without a mother at the age of two, her grandmother raised her, she also looked after her until she herself fell ill, - says Tamara Andreevna. - The sports committee then, of course, did a lot for her, provided nurses - they found students at the medical institute. The Moscow City Council changed her one-room apartment to a two-room apartment, bought a wheelchair. But health could not be returned, although at first we all hoped. If only she had had the surgery...

Mukhina continued to fight - the hope, if not to return to the sport, then at least just to get on her feet did not leave her. Five years after the injury, she turned to the Dikul Center, but after several months of training, her kidneys failed, her body could not bear the stress, she again ended up in the hospital. And got out again. Let with outside help but could sit in her chair, hold a pen and write a little. Only she knows what efforts had to be made for this. Meanwhile, despite her illness, she entered the Moscow Institute of Physical Education and graduated from it. Teachers came to the house, studied with her. And only those close to her knew that gymnastics remained for her almost the meaning of life.

- She was presented with a satellite dish, she got a sports channel, and she did not miss a single championship, and then after watching she liked to discuss what she saw, - continues Tamara Andreevna. - With her in recent years, Lena Gurina has been a lot, with whom they once performed. She told me about it. I visited them literally a day before Lenochka passed away. She slept. I left. And the next day she became ill, began to choke ... And nothing helped.

In the last year of her life, Elena Vyacheslavovna was unwell - apparently, her strength to fight had dried up. Shortly before her death, when Tamara Zhaleeva asked about her health, she only said: “With injuries like mine, they don’t live long.” Apparently, she had a premonition that there was already quite a bit ...

They said goodbye to her quietly and modestly in the small assembly hall of the CSKA officers' club, where only the closest came. Just like she wanted. Then the ritual bus took the coffin with the body of Elena Vyacheslavovna to the Troekurovskoye cemetery.

The coach, Mikhail Klimenko, who now lives in Italy, was not there - after the tragedy, he did not go to his pupil at all ...

Mukhina was born on June 1, 1960 in Moscow. Since childhood, unlike her peers who dreamed of becoming figure skaters, Elena wanted to be a gymnast.

“One day an unknown woman appeared at the lesson. Introduced herself: Olezhko Antonina Pavlovna, master of sports. And he says: who wants to do gymnastics - raise your hand. I almost screamed with joy, ”Elena Vyacheslavovna herself later recalled.

Mukhina, thanks to her unprecedented capacity for work, talent and perseverance, immediately showed herself.

The successes of the gymnast did not go unnoticed, and she got into Dynamo, to the famous coach Alexander Eglit. Eglit himself soon began working at CSKA and did not want to leave his students. So the 14-year-old candidate for master of sports ended up in the army club. Soon, Eglit invited his colleague Mikhail Klimenko to take his ward to his group. Klimenko, who had previously trained only men, looked at Mukhina in action and agreed. The whole short career of Elena Mukhina was connected with this coach.

In two years, the gymnast made an incredible breakthrough. She came to Klimenko in 1974, and already in the summer of 1976 she had a chance to go to the Olympics in Montreal. As Novaya Gazeta recently recalled, its then program with unique combinations was called “space”. But due to the instability of performances, sports leaders were afraid to take her to Canada.

But the athlete was not embarrassed by this turn of events, and she continued to work hard, overcoming incredible pain. In 1975, at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, after an unsuccessful landing, Mukhina suffered a detachment of the spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae. With such an injury, it is impossible to turn your head.

But every day Klimenko came to the hospital and took her to the gym, where she trained all day without an orthopedic “collar” necessary for the rehabilitation of such injuries. Mukhina did not even pay attention to broken ribs, concussions, inflammation of the joints, twisted ankles and knocked out fingers. Fearing the wrath of the coach, she hid her injuries, secretly sniffed ammonia and went to the next projectile.

Mukhina's first finest hour struck on next year. At the USSR Championship, she becomes the second in the all-around and goes to the adult European Championship in Prague, where she is slightly inferior in the individual standings to the famous Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci and wins three gold medals at individual projectiles, conquering judges and fans with the highest technique.

Best of the day

It was in the Czech Republic that Mukhina first performed the most difficult element on the uneven bars, later named after her - Mukhina's loop.

The year 1978 became triumphant in Mukhina's career. She wins the title of the strongest gymnast in the country, and then at the World Championships in France she became the fourth Soviet gymnast after Galina Shamray, Larisa Latynina and Lyudmila Turishcheva, who became the absolute world champion.

Ahead was the Moscow Olympics, which the gymnast dreamed of winning and becoming an Olympic champion. Mukhina was one of the main contenders for gold. But, unfortunately, this dream was not destined to come true. Mukhina received her first sign from above when, in 1979, she broke her leg at one of the training sessions and wanted to leave the sport altogether. However, at that time she was the only gymnast in CSKA who could get to the Olympics in Moscow. And Klimenko persuaded the gymnast to stay and set her the task of winning a medal in the individual championship.

The second unfortunate and glorified athlete throughout the country was the case in training shortly before the Games, when, while performing a complex element, Mukhina received a severe spinal injury and was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

“Traditionally, we prepared for the Moscow Olympics in Minsk,” recalls Mukhina’s partner in the women’s team, the absolute world champion-79 and five-time Olympic champion Nelly Kim in her book. – The most hardworking of us was Lena. Due to an injury, she missed the 79 World Championships and now worked tirelessly, catching up and dreaming of becoming a participant in the Olympic Games.

One day Klimenko went to Moscow on business for one day. And it must be such a misfortune to happen that Mukhina herself ventured in training without insurance to perform the most difficult somersault. Lena jumped, but there was no full rotation - and the gymnast hit her back on the platform. She was taken to the hospital, the training was crumpled for us, we were silent and could not talk about anything. The worst was soon confirmed: Lena had a damaged cervical vertebra.

Mukhina's operation was performed only on the third day, since in the military hospital all the necessary doctors were on vacation.

As a result, the athlete remained paralyzed for life.

In 1980, Elena Mukhina was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor, two years later she was awarded the highest Olympic honor - the Olympic Order of the IOC. All this time she never gave up. A few years after the terrible fall, Mukhina was able to graduate from the Moscow Institute of Physical Education. Last years Mukhina spent her lonely life in the struggle with her illness.

The funeral of the famous athlete is scheduled for December 27. The memorial service will presumably be held at USC CSKA.

Elena Mukhina
Mary 29.01.2007 11:03:56

I studied in the 3rd grade when I was waiting for the performance of E. Mukhina with trepidation in my heart, and I was terribly proud that there is such a CHAMPION in our country, when I found out about her injury, I was worried about how she could live on, very often her pain suddenly popped up in my head. I was very surprised why no one remembers her, what happened to her? If it were not for the possibilities of the Internet, I would hardly have learned anything. It is a pity and a shame that adults allowed themselves to use children thoughtlessly and selfishly. Such an impression that from what happened, everyone who had something to do with it became ashamed, therefore, lowering their eyes, they decided not to remember everything. Elena didn't deserve this. I hope that these people drew conclusions for themselves and repented.

Elena Mukhina became famous overnight, precisely in 1978, when she won the absolute world championship. Two years later, she was severely injured and was bedridden for 26 years.

Mukhina was born on June 1, 1960 in Moscow. Elena lost both her parents at the age of five. She was brought up by Anna Ivanovna - her grandmother. Since childhood, unlike her peers who dreamed of becoming figure skaters, Elena wanted to be a gymnast.

“One day an unknown woman appeared at the lesson. Introduced herself: Olezhko Antonina Pavlovna, master of sports. And he says: who wants to do gymnastics - raise your hand. I almost screamed with joy, ”Elena Vyacheslavovna herself later recalled.

Mukhina, thanks to her unprecedented capacity for work, talent and perseverance, immediately showed herself. The successes of the gymnast did not go unnoticed, and she got into Dynamo, to the famous coach Alexander Eglit. Eglit himself soon began working at CSKA and did not want to leave his students. So the 14-year-old candidate for master of sports ended up in the CSKA club. In 1974, Eglit invited his colleague Mikhail Klimenko to take his ward to his group. Klimenko, who had previously trained only men, looked at Mukhina in action and agreed. The whole short career of Elena Mukhina was connected with this coach.

In two years, the gymnast made an incredible breakthrough and already in the summer of 1976 she had a chance to go to the Olympics in Montreal. Her then program with unique combinations was called "space". But due to the instability of performances, sports leaders were afraid to take her to Canada.

First time serious injury Mukhina received at the age of 15. In 1975, during the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, which was held by gymnasts in Leningrad, Mukhina landed unsuccessfully on her head in a foam pit. When x-rays were taken, it turned out that during the fall, the spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae had been torn off. Lena was admitted to the hospital, but every day, after a medical round, a coach came for her and took her to the gym, where, having removed the orthopedic collar from her neck, Mukhina trained until the evening. A few days later, for the first time, she felt that her legs began to go numb during training and a feeling of some strange weakness appeared, which no longer passed.

Mukhina's first finest hour struck the next year. At the USSR Championship, she becomes the second in the all-around and goes to the adult European Championship in Prague, where she is slightly inferior in the individual standings to the famous Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci and wins three gold medals on separate apparatus, conquering the judges and fans with the highest technique. It was in the Czech Republic that Mukhina first performed the most difficult element on the uneven bars, later named after her - Mukhina's loop.

In 1977, when Mukhina was training at home before the World Championships, she hit her side on the lower pole of the bars so that it split. “It feels like I broke my ribs,” Lena later said. - But then, after sitting for ten minutes on the mats, in a semi-conscious state, she also worked freestyle and balance beam. When it got really bad, she went up to the coach, but he only gritted through his teeth: “You are always looking for an excuse to do nothing.”

In 1978, two weeks before the All-Union Youth Games, Mukhina knocked out thumb hands so that it is completely out of the joint. She adjusted it herself, clenching her teeth and closing her eyes. But the injuries did not end there: during the warm-up before the competition, she did not calculate the run-up (they washed the floor in the hall and destroyed the marks made with chalk), fell when landing from a jump and hit her head. The choreographer secretly, so as not to attract the attention of the coaches, wore ammonia to her, and Mukhina, having stepped off the next projectile, clamped the cotton wool in her palms.

The year 1978 became triumphant in Mukhina's career. She wins the title of the strongest gymnast in the country, and then wins the world championship in France. First - in the team, and a day later she became the absolute champion, beating, among others, the absolute champion of the Games-76 Nadya Komenech. Made it to the finals on three out of four events and collected one more full set medals, winning silver on uneven bars and balance beam and sharing gold on floor exercise with two-time Montreal Olympic champion Nelly Kim. Elena Mukhina became the fourth Soviet gymnast after Galina Shamray, Larisa Latynina and Lyudmila Turishcheva, who became the absolute world champion.

This insane tension could not go unnoticed. When Mukhina and I periodically met in the hall, she looked inhibited, often cried. Once she said that she did not have time to completely cross the avenue in front of the CSKA sports complex while the green light was on - she did not have enough strength. At the same time, her free program on almost all shells continued to be the most difficult in the world.

In the autumn of 1979 demonstration performances Mukhina broke her leg in England. A month and a half passed in a cast, but when it was removed, it turned out that the broken bones had dispersed. They were put in place, the plaster was put on again, and the next day (the coach insisted on this) Mukhina was already in the gym - she worked on shells, landing on dismounts on one leg. Two months after the cast was removed, she was already doing all her combinations.

“Klimenko was always terribly nervous before the competition, pulled me,” Mukhina recalled. - Probably because he perfectly understood that his own well-being and career directly depend on whether I get into the national team or not. I took my training very seriously. There were times when, in order to drive excess weight, ran at night, and in the morning went to the gym. At the same time, I constantly had to listen that I was a redneck and should be happy that they paid attention to me and gave me a chance.

At the last training camp in her life in Minsk in early July 1980, Mukhina arrived with ankles and knees sick from overloads, and besides, she began to have inflammation of the articular bag of the hand. The USSR national gymnastics team was preparing for the Olympic Games. Mukhina's coach, Mikhail Klimenko, left for Moscow for a couple of days (on the sidelines there was talk that Mukhina might not be included in the main team, and Klimenko went to "defend" the student at the top). Lena worked independently and at one of the training sessions she decided to try a unique combination. Its essence was that after the flask and the most difficult (one and a half somersaults with a turn of 540 degrees) jump, the landing should not have taken place on the feet, as usual, but head down, in a somersault. The gymnast unsuccessfully pushed, there was not enough height, and in front of the head coach of the women's team Aman Shaniyazov, the gost coach Lidia Ivanova and the coach of the acrobatics team (there was no one else in the hall), she crashed into the floor, breaking her neck. According to one of the coaches, she crashed because she simply didn’t push with that very injured leg in the run.

During the first eight years, she was operated on several times. The first operation - on the spine - was performed only a day after the injury in Minsk. It lasted several hours, but the result (largely due to delay) was not very comforting: due to the fact that the brain remained in a severely compressed state for so long, Mukhina remained almost completely paralyzed.

In the summer of 1985, Elena was offered to contact Valentin Dikul. However, as a result of huge loads, after a couple of months, she again ended up in the hospital - her kidneys failed. After another operation, a fistula formed in the side of the gymnast, which did not heal for a year and a half. Each time, with tremendous difficulty, doctors managed to bring Mukhina out of a postoperative coma - the body refused to fight for life.

“After all these countless operations, I decided that if I want to live, then I need to run away from hospitals,” Lena told me. - Then I realized that I need to radically change my attitude to life. Not to envy others, but to learn to enjoy what is available to me. Otherwise, you can go crazy. I realized that the commandments “do not think badly”, “do not act badly”, “do not envy” are not just words. That there is a direct connection between them and how a person feels. I began to feel these connections. And I realized that, compared with the ability to think, the lack of the ability to move is such nonsense ...

Of course, at first I was terribly sorry for myself. Especially when she returned home for the first time after the injury, from where she left on her own legs and where everything still assumed the presence of a person on her feet. In addition, almost everyone who came to visit me asked: “Are you going to sue?”

All this time she never gave up. A few years after a terrible fall, she could sit in an armchair, hold a spoon, write a little. Teachers came to her, lectured, took exams. She managed to graduate from the Moscow Institute of Physical Education.

When an injury occurs, the question always arises: “Who is to blame?” When I asked Mukhina what she herself thinks about this, Lena answered evasively: “I taught Klimenko that I can train and perform with any injuries ...”

According to an interview with Larisa Latynina, Mikhail Klimenko was struck by her injury. Mukhina did not expect to be added to the roster of the Soviet Olympic team. There was little doubt that the Soviet women's gymnastics team would receive gold medal on the Summer Olympics as it was in previous Games. Despite this, Klimenko wanted Mukhina to train, so that he would become a "coach Olympic champion". After these events, Klimenko emigrated to Italy.

Elena Mukhina and her coach Mikhail Klimenko
They did not know then at what cost these trainings were given to Elena. Leaving the hotel for training, each time she kept her eyes on the passing cars, automatically guessing: if she throws herself under the wheels, will she have time to slow down or not. She tried on the ledge outside the hotel room window and calculated how she should jump, so that she would be sure. When, in that nine-year-old conversation, she told me about it, I asked in horror why she had not quit gymnastics earlier?

“I don't know,” came the reply. “I have seen myself fall several times in my dreams. I saw how they carried me out of the hall. I knew that sooner or later it would really happen. I felt like an animal being whipped down an endless corridor. But again and again she came to the hall. Perhaps this is fate. And they are not offended by fate.

Did she offend herself? Externally, no. When I learned about Mukhina's death from the same friend who once brought me to her house, our eight-year-old conversation involuntarily surfaced in my memory, stood before my eyes. “You don’t need to help me,” Lena objected quite calmly to some of our attempts to straighten the pillows, to move something closer. “I shouldn’t let myself get too used to helping others.”

Mukhina never sought to communicate with journalists. Even a short period of public attention, when in 1983 IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch presented her with the highest award of the Olympic movement - the Olympic Order, became quite painful for her. With all the horror physical condition Mukhina managed to retain the ability to talk surprisingly calmly on any topic and call a spade a spade. Therefore, all that naked window dressing, which was the award fuss with visits to a small apartment of journalists and photographers, did not please her. Rather, offended.

It was difficult to describe her state in words. Elena could neither stand, nor sit, nor hold a spoon in her hand, nor even dial a phone number. In order to be able to read something, Lena resorted to a trick proven over the years: she asked to attach a sheet of text to the wall at eye level with a pin. When talking on the phone, she lay her ear on the receiver and could talk like that for quite a long time.

She learned to retreat into herself - into some kind of unrealistic for healthy people a world where she traced the chains of origins, heredity. I sincerely believed that a person can have several lives - in different time spaces. She assured me that she sees not only the past, but also the future of the people with whom she communicates. She was happy to talk about it. This hobby (although one can call it a hobby that, in essence, became a life) had different consequences. Including - hard for others. It was Mukhina who at one time dissuaded one of her close friends from sending a newborn child with a severe heart defect to the hospital. Convinced that the baby simply will not survive. As a result, a few years later, the child was still operated on, but the family broke up: the child's father was never able to forgive either Mukhina or his wife for the fact that the child was in the hospital so late.

As her close friend told me, Mukhina noticeably passed when she found out that her former coach returned from Italy, where he worked for many years, to Moscow. To meet with Klimenko, who in her mind remained the most terrible ghost of a past life, she flatly refused.

Elena Mukhina gives an interview to American journalists (1991)
The death of her grandmother in the spring of 2005 was a colossal blow for Lena. She did not want to give her to a nursing home, despite the fact that the 90-year-old woman herself required constant care. And, having already lost her mind and feeling that she was dying, she constantly shouted to her granddaughter: “I will not leave you. Come with me!".

Mukhina also survived this nightmare. She asked, when Anna Ivanovna was gone, only one thing: when the time comes, under no circumstances should they bury her next to her grandmother. And don't do an autopsy. Leave alone. She had almost no contact with her father. He himself - still a young man - began to appear in the house only after he found out that Mukhina, through the incredible efforts of many people, managed to “break through” the personal presidential pension. Here I visited. For money...

Twenty-six years after the injury, Elena Mukhina continued her all-around. She defended her PhD thesis. She learned to help herself and listen to her body. When the treatment system of the famous Valentin Dikul did not suit her (her kidneys began to fail), she managed to pull herself out of the other world. She was one of the first Russians to receive the Olympic Order for courage. She studied psychology and parapsychology and herself helped people who fell into an emotional hole.

The main feat of Elena Mukhina was not on the gymnastic platform, but after it. Lie 26 years without movement and not to lose the desire to live, to remain human, God grant everyone such courage.

Elena Mukhina died on December 22, 2006. A memorial service in her honor was held on December 27. Elena was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow.

Homo athleticus

The head coach of the CSKA Gymnastics Team, Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Yakovlevich Klimenko, was an ensign at heart, stuck on some early stages human formation. That he was a beast was clear even without the coaches uttering in a whisper the name of his famous student Lenochka Mukhina, who crashed on the platform and became forever paralyzed and chained to wheelchair. It was only later that I found out that this famous gymnast, the pride of Soviet sports, constantly dreamed of an injury in order to rest - and in vain. Because our Klimenko, the best coach of the Union, forced her to enter competitions with tendon ruptures, it was he who took her from the hospital every day to train after her cervical vertebrae had been torn off - for the whole day, without any bandages and plasters ... She had to only to literally bring to life his catchphrase: “They will only leave you alone when you crash on the platform” ...

This gorilla-like creature liked to take a horizontal stand on one arm as an edification to us, which plunged everyone present into obsequious awe, except only his wife, a small, fragile choreographer, who, probably, had seen something else - but us, two soldiers. There were always a couple of slaves at the hall. At first, my partner was a hefty Tabakov youth theater actor Misha Khomyakov (he still acts in the Tabakerka). Whilst away long evenings, he unsuccessfully tried to introduce me to the martial arts of the East, waving his arms and legs in front of my nose in the center of an empty hall. Exhausted, he turned to the legends about the love victories of his teacher Oleg Tabakov and his worthy student - himself. When he received an amnesty, the empty seat was taken by Kostya Nyssky, a young operator of the film studio. Gorky, a lover of practical jokes and very funny obscenities. If I was used, in addition to chores, also for my intended purpose - as a choreographic pianist, then my partners could not boast of this. It was a mystery how they even got here. It is unlikely that lieutenant colonel Klimenko was going to organize an elite intellectual and artistic get-together. But be that as it may, in the depths of the mighty Sports Club The army was wound up with a wormhole.

Kostya and I were a classic clown couple "Thick and Thin". More complete antipodes of our coach, a native of the Ukrainian hinterland, could not be imagined. We were his endless toothache: overly educated Muscovite artists, with Jewish violins and swollen heads, crookedly sitting on ugly little bodies with signs of obesity or dystrophy ... How can one not plow them! And every evening we rubbed and washed, washed and rubbed this hall the size of an airfield. We dragged five-meter gymnastic mats through the window and, in the end, to the general laughter, were buried in a safety pit under one of them. Raising clouds of volatile magnesia, we scooped thousands of pieces of foam rubber out of this three-meter-deep pit in order to find at the bottom what was never there - a hairpin lost by a gymnast girl ... Did he feel the depth of his insignificance, did he take revenge on us in return humiliation, did he feel a subtle sadomasochistic satisfaction from our presence? I don't think there were such subtle movements in his soul. In a normal army unit, from his lieutenant colonel's height, it would be impossible to notice insects like us. And here - nose to nose. So he was tormented, sickly, looking at us, such unsportsmanlike, non-army, not club-central, ruining their lives in unworthy aspirations. And he toiled, looking for more and more new ways of salvation for us ...

Down and out

Arriving at the hall well-slept, cheerful and cheerful, I stumble upon Kostya, with a gloomy look, waiting for me at the piano. The mood immediately drops.

Where have you been? he asks in the tone of a grumpy wife.

Why, I'm late... (Something in the stomach churned uncomfortably.) What happened?

It happened! This one (nods his head to the side) asked you. He said we'll go to the market at exactly one o'clock. Buy chickens. Fifty pieces.

A slight uneasiness begins to take hold of me. What the hell are chickens?

Do you remember his two-year-old daughter? She needs a downy pillow. In those that are sold, the fluff for her, you see, is too coarse ...

What nonsense!

Yes, bullshit! But the pillow needs to be stuffed. How - he doesn't care. You can tear it straight from the living. Or kill first...

It was too much even for our Pithecanthropus. Here you are, Kostya, a lover of practical jokes, obviously enough over the edge! I immediately recall with annoyance about his very fresh trick. We were then at the TsSKovskaya suburban base in Vatutinki - I am standing in the only toilet cubicle, slowly getting ready to add my modest contribution to the world's underground waters. Suddenly, the door, almost jumping off its hinges, swings open from a sharp blow, and, crowding me, with the words “Let me in soon, unbearable!”, Kostya bursts into the booth. Like any decent man, I first of all steal a glance at his dignity - and - oh gods! - I freeze, as if struck by thunder ... Kostya then complained that he did not have his movie camera with him - in an instant, the finest gamut of feelings was reflected in my eyes: envy, admiration, despair, sacred awe ... Yes, and there was something: I haven't seen THIS yet! Kostya put all his artistic talent into this amazing size object, this sculptural work made of tow and plasticine, convincing with its impeccable forms and detailed selection of colors. Then this product took pride of place on the wall, right at the entrance to our closet. The boss who once burst into our house ran into him, as they say, nose to nose and yelled in fright: “What is this ?!” To which we, stretched out in front in all statutory forms, barked in chorus: “Fuck, comrade lieutenant colonel!”

And then ... Well, no, Kostya, my credulity is not unlimited - you won’t show off like that over me! Having figured out the insidious plan of the mocker, I relax with a sense of superiority ...

And then I notice that our humanoid imperiously and irritably beckons me with a finger. In Schweik's way, cheerfully and insincerely, I wish you good health. A familiar picture: the pose of a gloomy, hoofing bull, looking down and sideways, as if he is thinking hard about something. And then something happens that my mind refuses to believe:

Go with Kostya to the market. Exactly one hour. Buy fifty chickens. Understood?

I nod automatically. Here's a joke for you. However, it has come a long way...

Like a beaten dog I crawl up to Kostya. So alive, wonderful, small, fluffy, merrily clamoring, but already squeaking in horror, and now their little bodies are lying around, skinned, scolded, lifeless ... I'm trying to drive this picture away from me. I'm starting to turn on. Who are we to him, slaves? Set up a living quarters!? Yes, he allows himself! How dare he! Yes, he! .. Yes, I! ..

Kostya is waiting. He doesn't know what to do either. If you refuse, they will send you to the unit to finish your service, and we will have to wind up more than half of the term. It would be nice, of course, to survive ... But what about the principles? And, on the other hand, what about khachapuri with pizza?

These hours were, by God, the most painful in my entire army service. Kostya fell into an indifferent state. I rushed about, ran to my friends from the company, called home and, just in case, already said goodbye to my relatives. I was completely unable to resolve the moral dilemma: can you build your well-being on the tear of a tortured chicken? Plus fifty...

Oh, you, and also a soldier! Poor pacifist! Why did you go to the Soviet army, be it three times the Order of Lenin? Is it not in order to pay the country all the debts of a citizen? Is it not to kill, to stain your hands with the blood of the enemies of your Fatherland? So, finally, take yourself in hand, and in these hands a hammer, and - for the Motherland! for the honor of the Central Sports Club of the Army! - and exactly with a hammer on the crown: "you, chicken, I'm sorry! .."

No I can not...

And then the hour of courage struck on our clocks, and I still did not decide anything.

I don't know how I didn't kill him. Yes, not a chicken, of course - Kostya! He broke up just before our trip to the market, pointing his finger at everyone and writhing in fits of violent merriment. I was crushed. God, what a brainless nonentity without a single drop of a sense of humor this simpleton Wovyak! Bones' triumph was complete. He, of course, will make sure that as many people as possible find out about this ...

And our sinless boss just wanted simple village happiness - to breed chickens. Who would have thought: in the city, on the balcony! In the morning, Kostya received the appropriate instructions and, insidious, vividly realized what kind of plot was being danced here. He played his role to the end, bastard, watched my writhings with interest, and not a single muscle flinched!

Well, we bought them, fifty of them, and our man from the people, having no idea how and what to feed them, killed everyone - except for a few, whom his two-year-old daughter twisted her neck with her own hands ...

Although years have passed since then, and we have long served our purpose, but every time, chatting with Kostya, I wait for him to turn something like that again. And now: I bought, I say, the daughter of two chinchillas. Why aren't there chickens?

It is hard to even imagine what a person feels who is paralyzed from neck to toe in an instant. For life. It was this tragic fate that befell the absolute world champion in gymnastics Elena Mukhina.

August 15, 2019 · Text: Daria Senichkina · Photo: Getty Images, PhotoXPress.ru, Boris Klipinitser, Igor Utkin, Alexander Yakovlev, Alexander Sentsov, Valery Zufarov, L.Samsonov, Boris Klinchenko, Vyacheslav Un Da-sin /TASS Photo Chronicle

In 1979, at the mention of the name of Elena Mukhina, all the gymnasts of the world trembled with fear. And this is not surprising: the Soviet athlete simply had no equal. Lena was in her best shape and was intensively preparing for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. The task from the coach was quite clear - only gold, no less. Unfortunately, in pursuit of her dream, Lena forgot about herself and her health, suddenly becoming an invalid for life. A very short life. the site tells the story of a girl with the most tragic fate in the history of world gymnastics.

Lena

The future great gymnast Elena Mukhina was born on June 1, 1960 in Moscow. Tragedies haunted her since childhood: when Lena was only two years old, her mother died. The father decided not to burden himself with worries about a small child and simply left, very soon creating a new family. Lena was raised by her grandmother Anna Ivanovna.

Mukhina dreamed of gymnastics from an early age, and the Universe heard her. “One day an unknown woman appeared at the lesson. Introduced herself: Olezhko Antonina Pavlovna, master of sports. And he says: "Who wants to do gymnastics, raise your hand." I almost screamed with joy, ”Elena herself later recalled.

The young athlete trained like a man possessed. The girl could be in the hall for days.

Soon, Lena began studying with the famous Dynamo coach Alexander Eglit, under whose guidance she became a candidate for master of sports at the age of 14. In 1974, Eglit moved to CSKA, taking his ward with him, and already there Mikhail Klimenko, who trained only men before Lena, drew attention to the hardworking gymnast.

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

“Misha was an incredible maximalist. He showed me Lena Mukhina, very modest, very sweet. Said, "She'll be the world champion." I didn’t believe in my soul - such quiet people don’t know how to get angry, and without anger you won’t get into the champions. Guessed wrong. ... Klimenko immediately and firmly decided that Mukhina's trump card would be incredible complexity. Designed a fantastic program for Lena. Mukhina was an exception to the rule, ”the master of sports in gymnastics and journalist Vladimir Golubev later recalled.

A tough training schedule, a complex program and unquestioning obedience to the coach did their job. A year and a half later, Lena showed such results that she was one of the main contenders for getting into the USSR national team for the 76 Olympics in Montreal. Alas, the “space” program did not convince the commission: Mukhina lacked stability, so it was decided to give her the opportunity to gain more experience.

This fact, it seems, only provoked the coach and his athlete. Already in 1977, Lena won the first serious awards. At the USSR championship, Mukhina became the second in the all-around, and at the European Championships in Prague, showing a real class, she won three gold medals at once on separate shells.

It was there that Lena first introduced the “Korbut loop” element, improved by her coach, which later became known as the “Mukhina loop”.

“When Klimenko, at the suggestion of his brother Viktor, decided to improve the“ Korbut loop ”, something amazing happened. The spectators gasp and close their eyes, and Mukhina, like in a circus, soars over the bars and flutters in the air, ”recalled Soviet gymnast and Olympic champion Nelly Kim. However, today both "loops" are prohibited for execution, as they are recognized as too dangerous elements.

The next year was a triumph for Lena. Mukhina won the USSR Championship, becoming the country's strongest gymnast (!) in all apparatuses. At the World Championships in Strasbourg, France, the athlete also became the absolute champion. It was a phenomenal success: Lena is the fourth Soviet gymnast after Galina Shamray, Larisa Latynina and Lyudmila Turishcheva to boast such a title.

Standing on a pedestal, Mukhina could not hold back her tears.

“We came to Strasbourg with such a team: Elena Mukhina, Maria Filatova, Natalya Shaposhnikova, Tatiana Arzhannikova, Svetlana Agapova and me. This team became "golden"! But the absolute winner was Elena Mukhina - a real champion, without any reservations. The most difficult program, virtuosity, softness, femininity. We returned to Moscow - October, autumn, cold, and we all have spring in our hearts and smiles from ear to ear. Of course, Mukhina and Andrianov were greeted especially solemnly - they are absolute champions, ”Kim shared her memories.

At demonstration performances in England in 1979, Lena broke her leg, so she had to miss the World Championships. Summer was coming Olympic Games in Moscow, for which Mukhina, who had not yet fully recovered, was preparing with a vengeance ... “Lena was the most industrious of us. Due to an injury, she missed the World Championship-79 and now worked tirelessly, catching up and dreaming of becoming a participant in the Olympic Games, ”Nellie Kim said.

death number

The tragedy that shook the world happened in early July 1980 - a couple of weeks before the start of the Olympics in Moscow. The USSR national gymnastics team practiced programs at a training base in Minsk. There were rumors that the 20-year-old Mukhina might not be included in the main team, so Mikhail Klimenko urgently went to the capital to try to defend his ward.

In the absence of a coach, Lena worked out the elements on her own. The tension grew.

Klimenko designed an incredibly complex program, the highlight of which was the "Thomas somersault", taken from male gymnastics. Its essence is that after several most difficult jumps, the landing should not be on your feet, but in a somersault, head down. The athlete did not succeed in this element, she repeated it again and again.

Another training day. Instant. Mukhina unsuccessfully pushes off, she lacks height, and in front of the eyes of three coaches of the women's team she crashes into the floor, breaking her neck. “I did, I fell and I don’t understand:“ Why is everyone running to me? I want to get up, but I can’t get up, but my head is clear. I want to move my hand but I can't. And then I just thought and said to myself: “This is a disaster,” Elena later said.

One of the witnesses of the fatal fall was the state coach of the national team Lidia Ivanova.

Here is how she described that situation: “Lena did not feel well, but the coach insisted that she do a run-through, show the entire program with maximum difficulty in floor exercises. In one of the difficult jumps, when Lena had already gone into the air and began to spin, she either relaxed, or let her injured ankle down: Mukhina did not spin and hit the carpet with all her might. They ran up to Lena, she was unconscious, they measured the pressure - by zero. When they checked the legs, they did not respond.”

The spinal surgery was performed on the gymnast in Moscow only a day later (according to other sources, three days later), which excluded even the slightest chance of recovery, although Lena's professor and attending physician Arkady Livshits at first gave optimistic forecasts.

Subsequently, Mukhina underwent seven more surgical interventions.

Each time, doctors with great difficulty brought her out of a medical coma - the body simply refused to fight. Alas, the operations performed did not bring results: the athlete remained almost completely paralyzed (she could not stand, sit and hold a spoon or a pen in her hands) - motor activity was preserved only in the shoulder and elbow joints.

A few years later, Mukhina, on the advice of friends, resorted to the then famous treatment method of Valentin Dikul, but due to serious physical activity The girl's kidneys failed, and the most complicated treatment was required. I had to come to terms with my immobility.

Valentin Dikul is known as the person who developed a set of measures for the medical rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injuries

Reverse side of the medals

Mukhina was born to win: unconditional talent was backed up by incredible performance. “A mischievous imp lived in her, and at the same time she was plastic, feminine. "Mukhina's Loop" on uneven bars is generally a masterpiece of world gymnastics, ”the coach of the USSR national team Leonid Arkaev once said.

Mukhina owes much of her success to Mikhail Klimenko. However, his methods of work were often criticized. Klimenko was called a coach not only tough, but also cruel. He did not know pity, did not recognize compromises. Coach Mukhina did not hide his rudeness even in front of television cameras.

Perhaps this approach is applicable to the men whom Mikhail trained before Lena, but not to her. Alas, Klimenko was not going to abandon the working "male" methods. The gymnast unquestioningly obeyed the coach in everything.

Mikhail regularly reminded the ward to whom she owes her success, backed up his words with accusations of laziness and whims, which instantly affected Lena, although it is worth noting that in those years she would have been torn off with her hands the best coaches country. Too bad no one told her about it herself.

So, Mukhina learned to work, overcoming pain.

Back in 1975, 14-year-old Lena suffered her first serious injury. During the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in Leningrad, she landed on her head in a foam pit. X-ray showed that Mukhina's spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae were torn off from the blow. The athlete was hospitalized, but every day after visiting the doctors, Klimenko came to the hospital, picked up the ward and took her to gym, where he forced to train without an orthopedic "collar", which is strictly forbidden to be removed. After some time, the athlete's legs began to go numb, a feeling of weakness appeared, which did not go away.

In 1977, during a training session before the World Championships, Mukhina hit her side on the pole of the bars so that it split. “It feels like I broke my ribs, but then, after sitting for ten minutes on the mats, in a semi-conscious state, I also worked on freestyle and balance beam. When it got really bad, she approached the coach, but he only gritted through his teeth: “You are always looking for a reason to do nothing,” Elena recalled.

In 1978, the athlete knocked out her thumb so hard that it completely came out of the joint. Fearing the coach's wrath, Lena set it herself.

Literally a few days later, another injury: during the warm-up, Mukhina did not calculate the run-up (they washed the floor in the hall, destroying all the chalk marks) and fell, hitting her head hard. Nevertheless, the exercise was ordered to continue.

A concussion, broken ribs, dislocations and bruises accompanied the gymnast everywhere. Perhaps there would have been fewer injuries if Lena had had time to recover. Instead, she, pressing a cotton wool with ammonia to her nose, went to the next projectile ...

“When Mukhina and I periodically met in the hall, she looked inhibited, often cried. Once she said that she did not have time to completely cross the avenue in front of the CSKA sports complex while the green light was on - she did not have enough strength. At the same time, her free program on almost all apparatuses continued to be the most difficult in the world, ”the athlete and journalist Elena Vaitsekhovskaya shared her memories.

After a series of injuries and emotional exhaustion, Mukhina wanted to leave big sport. The coach did not allow it, insisting that they needed the Olympic Games in 1980. The gymnast obeyed once again.

1979 At demonstration performances in England, Lena broke her leg. A month and a half later, when the plaster was removed, it turned out that the bones had parted. The doctors put them in their place, put them in plaster again, but at the insistence of the coach, the very next day, Mukhina trained in the gym, landing after jumping on a healthy leg.

“Klimenko was always terribly nervous before the competition, pulled me. Probably because he perfectly understood that his own well-being and career directly depend on whether I get into the national team or not. I took my training very seriously. There were cases when, in order to drive off excess weight, she ran at night and went to the gym in the morning. At the same time, I constantly had to listen to the fact that I was cattle and should be happy that they paid attention to me and gave me a chance, ”Elena recalled years later.

1980s. Last training camp before the Olympics. And the last for Mukhina.

Lena's ankles and knees hurt from overloads, in addition, inflammation of the articular bag of the hand began. “I can only say: after all, this injury is on the conscience of her coach Mikhail Klimenko. He drove her. Lena’s leg hurt insanely, and he forced her to work ... Shortly after the Olympics in Moscow, when Mukhina was laid down and operated on many, many times, he and his whole family went to Italy and lives there to this day with his children, ”recalled nine-time Olympic champion Larisa Latynina at the beginning of the 2000s.

Life from scratch

At one of the training sessions, Klimenko once said: “They will only leave you alone when you crash on the platform.” Who would have thought that his words would become prophetic. In one of the rare interviews, Mukhina was asked if she considered her coach guilty of what had happened. “I taught Klimenko to the fact that I can train and perform with any injuries ...” - then Elena answered evasively.

Mukhina admitted that before the Olympics-80 she was increasingly visited by terrible thoughts of suicide.

When asked why she did not quit gymnastics, Elena had no answer. “I have seen my fall several times in my dreams. I saw how they carried me out of the hall. I knew that sooner or later it would really happen. I felt like an animal being whipped down an endless corridor. But again and again she came to the hall. Perhaps this is fate. And they don’t take offense at fate, ”the former champion noted.