Superhero story. Russian Boa constrictor conquered the Japanese emperor and became a legend
“Modern athletes, if only without his character,” – mourn the legendary Soviet skier Vyacheslav Vedenin in Runet. The athlete passed away on October 22 at the age of 80 after a long illness. However, as a child, the future celebrity was still a daredevil – he smoked, drank moonshine and stayed for the second year at school, and it is not known which path he would take if not for sports.
Repeater and juvenile chicken
Vyacheslav was born on October 1, 1941 in the village of Sloboda, Tula region. He did not know his father – Vedenin Sr. went to the front, not even knowing that his wife was already carrying a son under her heart (there was only a daughter in the family at that time), and who died in 1942 in battles with the Nazis near Smolensk.
Vyacheslav’s childhood was difficult. He himself recalled that in his native village (as, incidentally, everywhere in the war and post-war times), a terrible famine reigned. The family was forced to eat nettles and quinoa, the growing boy suffered from rickets from malnutrition.
The only delicacy is “teruns” … No matter how you pick potatoes in the field, there will still be something left for the winter. You take the frozen one, and it is soft. You take off the skin and bake the pancakes. They also smoked a lot. In the second grade, I already did not have enough packs for the day. Once they stole makhorkas from my grandfather – they got so high that they climbed onto the wall! Before hallucinations! .. They were sealed with milk. And I gave up tobacco in the sixth grade. A front-line artilleryman was sent to teach physical education to us. A hefty man, baptized with two-pound weights. Caught us with cigarettes in the toilet. He took me by the legs and held my head over the hole in the floor: “Maknu!” How I roared!
– Vedenin recalled in 2013 in an interview with the publication “Sport-Express“.
And the future Olympic champion remained in school for the second year because of the bullying of the German teacher. After the war, the attitude towards the speakers of this language was negative. They caught up, threw a bag over the poor man’s head and whipped him on the legs with nettles …
… Tied up with all the nonsense Vedomosti of the very same physical instructor-artilleryman. He managed to seriously captivate the boy with sports. And Vyacheslav threw all his youthful ardor to conquer sports peaks (by the way, he started with cycling, and got carried away with skiing only later). Once I read in a book about a famous Russian strongman Ivan Poddubny a curious exercise: lifting with your teeth a weight tied to a heavy kettlebell. Having mastered it, he smiled: “It develops the muscles of the back and neck.”
Screenshot of the sport-express.ru website page
However, the hooligan youth clearly affected the future career of the athlete – it is quite possible to make a whole film in his life, which will be full of unthinkable curiosities, wit and, at the same time, dignity and pride. Vedenin possessed these qualities for sure.
From here we will threaten the Swede … both the Norwegian and the Finn
Cross-country skiing Vyacheslav Vedenin began to master already in adulthood, and it was not just anyone who undertook to train him, but the 14-time USSR champion Vasily Smirnov. As a result, the stubborn student achieved such success that he was able to out-compete foreign rivals that were previously unbeatable for Russian skiers – first of all, Swedes, Finns and Norwegians. And this despite the fact that Vedenin was at that time, a non-standard athlete – he lacked growth. Then men taller than 180 centimeters went to skiing, while Vyacheslav had only 169 centimeters. However, he makes up for the lack of growth with persistence and sometimes cunning …
Take at least the history of how at the 1970 World Championship in the Czech Republic Vedenin won (the only one from the whole team!) A silver medal in the 50 km race. They had to compete in a difficult situation: the Czechs met Russian athletes badly and aggressively. After all, only two years have passed since the notorious “Prague Spring”. Ours shouted angrily – “Invaders!”, Insulted. It got to the point that at one of the races, washing powder was poured onto the track to Russian skiers. The “saboteurs” believed that skis with such an abrasive would not go in the snow, but Vedenin, in spite of everything, moved forward. When I reached the finish line, blood was streaming down the ski poles: I rubbed my palms to rags of skin, to meat. And he snatched out his silver.
No wonder he was called the Russian Boa – not only by fans, but also by the press.
The persistence of the Russian skier was noticed not only at home – one of Vedenin’s ardent fans was a millionaire from Sweden, Kurt Lucel… He even undertook to patronize Soviet skiers in his own way, sponsoring the national team, helping to buy good equipment. However, the Swede also did not miss his profit: when the time came for the 1972 Winter Olympics, Lucel put a million crowns on Vedenin taking gold there. Nobody believed in it then.
And now Vyacheslav at the start – ahead of the individual men’s race at a distance of 30 kilometers. The conditions are terrible – the weather is badly let down, thick sticky snow is falling. Concerned local journalists ask Vedenin before the start, how will he perform in such a blizzard?
“Yes, and *** with him,” – cheerfully and hooligan replies to the athletes, using an unprintable three-letter word known to everyone in Russia. Starts and … takes his first gold medal in that Olympics. Japanese newspapers are full of headlines that the Russian Boa constrictor said the magic word “dahusim”, and it helped him win.
Half a century has passed, and this curious story is still remembered both in the Land of the Rising Sun and beyond.
Vyacheslav Vedenin on the track. Screenshot of twitter.com/Olympics.ru page
Cunning takes gold
Vedenin won the second gold medal at that Olympics in no less difficult conditions. Everyone expected the Norwegians to win the baton – recall that in this sport they were considered favorites and invincible masters. Moreover, before the last stage, the Russians lagged behind them by a whole minute in time. It seemed that there was no chance to win back and catch up with the missing time. Vyacheslav went for a trick – he remembered how his most recent deception was a Finn skier, and decided to test a similar trick with an opponent, Jochs Harviken…
Once at a competition suggested by the Finn Mäntyranta: “There is a problem with the ointment. Which one do you recommend?” He pointed out, “Here’s a good one.” Foolishly listened. And she didn’t go at all! I remembered about that episode and before my stage I began, under the Norwegian Harviken, allegedly to wipe my skis with ointment. At the same time, he held the tube in a centimeter, drove it with a clean finger. Wondering: will he bite or not? I even managed to congratulate him on the gold medal: they say, I have no chance. All this worked. The Norwegian was one of the people I studied. If a guy is a little spoiled in childhood, everything worked out for him without stress – rotten inside. You just have to find the place where this foulbrood. Push there. And I felt – he really wanted fame. I already imagined how the country would be delighted with gold,
– the Russian Boa constrictor recalled years later.
Vedenin’s idea played out. He watched as the opponent fell for the trick and generously processed his skis:
He whispers to the coach: “For the third time Vedenin greases …” They squint at the blue Swix in my hands. And your skis from toe to heel! Consider, I played 15 seconds. Then on the descent – 12. He cheated again. He told our guys in advance: “Get up there and shout” Vedenin! “And so they did. Harviken turns his head, he loses two seconds.
Needless to say that ours got the gold? It was due to the success in that race of Vedenin.
It once again thundered at that Olympics, and the matter would end in a serious international scandal. The times of Vyacheslav was appointed the standard-bearer of the Soviet national team, according to the rules, to bow the USSR flag to the emperor of Japan. But the stubborn athlete did not. However, he was not only forgiven for the unheard-of insolence – as a keepsake, already at the presentation of the awards, the Japanese emperor presented Vedenin with a souvenir in the form of a wooden national mask.
Now, recalling this episode, Runet users compare it with how our current athletes go to perform without the Russian flag and anthem, wondering if Vedenin would have acted like this with the honor of the country? ..
The legendary athlete was buried in his native village Sloboda in the Tula region. The hero himself asked for this in his will. I did not want to part with my native land even after death.