Surely all ski racing fans remember the dramatic finale of the sprint at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Then two Russian skiers, Alexander Panzhinsky and Nikita Kryukov, stretched out in a half-split, crossed the finish line almost simultaneously. The victory was awarded to Kryukov, and Panzhinsky became the silver medalist of the Games. How did it turn out after that? sports career We’ll tell you in the article about Alexandra and where he is now.
Biography
The future skier was born on March 16, 1989 in Khabarovsk, where he spent his childhood. Alexander comes from a sports family: his father, Eduard Nikolaevich, and mother, Irina Ivanovna, are masters of sports in cross-country skiing. Panzhinsky has an older brother, Evgeniy, also an amateur skier, now living in North America and a biological scientist at the University of Wyoming.
When Sasha was four years old and Zhenya was seven years old, they both began skiing under the supervision of their father, then began going to the section at Khabarovsk school No. 22. Over time, the younger brother began to overtake the elder, despite the three-year age difference. IN young skier Alexandra Panzhinsky saw his potential and, at the age of fifteen, was sent to the Russian Children's Championship, which Sasha easily won. After some time, the ski section where the athlete trained was transferred to the balance of the regional sports school. Funding increased, and the guys began to regularly travel to regional and Russian competitions.
In 2008, skier Alexander Panzhinsky performed unsuccessfully at the Student Spartakiad and took only eighth place. Regional officials considered this result unsatisfactory and called the athlete unpromising. As a result, funding for its preparation was stopped. But the capital’s coaches noticed the guy’s talent and invited him to the Babushkino sports school. Panzhinsky's parents, after much deliberation, sent their son to Moscow, where his serious career began.
The athlete has two higher educations: he graduated from the Pacific State University with a degree in finance and credit, as well as Moscow State University for the Humanities. Sholokhov with a degree in social psychology.
First victories and debut in the national team
In 2009, skier Alexander Panzhinsky achieved his first great success: he won gold medal in the sprint at the Junior World Championships in France. In the same year he became the champion of Russia among juniors and took second place at the Krasnogorsk ski track. For these merits, the athlete was accepted into the adult national team. In March 2009, he made his debut at the World Cup stage in Trondheim, Norway. In the overall cup standings he took 136th position.
In November, at a stage in Finnish Kuusamo, in the semi-final sprint race, skier Alexander Panzhinsky was first, but a few meters before the finish he fell out of the blue. The unfortunate fall not only deprived him of a place in the final, but also cast doubt on his participation in Olympic Games. However, in January 2010, at the cup stage in Otepää, Estonia, the athlete took fifth place in the sprint and qualified for the main competition of the four-year period.
Olympic Games 2010 in Vancouver and further career
At the Olympics, skier Alexander Panzhinsky sensationally won silver in the sprint race. He and another Russian, Nikita Kryukov, gained a significant lead over their rivals, and it became clear that victory would be played out at the finish line. As a result, a few centimeters brought “gold” to Kryukov.
After this, Panzhinsky’s career began to decline. In 2011 he won bronze medal in the team sprint at the world championship in Holmenkollen, and then was never among the winners of cup competitions for nine years, and missed the 2014 home Olympics in Sochi. Alexander himself explained his sporting failures by psychological problems, difficulties in the training process and poor health.
In 2015, at the World Championships in Sweden, the skier did not qualify for the sprint, and in 2017, at the World Championships in Finland, he did not join the Russian team at all. Because of such inexpressive results, Alexander Panzhinsky decided to change his coach. For ten years he worked with Yuri Kaminsky, and in 2017 he moved to Markus Kramer. According to the athlete, he watched Kramer’s training and liked his approach.
Olympic Games 2018
Skier Alexander Panzhinsky would hardly have made it to the Olympics in Korea if not for the IOC decision to disqualify many strong athletes. Russian athletes. As a result, as a member of our ski team at the Games in Pyeongchang, he turned out to be the most titled and oldest participant. The athlete recalls that the selection for the Olympics resembled Russian roulette, so he was very surprised when he saw himself on the lists.
In the classic sprint, Panzhinsky successfully overcame the qualifications and reached the quarterfinals, where he finished fourth and received a ticket to the semifinals. However, the skier failed to make it into the final race.
Personal life
Even before the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Alexander began dating a girl named Anna, who later became his wife. On June 2, 2018, the couple had a son, Artem. The athlete happily shares photos of the baby with fans on his Instagram account. From social network You can also find out where skier Alexander Panzhinsky is currently training. Recently, in mid-November, he and his team were at the qualifying competitions in Rovaniemi, Finland, and ahead of him are the first stages of the World Cup of the 2018/2019 season.
Born and raised in Khabarovsk in a family of athletes: his parents are masters of sports in cross-country skiing. It was with his family that Alexander won his first award in sports - a medal in the competition “Mom, Dad, Me - sports family" Skiing - from the age of four. For 12 years he trained under the supervision of his father in the children's ski section at school No. 22 in Khabarovsk (now the Economic Gymnasium). At the age of 15, while in ninth grade, Alexander won the Russian children's cross-country skiing championship.
After some time, the ski section in which Alexander Panzhinsky trained was transferred to the balance of the regional children's sports school, supervised by the Ministry of Education. This period is characterized by regular trips to regional and All-Russian competitions, where Alexander won his first awards. A little later, when the school was transferred to the sports committee, the number of trips was significantly reduced. Panzhinsky continued to make it to the All-Russian competitions over and over again, but he was probably not sent to them for financial reasons.
In 2008, he performed unsuccessfully at the main competitions - the Students' Spartakiad: he took only eighth place. Regional sports officials considered this result unsatisfactory. The athlete was declared unpromising and funding for his training was stopped. However, his talent did not go unnoticed by the capital’s coaches - Alexander Panzhinsky was invited to the 81st Moscow children’s and youth sports school “Babushkino”. After much deliberation, Alexander's parents sent their son to Moscow - first for the summer, and then for another year.
The first serious victories came to Alexander Panzhinsky in 2009. He won gold in the junior sprint at the World Youth and Junior Championships in Praz-de-Luz (France). At the same time he won the Russian Junior Championship. On December 26, 2009, Alexander became second on the Krasnogorsk ski track.
Debut in the national team
In 2009, he received an invitation to the “adult” Russian national team. He made his debut on March 12, 2009 at the World Cup in Trondheim. IN overall standings Cup took 136th place. Before the 2010 Olympics best result in his career he took fifth place in the sprint at the World Cup in Otepää, Estonia (January 17, 2010).
World Cup stage in Kuusamo
On November 28, 2009, he confidently led in the semi-finals of the World Cup in Kuusamo. However, just a few meters before the finish line, he lost his balance out of the blue and fell, thereby depriving himself of his place in the finals and casting doubt on his participation in the Winter Olympics.
Best of the day
Winter Olympics in Vancouver
On February 17, 2010, he won silver at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In a dramatic final, he lost to compatriot Nikita Kryukov: the winner could only be revealed through a photo finish.
Coaches
Yuri Mikhailovich Kaminsky;
Nikolai Fedorovich Roskov (coach of the youth team);
Eduard Panzhinsky (father);
Markus Kramer.
Family
Father - Panzhinsky Eduard Nikolaevich (master of sports in cross-country skiing, associate professor of the department physical education Pacific State University, Russia, Khabarovsk);
Mother - Panzhinskaya Irina Ivanovna (master of sports in cross-country skiing);
Brother (eldest) - Evgeniy Eduardovich Panzhinsky (biologist, doctoral student at the University of Wyoming, USA)
Awards
Medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (March 5, 2010) - for great contribution to development physical culture and sports, tall sporting achievements at the Games of the XXI Olympiad 2010 in Vancouver
Honored Master of Sports of Russia
Hobby
IN free time Alexander Panzhinsky reads fiction, goes to ballet, studies English language. Loves music.
Interesting facts
Alexander Panzhinsky drinks vegetable juice every morning before breakfast: from carrots, beets and apples.
Competitors in the final in the individual sprint at the 2010 Olympic Games Alexander Panzhinsky and Nikita Kryukov in everyday life- close friends. Both train with Yuri Kaminsky.
Alexander Panzhinsky graduated from high school in Khabarovsk as an external student.
Alexander Panzhinsky is a student at Moscow State humanitarian university them. M. Sholokhov, and is also studying in absentia in the 4th year of the Pacific State University (Khabarovsk) with a degree in Finance and Credit.
Alexander Panzhinsky's favorite writer is Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.
Olympics 2018
Subject to correction
Alexandra Vladimirova about Alexander Panzhinsky, the skier who returned to the Olympics
eight years later -
either after a triumph or after a tragedy
If you remember anything about the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, it's probably the finish of the cross-country ski race. Then two Russians, Nikita Kryukov and Alexander Panzhinsky, stretched out in a half-split, crossed the finish line almost simultaneously.
Only a photo finish could determine the winner. But for most fans, the order of the athletes on the podium was not very important then - after all, it was about the fifth competition day of the Games and only the first gold and silver Vancouver awards for the Russian team. No one expected that these two young guys would be able to beat the almost unbeatable Petter Northug at that time. But they not only succeeded, but also left the brilliant Norwegian finisher far behind.
Having finished the competition, both Russian skiers, exhausted, collapsed on the snow. But Kryukov, who eventually became the first, quickly stood up and raised his hands in victory. Panzhinsky remained lying there. It is symbolic that the future careers of both athletes were very similar: Kryukov was able to win many more medals at various tournaments, Panzhinsky limited himself to one bronze medal at the 2011 World Championship, missing the home Olympics and in nine years never being among the winners of the World Cup stages. It was all the more surprising on the eve of the Olympics in Pyeongchang to hear the following words from Panzhinsky: if then, in Vancouver, I had won and not lost, it is not a fact that I would have been able to maintain the motivation to continue training.
Panzhinsky was born in the Far East - in Khabarovsk, in a family of masters of sports in cross-country skiing. On the page of the Wikipedia article dedicated to Alexander, you can find a description of his “steps in sports” - detailed, conservative, like from a Soviet textbook. There is also about the first medal won in the competition “Dad, Mom, I am a sports family”, and about the victory at the Russian Children’s Championship, and about the legal vicissitudes (similar to the transfer “to the balance of the regional children’s sports school”) of the ski section, in which the athlete was engaged. It also says about his debut in the national team - less than a year before the Vancouver Olympics, and also tells about the athlete’s entire family, hobbies and even gastronomic habits.
You can learn even more about Panzhinsky’s current life from his Instagram account, where he posts videos from training and competitions and reports in detail about his sports and family successes. The skier duplicates all signatures written in Russian in English, albeit with grammatical errors, but demonstrating a clear desire to work not only for the Russian, but also for the international audience (not too large yet - Alexander has 4.5 thousand subscribers) .
“I know that many foreigners would like to communicate with us, but it doesn’t always work out,” Panzhinsky said in an interview with R-Sport. – Many people really consider us “closed”. That’s why I try to use every opportunity to practice my English.”
With pride Panzhinsky talks about his brother, who knows this foreign language"perfectly" An amateur skier himself, Evgeniy has been living in North America for more than ten years, received his PhD in the USA, and is now working scientific research at the Faculty of Medicine at the prestigious Canadian University of British Columbia (ranked 34th in the Times Higher Education university rankings). The university where Evgeniy Panzhinsky works is located in the capital of the 2010 Olympics - Vancouver. And this is not an accident: having come to support his brother in 2010, he appreciated the comfort of living in this Canadian city and, having received a job offer, happily agreed to return to where he “experienced the strongest emotions of his life.”
Evgeny Panzhinsky
“I was nine years old, Sasha was six - we started skiing at the same time,” recalls Evgeniy. – When I was in the tenth grade, Sasha was already ahead of not only me, but also all my peers from the Khabarovsk Territory, despite the fact that he was three years younger. It became obvious that he had potential. Although I wouldn't say it meant that much. After all, we have a lot of young talents, even more talented ones, in our country, but not all of them become successful athletes and realize that same potential.”
Even after winning an Olympic medal, his brother, of course, did not realize his full potential in sports, Evgeniy believes. Too many things then stacked up against us: “somewhere it’s psychology, somewhere it’s health problems, somewhere it’s difficulties with the training process.” After the end of the 2012/13 season, three-time President of the Russian Ski Federation Olympic champion Elena Vyalbe even stated: because of the Olympic success, Alexander Panzhinsky began star fever. “I couldn’t cope with fame. That’s where the problems come from,” she snapped.
“Elena Valerievna likes to motivate athletes this way,” smiles her brother silver medalist Games 2010. “In public interviews, she can tease them and criticize them, but they never had a personal conflict. If there is a conflict, Sasha immediately tries to talk openly and resolve the issue. And, as far as I know, after that interview he went to Elena Valerievna and discussed this issue. He didn't even think that she might think so. It wasn’t a star fever – rather a small misunderstanding.”
After that conversation, Elena Vyalbe no longer allowed herself such harsh criticism of Panzhinsky - although the skier did not have any new reasons for star fever. But everything was going well in his personal life - he received two higher educations, graduating from the Pacific State University (specialty - "finance and credit") and Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities ("social psychology"). He married a girl, Anna, whom he began dating before the Olympics in Vancouver. Got a dog.
The decision taken by the commission regarding Russian skiers, divided the lives of athletes and coaches into “before” and “after”, leaving the plans, dreams and hopes of even those who were not affected by the doping story in the same reality. One of them is the vice-champion of the Olympic Games in Vancouver. At the pre-season training camp in Ramsau, the famous skier told R-Sport special correspondent Elena Vaitsekhovskaya why he decided to change his coach a year before the Games, how he survived the defeat in the Olympic finishing line in 2010, and why Tour de Ski winner Sergei Ustyugov is becoming too much modest when it comes to interviews.
Alexander, my first question may sound unexpected, but it haunts me. Not long ago I heard the famous wrestler Alexander Karelin say that only in very mature age he learned to perceive Dostoevsky without “poisoning” his own brain. You once stated that Dostoevsky is your favorite writer. Is this really true?
I was simply asked in an interview what authors I have been reading lately. I named Dostoevsky because one of the last books I read at that time was Crime and Punishment. In fact, I like reading Boris Akunin much more.
Previously, I was mainly interested in his detective novels, then I discovered “The History of the Russian State.” I studied well at school, and generally received a good education, but in terms of history I don’t consider myself a very literate person. So I’ll compensate for the gaps.
Kaminsky said that perhaps it was necessary to stop cooperation earlier
To summarize, that’s how it was. After that Vancouver performance, my coach and I tried year after year to return to our previous level. Sometimes happened good racing, but they did not happen where it was necessary, that is, at some Russian launches.
Sometimes the condition was excellent, but some unforeseen circumstances in the form of breakdowns, falls, or something else prevented the results from being shown. Somewhere there were problems with skis, dips in functional state. All we managed to win was bronze at the World Championships in 2011. And the youth championship.
- Have you tried to understand what the reason is?
Naturally. As a result of all these thoughts, a change of coach occurred. Yuri Mikhailovich (Kaminsky) and I always understood each other, but at that time we began to disagree a little.
I understand you: when there is no result, it becomes very difficult to continue to trust the person under whose leadership you are working.
In my case this was not entirely true. I continued to fulfill all Kaminsky’s requirements, all the loads, but when the coach says that you are doing everything right, but the result never comes, you involuntarily begin to look for some other ways to achieve your goals. As a result, you disagree more and more with the coach.
This does not happen because some kind of stardom sets in, or, as we like to say, “he has become too smart.” It’s just that the life of an athlete is very short, but you still want to realize yourself to the maximum.
When I scrolled through all this over and over again in my own head, I even began to think that my success in Vancouver was the result of not only working with Kaminsky, but also the fact that a year before the Games I trained for a whole season with my first mentor Nikolai Roskov .
During that period I ran a lot of distance races, and in general more work was done. Perhaps it was precisely as a result of the symbiosis of those trainings and training according to Kaminsky’s method that we had a very good season, where almost everything worked out.
In general, the more I thought about all this, especially after I didn’t get to the Olympic Games in Sochi, the more often I thought that I had reached a certain impasse, the only way out of which was to change the coach.
Are you saying that if someone is a minute late for the bus, then the bus may not be found at the appointed place?
Once it happened like that. But more often the case is limited to a fine. Perhaps, of course, this is purely German punctuality, but I myself believe that for a large team, Kramer’s principles are an absolute plus. Organize training process When there are a dozen and a half athletes in a group, it is quite difficult: any relaxation can lead to everything descending into chaos.
But in training plan Marcus is not a dictator. That is, if you really feel bad, he will never drive you away and force you to work through force.
- Has your workload increased this season?
Both the loads and volumes have increased. Psychologically it’s very easy for me, because I wanted it myself. Plus, new types of training and new gathering places have appeared. Therefore, even with very hard work, the positive psychological component overcomes the physiological load. That's why I'm looking forward to the start of the competition season. You know, I wish that on Wikipedia my best performances were dated not from 2010, but from 2018.
“I don’t rule out that gold at the Vancouver Games could harm me sportingly.”
Your Olympic match in Vancouver, where the fate of gold was determined by a photo finish, is still before my eyes.
Believe me, me too.
Perhaps it's because I understand very well the difference between an Olympic gold and silver medal. And more than once after those Games I thought that, probably, for a young athlete like you were then, Olympic silver was very good result. But, to be honest, I wouldn’t wish this experience on my enemy.
There is such a thing. That defeat seemed to burn me from the inside for a very long time. And I dreamed about it many times, and thought about those last seconds a lot. Although, on the other hand, it might be worth looking at it differently, as a very big plus for me. I was really very young in Vancouver. If I had won and reached this maximum height for an athlete, it is not a fact that I would have been able to maintain the motivation to continue training.
But it was motivation that helped me get through all these difficult years when there was no big victories. And even now it helps me maintain the goal I’m moving towards - to become Olympic champion. This is generally the main task in my career.
I remember skiing times, when it was considered a special valor for an athlete to win a race. long distances, become the “king of skis”, winning the 30 and 50 km distances. Nowadays, sometimes it seems that everyone wants to run sprints. Or is this impression deceptive?
I wouldn’t say that there is any special emphasis on sprints. But this is certainly a very spectacular discipline if you look at it from the outside.
- And run sprint race more interesting?
When you're in in great shape and you feel superior to your rivals, it’s interesting. But it’s also very difficult, because running the same 15 kilometers takes 40 minutes. And here you need to start at least four times. It takes a lot of time, in terms of psychological tension.
We start in qualifying, then we rest for an hour and a half to two hours, then there is a quarterfinal, half an hour of rest, a semi-final, 15 minutes of rest - and the final. That is, the competition lasts for 2.5-3 hours. Accordingly, you cannot allow yourself to completely relax, in order to recover faster - you must constantly maintain some kind of concentration.
The main feature of the sprint is that the athlete has no right to make a mistake. If in a long race you have time to make up for some lost seconds, then in a sprint there is simply no such opportunity. He fell, stepped on his ski, broke his stick, and it was all over.
- Due to its spectacular nature, the sprint is probably also a more commercial story?
I wouldn't say so. Commercial starts in ski racing are, first of all, marathons. There are a lot of them, thousands of athletes participate, and you can make pretty good money there.
- Did you succeed?
No. Although I ran marathons. About six or seven in my entire career. This year I ran 60 kilometers on roller skates for the first time - at a competition in Norway. That is, in principle, it is not a problem for me to cover such a distance - we do this often in training.
When I was talking to your former coach about the Olympics in Korea, he said that ski slope in Pyeongchang made “under Panzhinsky”.
The Olympic track is really very interesting, I like it. I would say that this is one of those tracks where the really strongest should win, and not just the one who is more fortunate. You have to be quite versatile because there are long flat sections, a long finish, hard climbs.
I just heard from Kaminsky that your climbs are especially good. Better than anyone else's.
However, last year I lost on this route, having underestimated and not fully calculated the last descent. I contacted him first, but there was, let’s say, a small contact with my colleague. And because of this, I took the turn poorly, and my rivals, who seemed to be behind with a sufficient gap, passed me on the rollout. That is, on a fairly easy section, where I didn’t even have to work particularly hard, I lost everything I had won before.
- It's a shame.
In fact, it was good lesson. And it’s good that all this happened not at the Olympic Games, but a year before them.
I remember what a tragedy it was for you not to participate in the 2014 Games, where you did not qualify due to illness. But if we move on to philosophical categories, now it seems that everything also happened for the better. At least you weren't affected by the infamous McLaren report.
Unfortunately, it affected not only those who ran to Sochi and won medals there...
