The groom of Oksana Kostina. Kostina Oksana Alexandrovna, Russian gymnast: biography, sporting achievements

Oksana Aleksandrovna Kostina (April 15, 1972, Moscow) February 11, 1993, Moscow) - Honored Master of Sports in rhythmic gymnastics(1991). Repeated world champion in the team event (1990–1991), absolute world champion (1992) (pupil of the Honored Coach of the Russian Federation).

Oksana Kostina: biographical information

Coaches - Sarah Gorelik (until 1984), .

In 1991, Oksana Kostina was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.

In total, she won 14 medals at the World and European Championships, of which 9 were gold.

On February 11, 1993, she tragically died in a car accident in Moscow near Domodedovo Airport.

Memory

    An international tournament in memory of Oksana is held annually. The winners were Y. Barsukova, I. Chashchina, L. Utyasheva, Z. Gizikova.

    There is a memorial plaque on the facade of the house where Oksana lived.

    Event for sports world was the publication of the book of journalist Pavel Kushkin "Beyond Risk", in which a whole chapter is devoted to Oksana.

Gymnast Oksana Kostina. Biographical sketch

The high tempo, combined with the extreme complexity of the elements, gave Oksana Kostina's performances the power of a poignant sports art. Irkutsk journalist Pavel Kushkin published a book in which the best lines are dedicated to Oksana.

Kostina - prima, the rest - corps de ballet

For some reason, he remembered well how she appeared in his life. Oksana came to coach Olga Buyanova as a thirteen-year-old girl and immediately got into the group of masters of sports.

- She had a special aura, the doctor recalls. - It was immediately felt that this child was somehow unusual, not like everyone else. Small, thin: even at twenty years old, she was no more than sixty centimeters and weighed about forty kilograms. But she had such strength of mind! In the group where she studied, everyone soon realized: she is a prima, everyone else is a corps de ballet.

Vitold Leonardovich then still went to swimming competitions with her husband Olga Buyanova, who trained swimmers. The doctor recalls how one day, returning from another trip, their swimmer girls brought 12 medals, everyone - both the doctor and the coach - had a great mood, there are great prospects ahead. They came to visit Buyanov, and then Vitold Leonardovich saw Olga, with a pencil in her hands, crossing out the names from some list. “This one is fat, this one is also no good,” Olga thought aloud. “At these competitions, Kostina was 32nd. And at the next championship of the Soviet Union, Oksana will be fourth ...”

- Olga looked into the water, - Vitold Leonardovich admits. - Everyone she crossed out disappeared, and Oksana became not fourth, but third at the next championship of the Soviet Union. In 1988, at the World Championships, she became the first in a team performance, and took silver in the ball. It was her first performance at the World Championships.
Forty two runs

Oksana was not childishly serious, adult. Her father died early, her mother worked as a nurse, disappeared for days in the hospital, tried to take more shifts in order to dress, put on, and feed her two daughters. Therefore, Olga Buyanova very soon realized that the girl would obey her, the coach became the ultimate truth for her, an indisputable authority.

- In order to achieve something in sports, and even more so in big sports, you need to train, sparing your strength, in the mode that the coach outlines. Today this is no longer possible: parents actively interfere with the coach’s orders, spare their girls,And Oksana trained as much as needed. They still remember her personal record in training: she was able to do 42 runs! The second woman from Irkutsk, world champion Natalya Lipkovskaya, who came to big sport after Oksana, could only do 14 runs at a time.

Only Oksana Kostina could run the same program again and again, bringing all the sports elements to perfection, and her movements to automatism. Physically, she was not as strong as other sportswomen-artists. Vitold Leonardovich recalls that she did not want to just do a split or a jump, she was not interested in it. But in combination with other elements, as part of sports program she did everything great and even "with a margin", as the athletes say.

Olga Buyanova knew Oksana's little weakness - she did everything great when other people looked at her. And the coach has always gathered an "audience audience" for training.

Well, didn't you like me? - Oksana asked, smiling sweetly, after some dizzying pirouette.

She was vain. Ambitious. She really wanted to be the best. And without these qualities, there is nothing to do in big sport.

"Little Mom"

Many said after her death that she was unsmiling. It is not true. She was an ordinary child, just like everyone else. Just very diligent.

- She was always like a little mother She took care of everyone all the time. About me, about the coach, about my mother, about my nephews. She began to travel abroad very early, she was in many countries. And then, in the nineties, we had nothing in stores. And now she is always loaded so that it is difficult to carry these bags at the airport. You ask: what did you score, Ksyusha? She: "Gifts for mom, nieces." And from Moscow carried in both hands. It was such a great joy for her - to bring gifts to everyone, not to offend anyone.

At school she studied only "excellently", read Pushkin, Blok, Yesenin. Mom Galina Danilovna recalls that her favorite book in last years was "My dear man" by Yuri German, Oksana re-read this book many times.

To the music of Sokolov

And she was very fond of music, as no one understood classical ballet. She was fond of pop dances.

- We will come with her to watch the ballet, I don’t understand anything about it., - Vitold Leonardovich recalls. - And she will tell me everything. She read the ballet as if from a book: he said this, she answered him in such and such a way.

Oksana always had a tape recorder with her. Among the favorites are Pavarotti's arias, Rachmaninov's music, Malinin's first romances.

Oksana and her coach Olga Buyanova worked a lot with the Irkutsk composer, head of the Pilgrim Theater Vladimir Sokolov. The Irkutsk composer wrote music for exercises with a rope and a ball.

She performed exercises with a hoop under the "Bolero" by the French composer Maurice Ravel. "The hall just squealed with delight! - Vitold Leonardovich recalls. - If applause were measured in decibels and they would determine Miss Gymnastics, there would be no equal on the planet Oksana."
Everything was decided by the Deriugins

Oksana Kostina was not allowed to the Olympics in Barcelona. It was the time of the CIS, when politicians decided everything for the athletes. Then they announced that Ukraine would represent Russia at the Olympics. Two Mrs. Deryugins - mother and daughter from Kiev, determined that they did not need a provincial athlete from distant Siberia. Athletes of the Ukrainian school went to the Olympics, although at all qualifying competitions Oksana Kostina was the first.

This was a turning point in the fate of Oksana. It's broken. I just realized that you can’t break a butt with a whip, and I was about to leave rhythmic gymnastics. I bought a huge bouquet and came to say goodbye to Olga Buyanova. She threw the bouquet into the trash.

You have to play for Russia in Brussels, at the World Championships! - convinced her coach.

Oksana scored after the Olympics excess weight, turned out to be completely rasterized.

- But it was necessary to know Kostin,- says Vitold Leonardovich. - She decided to immediately get in shape, to quickly achieve the same results. She tore her Achilles tendon.

Enemies - in panel of judges

The World Championships in Belgium demanded great dedication from the athlete. Six exits to the carpet, one after the other. And her every step causes wild pain! A torn tendon is not something to jump, it does not let you take a step without pain. There is only one solution: novocaine blockade before each performance. Vitold Leonardovich recalls those days in Brussels with pain:

-We told her: Oksanochka, get together, all your enemies are in the panel of judges. Don't lame! They will raise such a howl if they see that a lame athlete is claiming a medal!

A lame gymnast will never be given the highest score - Oksana knew this, and even in the hotel, going out into the lobby, she tried not to limp, overcoming the pain. For the first exit at the World Championships, she was given 9.95 out of 10 possible. The hall raged with delight, and the judges meticulously assessed the cleanliness and clarity of the performance sports elements. The second, third exit - all marks are close to 10, but not 10 - Deryugina sits in the panel of judges. She somehow found out about Kostina's injury and urged the judges not to give the lame athlete the highest mark.

But none of the judges listened to her: all the exercises - with a rope, with a favorite ball, and with maces - were performed simply brilliantly!

- Oksana received three gold medals, there were only two exits left ... We go into the locker room, she lies, covered with a jacket,- says Vitold Leonardovich. - "Oksana, get up, we have to fight!" - "No, that's it, I've already competed. Are three gold medals not enough for you?!"

She was persuaded to come out on the carpet again. We put a few more novocaine injections before the performances. And she took two more gold medals!

It is impossible to copy Kostin

On August 3, an event for the sports world was the publication of a book by sports journalist Pavel Kushkin "Beyond Risk", in which a whole chapter is devoted to Oksana. Here are two excerpts from the book:

Irina Viner, head coach of the Russian national team, honored coach of Russia, laureate of the All-Russian sports award "Slava-2005":

- Rhythmic gymnastics, of course, does not stand still, it has changed a lot. But I often show videos of Kostina's performances to my students. And not at all in order to demand from them: "Do as Oksana!" No, it is impossible to copy Kostina. I'm just trying to deliver that aerobatics. And also, so that they become infected with that energy, that magic of the creator, which the great "artist" Oksana Kostina possessed.

Galina Danilovna Kostina, Oksana's mother:

- That time heals is not true. The longer my daughter is not with me, the more it hurts. And no one and nothing can fill this void. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her. For thirteen years she has not come to her house, my Oksanochka, so earthly and unearthly. She is known and remembered as an athlete, but she was still a master of all trades: she could stand at the helm of the Mars ship - she and her father walked around Baikal, she could make repairs in the apartment, she laid the tiles herself, glued wallpaper, carpentry.

Information message of the Moscow traffic police

"February 11 at 11.50 in the afternoon at the 51st kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road, the driver Eduard Grigoryevich Zenovka - the winner of the Olympic Games in Barcelona in modern pentathlon, driving a personal car "Moskvich-412" without a driver's license in a state of intoxication, following from the Minsk highway in the direction of Borovsky highway, lost control, drove into oncoming traffic and collided with a GAZ-53 car traveling in the opposite direction. chest", passenger Oksana Kostina was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, an open fracture of the right shoulder, a fracture of the ribs, shock of the fourth degree, and at 16 o'clock from her injuries she died in the 31st city hospital of Moscow.

Eduard Zenovka spent five days in intensive care, his kidney was cut out. On February 17, he was transferred to the general ward."

From the memoirs of Eduard Zenovka:

“From Sheremetyevo, we had to immediately go to Domodedovo. Oksana’s coach asked us to give her friend the documents that needed to be urgently sent to. The sun was shining, the snow on the ring road had slightly melted, we were not driving fast, 60-70 kilometers per hour - there were a lot of cars. And then suddenly they flew into the oncoming lane ... I don’t know how it happened. Maybe the left wheels hit the ice, and the right wheels hit the thawed asphalt. I tried to do something, but I couldn’t. like being sucked into a vacuum cleaner.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oksana Alexandrovna Kostina (April 15, 1972, Irkutsk, USSR - February 11, 1993, Moscow Region, Russia) - Soviet and Russian athlete, represented rhythmic gymnastics in individual exercises.

Biography

1979 - Started doing rhythmic gymnastics. The first coach L. Dorokhin.
1983-1984 - Coach - S. Gorelik, then - Olga Buyanova.
1989 (Moscow) - Admitted to the USSR national team.
1991 Awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.

In total, she won 14 medals at the World and European Championships, of which 9 were gold.

An international tournament in memory of Oksana is held annually in Irkutsk. The winners were Yulia Barsukova, Irina Chashchina, Laysan Utyasheva, Zarina Gizikova.

A memorial plaque hangs on the house where Oksana lived.

Sports results

1989 Sarajevo (Yugoslavia) Silver medalist of the World Championship in the team event, 2nd place in exercises with the ball.
1990 Seattle (USA) Goodwill Games bronze medalist in all-around, 2nd place in ball exercises.
1990 Stuttgart (Germany) Gimnastics masters. 2nd place in the all-around, 1st place ball, rope, hoop.
1990 Gothenburg (Sweden) World champion in the team event.
1991 Athens (Greece) World Champion in the team event.
1992 Bronze medalist of the European Championship in all-around, 1st place ball, clubs, hoop.
1992 Brussels (Belgium) World champion in all-around, 1st place ball, clubs, hoop, rope.

NOT CLINKING

“I will take the liberty of suggesting that in her short 20-year life, Oksana was still happy. She was talented. She was beautiful. She was loved. She became the winner, ”one journalist friend wrote about the seven-time world champion in rhythmic gymnastics Oksana Kostina not so long ago. It’s hard to disagree with this, but at the same time, all these arguments in the “happiness scale” do not convince like the one and only, but terrible
counterargument: she was too little ...

February 11, 1993 near the capital's Domodedovo airport there was a car accident that shook the whole country. "Moskvich", which was driven by the silver medalist of the Olympics-92 in modern pentathlon Eduard Zenovka, flew at full speed into the oncoming lane, along which a heavy truck was walking. A few hours after the collision, the Moskvich passenger, the seven-time world champion in rhythmic gymnastics and Zenovka's fiancee, Oksana Kostina, died in the hospital from numerous internal wounds. “A porcelain figurine has broken,” Soviet Sport wrote the next day. Eduard also ended up on the operating table, his right kidney was removed, but he survived. Then he hardly squeezed out the words: “The last thing I remember: Ksenia lying in the snow, and my own cry: “Cover her with something, because she’s cold” ... In the “ambulance” I lost consciousness ... "

THIS IS ALL GOD!

"Do you believe in God?" I asked Eduard Zenovka a few years ago. “No,” he replied, “only to fate. Everyone has their own, so on that day, February 11, 1993, it should have happened like that. Agree, too simple an answer to the question why a young and healthy “knight of five qualities”, as modern pentathletes are called, could not keep the steering wheel of a car moving at a speed of 70 km per hour. However, it seems to me the most accurate.

REJECTED

Vladimir Naipak, Vice President of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, says:

- For the first time I saw Kostina in 1987 in Kharkov on international tournament for the prizes of the Ballet magazine, dedicated to the memory of my mother, one of the founders of rhythmic gymnastics in the USSR, Honored Coach of the country Alexandra Semyonova-Naypak. From the very first minute of the performance of this well-built girl (and she was then 15 years old) I was struck by the purity of her lines and some kind of inner composure. Oksana worked very neatly and meaningfully, her compositions had content and spiritual content. Every gesture, head turn, even glance was meaningful. And she came, by the way, from Irkutsk, which at that time was not listed among the centers of rhythmic gymnastics in the USSR, and the name of her coach - Olga Buyanova - said little to both specialists and fans of this sport. However, the unknown debutante became the absolute winner of this tournament, leaving behind 14 (!) Members of the USSR national team. It became a real sensation.

Since then I have been following sports career Kostina. She had a different, different from others, intellectual and, I would even say, unusual gymnastics.
Not only Buyanova helped to embody it on the platform, but also Vladimir Sokolov, the head of the Irkutsk "Pilgrim Theatre", a composer who wrote music for Oksana. It was this trinity that made everyone believe that there is a school of rhythmic gymnastics in Irkutsk, and the city is one of the centers of this sport in the Soviet Union.

Sovsport.ru›gazeta/article-item/79057

Everything was decided by the Deriugins

Oksana Kostina was not allowed to the Olympics in Barcelona. It was the time of the CIS, when politicians decided everything for the athletes. Then they announced that Ukraine would represent Russia at the Olympics. Two Mrs. Deryugins - mother and daughter from Kiev, determined that they did not need a provincial athlete from distant Siberia. Athletes from the Ukrainian school went to the Olympics, although Oksana Kostina was the first in all qualifying competitions.

This was a turning point in the fate of Oksana. It's broken. I just realized that you can’t break a butt with a whip, and I was about to leave rhythmic gymnastics. I bought a huge bouquet and came to say goodbye to Olga Buyanova. She threw the bouquet into the trash.

You have to play for Russia in Brussels, at the World Championships! - convinced her coach.

Oksana gained excess weight after the Olympics, turned out to be completely untrained.

But it was necessary to know Kostin, - says Vitold Leonardovich. - She decided to immediately bring herself into shape, to quickly achieve the same results. She tore her Achilles tendon.

Enemies - in the panel of judges

The World Championships in Belgium demanded great dedication from the athlete. Six exits to the carpet, one after the other. And her every step causes wild pain!
A torn tendon is not something to jump, it does not let you take a step without pain. There is only one solution: novocaine blockade before each performance. Vitold Leonardovich recalls those days in Brussels with pain:

We told her: Oksanochka, get together, all your enemies are in the panel of judges. Don't lame! They will raise such a howl if they see that a lame athlete is claiming a medal!

A lame gymnast will never be given the highest score - Oksana knew this, and even in the hotel, going out into the lobby, she tried not to limp, overcoming the pain. For the first exit at the World Championships, she was given 9.95 out of 10 possible. The hall raged with delight, and the judges meticulously assessed the cleanliness and clarity of the performance of sports elements. The second, third exit - all marks are close to 10, but not 10 - Deryugina sits in the panel of judges. She somehow found out about Kostina's injury and urged the judges not to give the lame athlete the highest mark.

But none of the judges listened to her: all the exercises - with a rope, with a favorite ball, and with maces - were performed simply brilliantly!

Oksana received three gold medals, there were only two exits left ... We go into the locker room, she lies, covered with a jacket, - says Vitold Leonardovich. - "Oksana, get up, we have to fight!" - "No, that's it, I've already competed. Isn't it enough for you three gold medals?!"

She was persuaded to come out on the carpet again. We put a few more novocaine injections before the performances. And she took two more gold medals!

It is impossible to copy Kostin

On August 3, an event for the sports world of Irkutsk was the publication of a book by sports journalist Pavel Kushkin "Beyond Risk", in which a whole chapter is devoted to Oksana. Here are two excerpts from the book:

Irina Vinner, head coach of the Russian national team, honored coach of Russia, laureate of the All-Russian sports award "Slava-2005".

Rhythmic gymnastics, of course, does not stand still, it has changed a lot. But I often show videos of Kostina's performances to my students. And not at all in order to demand from them: "Do as Oksana!" No, it is impossible to copy Kostina. I'm just trying to deliver that aerobatics. And also, so that they become infected with that energy, that magic of the creator, which the great "artist" Oksana Kostina possessed.

Information message of the Moscow traffic police

"February 11 at 11.50 in the afternoon at the 51st kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road, the driver Eduard Grigorievich Zenovka - the winner of the Olympic Games in Barcelona in modern pentathlon, driving a personal car "Moskvich-412" without a driver's license while intoxicated, following from the Minsk highway in the direction of Borovsky highway, lost control, drove into the oncoming lane and collided with a GAZ-53 car moving in the opposite direction. As a result of the accident, they suffered: the driver Zenovka was taken to the hospital with a diagnosis of "closed craniocerebral injury, fracture of the cheekbone and contusion of the chest ", passenger Oksana Kostina - the diagnosis was "traumatic brain injury, open fracture of the right shoulder, fracture of the ribs, shock of the fourth degree, and at 16 o'clock she died from her injuries in the 31st city hospital of Moscow.

Thirteen years without Oksana Kostina | Baikal Info
baikal-info.ru›friday/2006/33/009001.html

The purpose of this article is to find out how the ridiculous death in a car accident of the seven-time world champion in rhythmic gymnastics OKSANA KOSTINA is embedded in her FULL NAME code.

Watch in advance "Logicology about the fate of man".

Consider the FULL NAME code tables. \If there is a shift in numbers and letters on your screen, adjust the image scale\.

11 26 44 63 73 87 88 103 114 132 133 147 148 149 161 167 178 196 197 211 216 233 248 251 265 266
K O S T I N A O K S A N A A L E K S A N D R O V N A
266 255 240 222 203 193 179 178 163 152 134 133 119 118 117 105 99 88 70 69 55 50 33 18 15 1

15 26 44 45 59 60 61 73 79 90 108 109 123 128 145 160 163 177 178 189 204 222 241 251 265 266
OK S A N A A L E X A N D R O V N A K O S T I N A
266 251 240 222 221 207 206 205 193 187 176 158 157 143 138 121 106 103 89 88 77 62 44 25 15 1

KOSTINA OKSANA ALEKSANDROVNA \u003d 266 \u003d 161-CAR ACCIDENT + 105-DIED IN ACCIDENT, BRAIN DEATH.

266 = 123-CATASTROPHE + 143-DIED.

266 \u003d 99-Crashed + 167-DEATH FROM IMPACT.

266 = 222-\ 99-Crashed + 123-DEATH FROM... \ + 44-IMPACT.

266 = 177-\ 99-CRUSHED + 78-FROM IMPACT \ + 89-DEATH.

266 = 133-\ 99-CRUSHED + 34-FROM... \ + 133-\ 44-IMPACT + 89-DEATH \.

266 = 123-DEATH FROM... + 143-\ 44-IMPACT + 99-CRUSHED \.

266 \u003d 143-DIED IN A CAR Crash + 123-DIED IN A CAR Crash \ u \.

266 \u003d 233-SUDDEN LEAVING OF LIFE + 33-OUT OF LIFE ... \, ... ZNI.

266 \u003d 163-SUDDEN LEAVING + 103- \ 63-DEATH + 40-accident \.

163 - 103 = 60 = DIED.

266 \u003d 103-DIED in an accident + 163-SUDDEN LEAVING.

266 \u003d 60-DIED + 206- \ 43-IN an accident + 163-SUDDEN LEAVING \.

266 \u003d 63-DIED IN ... + 203- \ 40-accident + 163-SUDDEN LEAVING \.

266 \u003d 204-\ 103-DIED in an accident + 101-SUDDEN \ + 62-LEAVING.

63 = DEATH

222 \u003d 123-CATASTROPH + 99-Crashed

45 = IN TROUBLE
________________________________________
222 = 99-Crashed + 123-Crash

133 = IN ACCIDENT DEATH \ a \
______________________________
134 = DEATH IN ACCIDENT

204 = 102-DEATH + 102-Crash
_______________________________________
77 = ON THE ROAD

204 - 77 = 127 = 64-ACCIDENT + 63-DEATH = HAS ACCIDENTED.

Code DATE OF DEATH: 11.02.1993. This = 11 + 02 + 19 + 93 = 125 = CRASHED IN AUTO \ Crash \.

266 \u003d 125 + 141-Crashed in an AUTO \ variant \.

141 - 125 \u003d 16 \u003d GIB \ spruce \.

220 \u003d 161-CAR Crash + 59-DIED \ a \.

Code of the full DATE OF DEATH \u003d 220-Eleventh of February + 112-\ 19 + 93 \- (code of the YEAR OF DEATH) \u003d 332.

332 - 266-(FULL NAME code) = 66 = KILL.

Code for the number of full YEARS OF LIFE = TWENTY = 86 = DIES.

266 \u003d 86-TWENTY + 180-Crashed in a car \ le \.

180 - 86 = 94 = DEATH.

266 \u003d 258-\ 86-TWENTY + 86-TWENTY + 86-TWENTY \ + 8-DV\ hell \.

The numbers 258 and 8 can be easily found in both tables.

258 - 8 = 250 = FATAL WOUND IN DT \ P \.

266 = FATAL WOUNDING In a traffic accident.

February 11 marks the 24th anniversary of the death of a remarkable athlete Oksana Kostina. In rhythmic gymnastics, she became a real phenomenon, halls gathered for her and spectators from different countries cheered for her. Kostina was unable to compete at the Olympics due to the decision of the officials, she left the sport, having won all the gold of the World Championship in Brussels, and a few months later she died in a car accident. Her fiancé overestimated his strength on a slippery road.

Undisclosed secret. How she died Olympic champion

At the Olympics-92, Elena Romanova, tactically outplaying her rivals, received gold. And 15 years later, she mysteriously died in her home.

Pearl of Siberia

Oksana Kostina was brought to rhythmic gymnastics by her parents. Of course, no one then thought that a weak and often sick girl would make a gymnast, which is simply impossible to copy. Kostina worked with Sarroy Gorelik, then with Natalya Fursova, and then got into the group to Olga Buyanova who noticed her three years before.

“Among 30 or 40 children, I saw her right away. She was so fragile, with a smart little face. How she moved, passed the standards, approached, departed! She did all this with natural eversion legs and with some amazing culture, completely uncharacteristic of small children. She had not yet sat on the twine, had not made a bridge, but it was obvious that the girl was very, very capable, ”Buyanova recalled in her book.

Kostina worked with gymnasts who were three or four years older, but she endured, worked and withstood all the loads. And the loads were the hardest: Oksana had to do 30 runs per workout, and often more. Stretching and the ability to work with objects were added to the musicality, danceability and choreography. Six months later, Oksana was in no way inferior to the girls in her group.

Kostina quickly stood out among many other gymnasts at her age, and we are talking about the USSR, where the competition was enormous. Oksana was distinguished by the purity of lines and artistry on the carpet. The athlete tried to turn each performance into a mini-performance: sometimes it turned out better, sometimes worse, but Kostina was never insincere and dishonest in her performances. Together with the gymnast, the skill of her coach also grew.

Severed heart. How the unfortunate champion was killed

Four-time world champion Inga Artamonova did not live to see her Olympics. On January 4, her husband, with the words "my dear," plunged a knife into her heart.

To the Olympics as a tourist

In 1989, Oksana Kostina with programs performed to music written by the composer and director of the Pilgrim Theater Vladimir Sokolov, became the third in the USSR championship. Sokolov wrote music until the end of it sports career, and after the death of Kostina included fragments of his works in theater performances.

Kostina got into the Olympic team along with Alexandra Timoshenko. But instead of one Oksana, another went to the Olympics - Skaldina.

All the strongest athletes of the country came to Krasnoyarsk for that championship, and the third place of the 17-year-old gymnastics from Irkutsk became a sensation. It was remembered even more than the demarche of the Olympic champion Marina Lobach, who left the tournament due to dissatisfaction with the estimates. The status of the winner of the USSR championship allowed Kostina to get into the national team and move to the base in Novogorsk with her coach. At the same time, she was included in the team for the World Championships in Sarajevo for the first time and received the gold medal in the team competition for the first time.

She achieved these successes in cooperation and rivalry with Ukrainian gymnasts, Alexandra Timoshenko And Oksana Skaldina. It was they, along with Kostina, throughout three years competed for the Olympic Games in Barcelona. And Kostina won that fight. At the 1992 tournaments, she repeatedly proved her right to one of the two Olympic tickets. And at the European Championships in Stuttgart, and at the CIS Cup.

Kostina got into the Olympic team along with Alexandra Timoshenko. But instead of one Oksana, another went to the Olympics - Skaldina. The USSR had ceased to exist by that time, and the sports council that approved the final composition of the team and the Council of Heads of the Olympic Committees of the CIS countries made a different choice. Head coach Natalya Kuzmina and the leadership of the federation could not change anything.
Kostina found out about this a month and a half before the start Olympic Games which were her goal and dream. Trainer Olga Buyanova convinced her not to quit training, and at the same time tried to do everything possible to change her mind. An open letter was written to Boris Yeltsin, and the then adviser to the president of the country on sports reacted to it Shamil Tarpishchev.

Oksana Kostina was preparing for the triumphant World Championships in Brussels in October 1992, despite the extra weight and the resulting Achilles sprain.

He ensured that Kostina and Buyanova went to Barcelona and received temporary accreditations on the spot. Two days before the start of the "artists" competition, another council gathered, where it was already finally decided - Skaldina is speaking.

Death without purpose. The sad story of a drunken champion

Tamara Lazakovich at the age of 14 became a star, at 18 she won the Games, but she could not stand the test of fame and life. Ruined the gymnast alcohol.

Departure, return and absolute triumph

The suspension from the Olympics very much psychologically crippled Oksana Kostina. She told Buyanova that she was leaving the sport, abandoned training and returned home to Irkutsk. The athlete was brought out of this state by the pentathlete Eduard Zenovka, whom Kostina met in Barcelona and who became a two-time winner at those Games. The athletes began a romantic relationship.

Zenovka convinced Kostina to listen to the opinion of the coach, who persuaded her to stay at least for one tournament and leave the sport beautifully. And this tournament was the championship in Brussels, where the Federation had already announced Kostin gymnastics Russia. Kostina was preparing for it, despite the extra weight and the resulting Achilles sprain. The Federation allowed Buyanova to declare Dr. Vitold Sivokhov, who worked with Kostina throughout her career, as a member of the delegation.

And Oksana Kostina performed brilliantly in Belgium. For the first time in the history of rhythmic gymnastics, she won all the gold medals - in the all-around and exercises with individual objects. True, Kostina entered the last two exercises only after a tough conversation with Buyanova - the pain in her leg was very severe, and the athlete had already won three gold medals. The audience gave Kostina a real ovation.
After that, the gymnast received numerous offers to perform at commercial tournaments and shows, showed her skills in different countries, said that she intended to become a coach and educate new stars. Although she was only 20 years old. Dreamed of family and children.

"Margarita, Margarita! Olympic medal cast for you"

Margarita Nikolaeva started gymnastics late, made her way to the USSR national team against the wishes of the coach and won the 1960 Games in Rome.

Funeral in a wedding dress

But on February 11, 1993, Oksana Kostina died. Edward Zenovka I went to Domodedovo Airport with my fiancee to hand over some documents to the coach and then return home. The athlete, who just a few hours earlier had arrived from the competition in Australia, could not cope with his Moskvich on a slippery road and flew into the oncoming lane, along which the truck was driving.

Oksana Kostina was buried in Irkutsk. At the insistence of her mother and sister, the athlete was put in a coffin in a wedding dress and veil - she did not have time to get married.

Kostina died a few hours after the accident from numerous internal injuries. Zenovka shouted: "Cover her with something, she's cold!" - and then lost consciousness. Eduard survived but lost a kidney. He left the sport, went into business, but returned again. Already with one kidney, he competed at the Olympics in Atlanta, where at the very finish of the cross he stumbled, fell and lost in the fight for gold to a pentathlete from Kazakhstan Alexander Parygin.

Oksana Kostina was buried in Irkutsk. At the insistence of her mother and sister, the athlete was put in a coffin in a wedding dress and veil - she did not have time to get married. Until 2008, a tournament in memory of Oksana Kostina was held in her hometown. This tournament will be held again in 2018.

They say the road was slippery that winter day. In addition, according to some reports, Eduard Zenovka was in a state of mild alcohol intoxication. Be that as it may, the fatal maneuver that Zenovka made cost 20-year-old Oksana Kostina her life.

Oksana achieved everything exceptionally hard work, and, as you know, it is hardworking people who succeed in life more often than others. 2 years before her death, Kostina was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the Soviet Union, and a year later she became the world champion in competitions in Brussels. The only pity is that we will never know about what else the athlete could have achieved. Future Olympic champion future wife already in the grave. Now she is the eternal bride.

Shortly after the accident, Eduard Zenovka left big sport and went into business. Maybe the reason for this was the state of health, or maybe because he was tormented by guilt. Who knows…

NOT CLINKING

“I will take the liberty of suggesting that in her short 20-year life, Oksana was still happy. She was talented. She was beautiful. She was loved. She became the winner, ”one journalist friend wrote about the seven-time world champion in rhythmic gymnastics Oksana Kostina not so long ago. It’s hard to disagree with this, but at the same time, all these arguments in the “happiness scale” do not convince like a single, but terrible counterargument: she was too little ...

February 11, 1993 near the capital's Domodedovo airport there was a car accident that shook the whole country. "Moskvich", which was driven by the silver medalist of the Olympics-92 in modern pentathlon Eduard Zenovka, flew at full speed into the oncoming lane, along which a heavy truck was moving. A few hours after the collision, the Moskvich passenger, the seven-time world champion in rhythmic gymnastics and Zenovka's fiancee, Oksana Kostina, died in the hospital from numerous internal wounds. “A porcelain figurine has broken,” Soviet Sport wrote the next day. Eduard also ended up on the operating table, his right kidney was removed, but he survived. Then he hardly squeezed out the words: “The last thing I remember: Ksenia lying in the snow, and my own cry: “Cover her with something, because she’s cold” ... In the “ambulance” I lost consciousness ... "

"VACUUM CLEANER" ON THE OCCUPATIONAL LANE

Eduard Zenovka says:

- That day I flew from Australia, where I won a major international tournament. Hanging in the air for 36 hours. Of course, on the plane he celebrated his victory with his teammates, but he did not take alcohol in his mouth for the last 15 hours of the flight. I say this because I later heard conversations, they say, Zenovka got behind the wheel drunk. Many people saw me at the airport, and if I really were drunk, would I now begin to prove the opposite?

At Sheremetyevo, I was met by my friend and Oksana, who arrived there in my father's car, since mine was being repaired. They threw a friend for training at the Oktyabr sports complex on Schukinskaya, or rather, he drove himself, and then I got behind the wheel. Let's go with Oksana to Domodedovo Airport - her coach asked her to give her friend some documents that needed to be urgently sent to Irkutsk ...

We didn’t drive fast, 60–70 kilometers per hour, and the asphalt didn’t seem to be slippery, so I still can’t understand how I flew into the oncoming lane. Apparently, I was simply distracted - after all, we had not seen each other for a long time. The car seemed to be pulled into a vacuum cleaner ...

THIS IS ALL GOD!

"Do you believe in God?" I asked Eduard Zenovka a few years ago. “No,” he replied, “only to fate. Everyone has their own, so on that day, February 11, 1993, it should have happened like that. Agree, too simple an answer to the question why a young and healthy “knight of five qualities”, as modern pentathletes are called, could not keep the steering wheel of a car moving at a speed of 70 km per hour. However, it seems to me the most accurate.

Eduard Zenovka - the great loser of the Olympics-92 in Barcelona: fortune at the Games turned away from him completely. To become double Olympic champion, it was enough for him just to get to the finish line in show jumping, knocking down as many obstacles as he wanted. But the absurd fall of the horse was worth the gold medal not only to the rider himself, but to the entire CIS pentathletes team. When he left, the audience sympathetically pointed their fingers at the sky, they say, you have nothing to do with it, it's all God ...

Four years later, in the Olympic Atlanta, God again did not want to see him on the highest step of the podium, not even rewarding the fact that Edward, who returned to the pentathlon without one kidney, accomplished a real sports feat at a track and field cross-country distance. A fatal fall at the finish line again stopped him a step away from gold.

You can also recall the tragicomic incident that occurred at the World Championships in Egypt, where, having lost the cross-country track, Zenovka ran a hundred meters in the other direction, and it becomes clear that on February 11, 1993, God again decided to test Edward for strength. He just didn’t take into account that at that moment there was a fragile porcelain figurine next to him ...

REJECTED

Vladimir Naipak, Vice President of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, says:

- For the first time I saw Kostina in 1987 in Kharkov at the international tournament for the prizes of the Ballet magazine, dedicated to the memory of my mother, one of the founders of rhythmic gymnastics in the USSR, Honored Coach of the country Alexandra Semenova-Naypak. From the very first minute of the performance of this well-built girl (and she was then 15 years old) I was struck by the purity of her lines and some kind of inner composure. Oksana worked very neatly and meaningfully, her compositions had content and spiritual content. Every gesture, head turn, even glance was meaningful. And she came, by the way, from Irkutsk, which at that time was not listed among the centers of rhythmic gymnastics in the USSR, and the name of her coach - Olga Buyanova - said little to both specialists and fans of this sport. However, the unknown debutante became the absolute winner of this tournament, leaving behind 14 (!) Members of the USSR national team. It became a real sensation.

Since then, he began to follow Kostina's sports career. She had a different, different from others, intellectual and, I would even say, unusual gymnastics. Not only Buyanova helped to embody it on the platform, but also Vladimir Sokolov, the head of the Irkutsk "Pilgrim Theatre", a composer who wrote music for Oksana. It was this trinity that made everyone believe that there is a school of rhythmic gymnastics in Irkutsk, and the city is one of the centers of this sport in the Soviet Union.

Is it any wonder that already in 1989 Kostina was in the national team, where, together with Alexandra Timoshenko and Oksana Skaldina, she won team championship at the World Championships in Sarajevo. Two years later, in the same composition, she won the second team medal at the World Championships in Athens. But the problem was that, according to the regulations existing in rhythmic gymnastics, only two athletes from one country can participate in the final of the individual all-around of the largest competitions, European Championships, World Championships and the Olympic Games. In this situation, if the head coach of the national team has, for example, only one worthy candidate, we can talk about the personal drama of the coach, and if he has three magnificent gymnasts at his disposal, then we should talk about the tragedy of the “third wheel”. This is how Kostina always turned out to be rejected in the late 80s - early 90s, since her main competitors Alexandra Timoshenko and Oksana Skaldina had an undiscussed trump card - the title of absolute world champion ...

THIRD WHEEL

“What do you want, to pay tribute to the blessed memory of Oksana Kostina, or to stir up a scandal already forgotten by everyone ten years ago?” - I listened to such a question in different interpretations more than once in the process of working on this material. That scandal would have surrendered to me, if not for his fatal role in the fate of the Irkutsk gymnast, left overboard Olympic team sample 1992. Kostina herself and her coach Olga Buyanova outlined the essence of the problem in open letter, which appeared in "Soviet Sport" a month and a half before the start of the Games in Barcelona:

“... In a fair fight, we won the right to participate in the Olympics, which was confirmed at a meeting of the CIS Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation on July 5, 1992. In the same place, the head coach of the CIS rhythmic gymnastics team N. Kuzmina determined the team to participate in the Games consisting of Alexandra Timoshenko (Ukraine) and Oksana Kostina (Russia).

The final list of participants in the Olympic Games is approved at a meeting of the sports council and the council of presidents of the CIS Olympic Committees. But there a different decision was made. Contrary to the opinion of the federation and the head coach of the national team, a team was approved on it in the following composition: Alexander Timoshenko and Oksana Skaldina (both from Ukraine). Thus, the officials decided our fate ... "

I have no doubt that if Skaldina, for example, had not got the Olympic ticket, her letter would have appeared in the press. But in that situation, experience was on her side, the title of the absolute world champion, Golden medal for the absolute superiority in the CIS-92 championship and the support of the influential Irina Deryugina, who headed the United Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation. Kostina's main trump card was an unconditional victory in the last qualifying round - the CIS Cup, but this, unfortunately, was not enough ...

The hardest psychological blow that Oksana received was tried to soften ... the president of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch, who invited Kostina to Barcelona as a guest of honor. But it would be better if he didn't. Perhaps fate itself protected her, because it was in the capital of Catalonia, or rather, in an airplane flying along the route Barcelona - Moscow, that the life paths of Zenovka and Kostina crossed ...

PORCELAIN FIGURINE CRASHED

“After the Olympics, I couldn’t see anyone for more than a month,” Oksana later recalled. - I was almost one hundred percent sure that I would no longer be able to morally go to the platform. This whole story was worth such nerves, and then suddenly I wanted to prove to everyone that I can do whatever I want!

And she did, winning two months later five gold medals out of five possible at the XV World Championships in Brussels! A success that can be repeated, but cannot be surpassed. Although it was achieved in the absence of the main competitors - Tymoshenko and Skaldina - but, looking at the inspired gymnastics of the new absolute world champion, it was clear that no one would have resisted her.

After this victory, Oksana was going to participate in commercial tournaments with demonstration performances, the benefit of the invitation fell like a cornucopia. “Really, it was worth winning to see that the whole world cannot live without me,” Oksana, who was born again, laughed. She again had big plans, but on February 11, 1993, they broke off in the oncoming lane ...

Galina Danilovna, Oksana's mother, says:

- A policeman came to our house and said: "You have a corpse in Moscow." I answered: “I don’t have a corpse there, I have a living one there, healthy child". Oksana called the day before, she was so joyful, happy. Waiting for Edik from Australia. I was going to remember my grandmother tomorrow, who, one might say, raised her and Tanya, Oksana's older sister. Grandmother died on February 11, 1992. This is a fateful day for our family...

And after her death, we were robbed several times, absolutely all of Oksana's jewelry was taken out. And when my dead girl was brought from Moscow, she was not wearing any jewelry: no earrings, no rings, no gold bracelet that Edik managed to give her at the airport. Even the whole bag was thrown out. Yes, God judge them, these thieves - they did not get rich, and we did not become poor. Around us hundreds of times more people who remember and love Oksana. In the cemetery, fresh flowers often lie on her grave, and once we met with the young man who brings them. And he admitted: “I loved your daughter very much, but I was always afraid to approach her ...”

FROM THE DOSSIER OF "SOVIET SPORT"

OKSANA KOSTINA

KOSTINA KSENIA

One of the strongest gymnasts-"artists" of the world in the late 80s - early 90s. She was born on April 15, 1972 in Irkutsk. Silver and bronze medalist Goodwill Games 1990 in Seattle. European champion 1992 in individual exercises in Stuttgart. World champion in team event 1989 (Sarajevo) and 1991 (Athens) Five-time champion world 1992 (Brussels), including in the absolute championship. At the World and European Championships she won 14 medals, 9 of them gold.

VERBATIM

Honored Coach of the USSR Olga Buyanova:

- It makes no sense to compare Oksana Kostina and Alina Kabaeva. According to natural data, Oksana had only 30 percent of Alina's arsenal. But she conquered others. Oksana went out onto the carpet, and everyone, as if spellbound, looked at her. She could not be confused with anyone, because she had her own handwriting. Even the music is special, specially written for her. Oksana has risen primarily due to painstaking work. She turned on her creative abilities to the fullest. I moved forward without sudden jumps, purposefully, step by step. It is interesting for me to work with people like Oksana Kostina, who was talented not in body, but in soul.

INFORMATION FOR THINKING

Unlike ice hockey, in almost all other game types sport, even in those whose popularity is disproportionately less, in Europe every year the strongest club of the continent is determined.

Kind of sport

Tournament name

Number of participating teams

Basketball

Euroleague

32 (m), 16 (w)

Volleyball

Champions League

16 (m), 16 (w)

Champions League

32 (m), 32 (w)

Hockey with a ball

Champions Cup

Water polo

Champions League

Champions Cup

Champions Cup

European Cup

European Cup

European Cup

American football

Euroleague

Field hockey

Champions Cup

24 (m), 21 (w)

indoor hockey

Champions Cup

28 (m), 24 (w)

European Cup

*Korfball- the younger brother of basketball, there are four men and women on the court at the same time from each side.