Kutz Vladimir. Sports biography

Kuts Vladimir Petrovich (1927-1975) - Russian athlete, Honored Master of Sports (1954). Champion of the Olympic Games (1956) in the 5000 and 10000 meters (set two world records), Europe (1954) in the 5000 meters, repeated champion of the USSR (1953-1957) and world record holder (1954-1965) in the run for these distances.

Already in early childhood Kuts was distinguished by a stubborn character: he learned to ski in order to get to school faster, located 5 km from his village; did physical education on his own (although sports hall there was no school, but in the corridor there were a horse, bars, hung rings).

After the Great Patriotic War the young man was sent to serve in the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. The ability to run was discovered by accident. After participating in garrison cross-country competitions, it turned out that he showed the most best result. In Tallinn, at the championship of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, Kuts took third place, after which the desire to train appeared. In the spring of 1951, he was lucky enough to meet with one of the most knowledgeable coaches in the country, Leonid Sergeevich Khomenkov, a well-known track and field athlete in the past, who became the first coach of Kuts, helped him enter the big sport and followed up on his progress. Kuts reached them in running in 1952, when Alexander Chikin began to train him. So, in the spring he still had only the second category, and in the fall he was already a master of sports. In the winter of 1952-1953 the athlete was transferred to Leningrad, where G.I. Nikiforov, one of the Coaches of the national team, became his mentor. In 1953 on International festival youth and students in Bucharest, Kuts won the silver medal, only a fraction of a second ahead of the JCV hero of the Helsinki Olympic Games Emil Zatopek and approaching the border of 14 minutes. In 1954, at the European Championships, Kuts not only won first place, but also broke the world record - 13.56.6.

After success at the World Championships, several offensive defeats followed: rivals literally stepped on his heels and at the very last moment pulled ahead, setting a new world record. The Olympics were approaching in Australia (Melbourne). It was necessary to develop a new running technique, learn how to regulate its speed: from jogging or even running at an average pace, move on to long accelerations that exhaust the enemy with jerks.

As a result of purposeful training, Vladimir Kuts set a world record in the 10,000 meters shortly before the Olympics.

For the first time, a Russian athlete used his ragged running tactics at a distance of 10,000 m, and he managed to leave behind the English runner Gordon Peary. Before the 5000m race, the British formed an "anti-Kutsev coalition", which included Christopher Chataway, Derek Ibbotson and Gordon Peary. They developed a special tactic. A trio of Hungarian athletes were also preparing for this run: Sandor Iharos, Miklós Szabo and Laszlo Tabori.

In the preliminary race for 5000 m, Kuts rested. This behavior misled even experienced specialist and well-known coach Franz Stumfl, who was sure that Kutz gave all his strength when he ran 10,000 m, and would not be able to win in next step competitions.

However, Vladimir Kuts' 5000m run showed how unconventional and varied his tactics are. The rivals prepared for jerks, and Kuts chose an even run, but at an unbearable pace for them, and the speed turned out to be so high that rather strong runners - Yugoslav Mugosh and American Delinger - were forced to retire from the race. Kuts became a real hero of Melbourne. The 1956 Games were called "Kutz's Olympics".

Vladimir Petrovich was entrusted with carrying the banner of the Soviet delegation at the closing of the Olympic Games in Australia.

In 1957, when V.P. Kuts was 30 years old, he was awarded the title the best athlete peace. The summer of 1957 came. For the first time, the runner could not participate in the competition: his stomach was bothering him and his legs hurt badly. Doctors strongly recommended to leave big sport.

The athlete decided to participate in several more competitions, but poor health still forced him to leave treadmill, after which he became a coach at CSKA and trained many famous runners.

In 1973, V.P. Kuts got into a car accident and was seriously injured. After recovery, he headed the children's sports school.

Brief Biographical Dictionary

"Kuts Vladimir" and other articles from the section

Half a century ago in our country there was a stayer who had no equal - a two-time Olympic champion Vladimir Kuts. This is the first Olympic champion in the 5000 and 10,000 meters, the most popular athlete of the 1950s and perhaps the biggest mystery in the history of sports ...

Participant of the Great Patriotic War Vladimir Kuts began to run in 1945, being a sailor of the Baltic Fleet. In parallel, he was engaged in cross-country skiing.

“I was already 23 years old, and I was still wandering in the dark, not having firmly decided which sport to stop in,” he later recalled. - At my age, my future rivals held world records ... and I was just going to become a master of sports, not knowing where to start targeted training and how to move on to mastery loads.

It all started in the spring of 1951, with a meeting with the then state coach Leonid Khomenkov, who provided the promising runner with a monthly training plan. The winter of 1951-1952 Kuts first devoted track and field training, and a year later "acquired" a permanent personal trainer Alexander Chikin. After another season, he got into the national team, where he became his mentor Grigory Isaevich Nikiforov, who, not without reason, was called the "professor of running." He immediately realized that it was impossible to "retrain the left-hander", to change Vladimir's running style. This "explosive mixture" of a professor and a running genius resulted in results that exceeded all expectations ...

IN 1953 Kuts wins the title for the first time champion of the USSR.

The first big international success comes to Vladimir Kuts in 1954 year on European Championship in Bern. After two laps of the final 5000m run, he takes the lead and remains in the lead until the end. At the finish line, the judges set a new world record - 13:56.61.

In the two years left before the Olympics, Vladimir Kuts is firmly established in the first line of the best stayers in the world. These were years of brilliant victories and, it is true, few, but offensive defeats. So, at a match in London, using the tactics of winning in the last meters “from behind”, the English runner Christopher Chataway defeats Kuts, improving the world record to 13:51.6. Ten days later in Prague, in the presence of 50,000 spectators, Kuts regains the record. But in 1955, the Hungarian Sandor Yharos became the owner of the world record, then again Kuts, again Yharos.

1956 The year began successfully for Vladimir Kuts. In the spring in Paris, he wins the Humanite cross. Then the victory at both stayer distances at the Spartakiad and, finally, setting a world record this time at a distance of 10,000 m.

Before the Olympics, some foreign media began to write about Kuts as a robot, a runner-car:

One of the Melbourne newspapers asked: "Can a Robot Beat the Thinking Athletes?" And she answered herself: "No, in a cunning fight, athletes like Kuts cannot win". Even such a qualified specialist as Roger Bannister, a famous English runner (who was at one time even the Minister of Sports of Great Britain), who came to the Olympics as a correspondent for the American magazine Sports Illustrated, said that "I did not find anything in Kuts except a ruthless running machine" . Of course, all these statements upset Vladimir, but, as he himself recalled, there was only one desire: to successfully perform at the Games and prove that all these "specialists", to put it mildly, were mistaken.

Kutz's main opponent at the top ten was British runner Gordon Peary. Shortly before the Olympics, Piri took the world record in the 10,000 meters from Kuts, beating Vladimir with a jerk at the very finish. Kutz took into account the mistakes and carefully prepared for the confrontation with the British. During the 10,000-meter run, Vladimir suggested the tactic of "ragged running", constantly speeding up and slowing down the pace. As a result, the opponent came to the finish line only eighth and completely exhausted, and Kuts finished first with a new Olympic record of 28 min 45.6 sec. Piri recalled that run:

"It's not that he beat me at the Olympics. The point is how he did it, - Piri will say later. - Kuts killed me. I hope I never have to go up against a runner like him again."

As one of the Australian newspapers writes, “The run of the legendary Russian stayer Vladimir Kuts did much more to bring the peoples closer than the corps of the most skillful diplomats”

Five days after the triumph at the "top ten" Kuts made a "golden" double, demonstrating the same run - on the verge of the possible - at a distance of 5000 meters. True, this time there were no fatal jerks: from the very start, Vladimir led the race at the maximum speed for stayers, which only he himself was able to endure to the end.

Melbourne, 1956 5000 m

It was his pinnacle sports career, after which he recovered for almost a year (such sports feats on the verge of life and death do not pass without a trace). And he sang his swan song in October 1957 in Rome where installed world record in the 5000 meters, 13 min 35.0 sec, which lasted eight years.

The sports career of Vladimir Kuts ended quickly, in 1959, due to serious health problems, he was forced to leave the track: he was tormented by pain in his stomach and legs. He was found to have increased permeability of venous and lymphatic capillaries (this was an echo of the events of 1952, when he fell into icy water and severely froze his legs). In January 1972, after a car accident and a nervous shock associated with it, Vladimir Petrovich suffered a stroke. After recovery, he began to walk with a cane ...

Having finished his running career, Vladimir Kuts took up coaching. In CSKA, he had very talented students, such as the champion and record holder of the USSR in the 5000 meters Vladimir Afonin, champion and three-time winner of the country in steeple chase, winner of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR Sergei Skripka.

Vladimir Kuts died on August 16, 1975, allegedly committing suicide, because before his death he took an increased dose of sleeping pills and washed down the medicine with vodka.

Here is how Sergei Skripka, his student, recalls this:

“Today’s publications irritate me that Kuts, they say, godlessly drank, could, for example, “remove” five bottles in one day. Yes, Petrovich liked to drink, like many Russian people, but he always knew the norm. He had other problems It did not work out, for example, personal life, although he tried to start a family twice.

He died after another quarrel with his second wife. The day before, we agreed to hold a training session with him, but Petrovich never showed up. In the evening he called me and asked me to come. I didn't have to wait long. We sat and talked, he was already not quite sober. At two o'clock in the morning he asked me to give him sleeping pills, and while I was distracted to get mineral water from the refrigerator, I swallowed six Seduxen tablets in one fell swoop. I think that he did it on purpose: apparently, he was very tired of all the troubles of life and the bunch of diseases that had piled on. IN last years liked to repeat that he was a great athlete, and our Soviet system made a great fool out of him ... "

Vladimir Kuts was buried at the Preobrazhensky cemetery, not far from the Eternal Flame. On the day of Kutz's death, a major athletics event was held in Nice. international tournament. And when, before the start of the next race, the announcer announced the tragic news, the competition stopped. The entire stadium honored the memory of the great runner standing.

According to Russian media.

Kuts was a symbol of fearlessness and daring. The 1956 Olympics were even named after our runner, where he won both stayer distances. Probably not a single athlete had such an obvious and loud glory.

Vladimir Petrovich Kuts was born on February 7, 1927 in the village of Aleksino into a working-class family. Already in those years, Volodya was distinguished by a stubborn character, for which the children often called him a stubborn donkey. He set himself the task of learning to ski. And he got his way. On skis, it was more convenient for him to get to school in the village of Belka, located five kilometers from Aleksino.

When the war began, Vladimir had to go to the eighth grade. But there was no time for studying - already in October the Germans entered the village. In 1943 Aleksino was released. Over the next two years, Kuts managed to fight at the front as a liaison officer at headquarters, work as a loader in Oboyan and a tractor driver in his native village, and complete sniper courses.

In the spring of 1945, graduates of the sniper school received assignments to front-line units. But they didn't have to fight. And in the autumn of the same victorious year, Vladimir was sent to the Baltic Fleet.

It seemed, what kind of Athletics- after all, Vladimir's service took place mainly in coastal defense units located on the islands and the coast of the Gulf of Finland. But chance decided his fate. In May 1948, the foreman of the second article, Kuts, won the garrison cross-country competition. He then won the garrison competition in athletics, showing the best result at a distance of 5000 meters.

This victory allowed Kuts to go to Tallinn for the fleet championship. Here he took third place. The success is obvious, but he is already twenty-two years old. The age when many athletes set records. In addition, Vladimir did not have a real coach.

However, in the spring of 1951, another event occurred that played an important role in the fate of Kuts. He was noticed by one of the best coaches countries - Leonid Sergeevich Khomenkov. It was he who helped Kuts enter the big sport, although he coached him for a very short time.

“I remember I was struck by his curiosity. He literally asked about everything: how many times a week you need to train, and at what pace to run, and what exercises to perform during the warm-up. I advised him to take a closer look at the classes and running technique of the country's leading stayers. Here at the training camp were such famous runners as Vladimir Kazantsev, Ivan Pozhidaev, Feodosy Vanin, Nikifor Popov, Ivan Semenov.

For two weeks, Kutz trained, completing my assignments. We spent at the end of the collection and estimate. Even then, I realized that Vladimir is endowed with extraordinary abilities and, with a reasonably set training, can show outstanding results in running.

The first significant successes of Kuts in long distance running should be attributed to 1952, when Alexander Chikin began to lead his training. In the spring he was still a second-class player, in the fall he became a master of sports.

In the winter of 1952/53, Kuts was transferred to Leningrad. Here, in the arena, Vladimir met a man who became his mentor and friend on long years, - one of the coaches of the national team Grigory Isaevich Nikiforov.

In July 1953, Kutz participated in the first international competitions. At the festival of youth and students in Bucharest, he fought with famous foreign runners: Hungarian Jozsef Kovacs, Australian Dave Stevens, hero of the XV Olympic Games in Helsinki, Czech Emil Zatopek. Only at the finish line did Zatopek take the lead, managing to outrun the Soviet debutant runner in the 5000-meter race.

In 1954, Kuts got to the European Championship. Few of those present at the stadium in Bern believed that the Soviet runner could become a European champion.

From the very beginning, Kuts leads the race. Perhaps the third kilometer turned out to be critical. Here it was especially difficult to maintain a high pace of running, to force myself to run wide and, together with so easy step. A kilometer before the finish, Zatopek is 70–80 meters behind. And no matter how hard the Olympic champion tried, he could not interfere with the impressive victory of Kuts with a new world record - 13:56.6!

By that time, Kuts had moved to Moscow, where he also had his own house - an apartment on Shcherbakovskaya Street. For some time now, returning from trips around the country or from abroad, Volodya was expecting a meeting not only with his brother Nikolai, but also with his new acquaintance, Raya. After graduating from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, Raisa Polyakova became a literary employee of the newspaper "Soviet Fleet". The assignment of the editors - to interview a naval officer, European champion in athletics Vladimir Kuts - stretched out for many years. Its result was a new young family, a book - a literary record of Kutz's memoirs, numerous articles in newspapers and magazines. One of them, published in a French magazine, was called “My Husband”.

This marriage will bring Kuts a lot of joy, help to join literature, art, broaden his horizons, make him take a different look at the world around him. True, in the end, he will bring him a lot of grief.

The Australian Olympics are approaching. After his success at the European Championships, Kutz suffered several embarrassing defeats when rivals English Chataway and Peary were ahead of him at the very finish line.

Kutz learns to vary his running speed. And he achieves excellent results in this, easily switching from jogging or even running at an average pace to long accelerations that exhaust the enemy with jerks. Shortly before the Olympics, Vladimir sets a world record for 10 thousand meters.

And then there's Melbourne. The central event of the first day of the competition was the 10,000 meters run. Let's give the floor to coach Gavriil Korobkov, who from the podium closely followed the struggle unfolding on the treadmill:

“On the seventh lap, Kutz moves to the right and runs along the second lane, thereby offering Piri to come forward and lead the run ... By the end of the eleventh lap, Piri is still firmly held behind Kuts. Both of them are far away from the rest of the runners. Somewhere behind Pyotr Bolotnikov and Ivan Chernyavsky. It seems that the roles in this game have been distributed. Piri is a hunter, Kutz is his prey.

Vladimir sharply goes to the right to the third path, opening the road to Piri. However, the Englishman is true to himself. He doesn't want to move forward. His task is to hold on to Kuts until the last meters, and then, using his superiority in speed, get away from him ... "

But Kuts is ready for any pace, any jerks and does not intend to lead Piri to the finish line. Meanwhile, it seems to many viewers that Piri has already won. A few more accelerations, and finally Kuts decides to give his opponent last Stand. Nineteenth circle. This performance is so unusual that most of the audience rises from their seats.

“At full speed, I go from lane one to lane two,” Kutz recalled. Piri is following me. From the second to the third, Piri follows me. From the third to the fourth - Piri is behind me again. From the fourth back to the first - Piri is still behind me. He agrees to everything, even zigzags, but not to lead ... And then I decide to stop. He won’t stop running either… I move to the right, shifting slightly from one foot to the other, and then almost completely stop and gesture to him to lead the run…

And in the stands, no one doubts that the argument between us is over, that I'm about to leave the track ... And finally it happened: Piri became the leader. We are now running side by side, and for the first time in this whole run I see his drooping figure ... I once again peer into his face. Gordon Pirie is so exhausted, so tired, that he, apparently, is no longer afraid of anything, even defeat.

Piri was leading only a hundred meters. I again developed a high speed and broke away from the Englishman. I ran and did not believe myself: Piri's shadow did not reach for mine, neither heavy, jerky breathing, nor the blows of thorns were heard behind me. I felt like the chains had fallen off me. I was free, free to choose any pace, any speed. It's damn good to be free! Piri lagged behind more and more. One by one, Kovacs, Krzyszkowiak, Lawrence, Cherniavsky, Power passed him.

And here is the twenty-fifth, the last round. The stadium is roaring. Bouquets of flowers, hats, scarves fly into the air. The deafening "Fuck! Fuck!" ("Hurrah! Hurray!") The eardrums can hardly stand it. When, according to his old habit, raising right hand, I tore the finish line, it seemed to me that the sky itself had lost its Olympic calmness. Slowing down, I passed another twenty-sixth lap. It was a lap of honor."

This time, Piri was honest and told reporters: “He killed me with his quickness and change of pace. He's too good for me. Kutz is by far the greatest runner and I could never beat him. I didn’t have to run 10,000 meters…”

But will Kutz be able to run the 5,000 meters just as brilliantly? It seemed that it would be incredibly difficult for him to do this. Firstly, the British formed an “anti-Kutsev coalition”, which included Chataway, Ibbotson, and Peary, who were resting on the day of the 10,000-meter run. A special tactic was developed against the ragged run of the Russian. The Hungarian trio was also preparing for this run: Iharos, Szabo and Tabori.

Kuts' run of five thousand meters showed that his tactics are varied and unconventional. After the defeat on the first day of the competition, the British were preparing for the tactics of “ragged” running, but Kuts was now running to break away at the maximum pace that he was capable of. Derek Ibbotson, one of the participants in the race, recalls:

“Kutz, as we expected, was ahead in half a circle. Piri followed closely behind. I had deep confidence in Piri's abilities and decided to stick with him. So I ran third. For the first few laps, all the runners kept together, but soon Kutz's furious pace began to exhaust the pursuers, and by halfway the group was torn apart. Peary was second, I was third, Chataway was fourth. About 40 yards behind us the Hungarian Tabori was leading another group.

I realized that letting Kutz break away would be disastrous for us, and that was the only thing that compelled us to maintain the furious pace he had adopted. After two miles, Chataway was in second place. I couldn't understand why he did it. After we learned that he felt pain in the stomach and moved forward, hoping to bring it down. But after 20 yards of running, Piri and I witnessed a terrible sight - Kuts moving away ...

Chataway could not keep up with him, and Peary was at a loss for three fateful seconds. By the time he decided to follow the Russian, it was already too late. Kuts was out of reach. I was very upset that I could not sense the dangers earlier and take action. I blindly trusted Piri. Peary later reproached Chataway for the loss of contact, but I do not agree with this ... "

Yes, Kutz built his run differently than before. The British prepared for jerks, but they will not. Let's apply a uniform run at a pace that is too much for the opponents. He was so high that two strong stayers - Yugoslav Mugosha and American Delinger generally left the race. New Olympic record(13:39.6) exceeded Zatopek's record by 27 seconds!

So Kuts "conquered" Australia and became a true hero of Melbourne. He was entrusted with carrying the banner of the Soviet delegation at the closing parade of the Olympic Games. Newspapers did not skimp on such headlines as: "The triumph of Vladimir Kuts!", "Russian sailor - the idol of Melbourne!" Roger Bannister was forced to change his mind and after the Games in the article “Kutz is a cat, Piri is a mouse” he wrote: “But Kutz is not a machine. His mind is as strong as his body, and he has a tactical art. Spectators from all over the world rose to cheer Kuts as he approached the finish line. Runners like him are born, not made to order. Kutz remains, as he was before the Olympics, the greatest runner in the world ... "

In 1957, Kuts was awarded the title of the best athlete in the world. Everything seemed to be going well. But instead of performing at competitions, Kuts ended up in a sanatorium. I had a stomach ache, my legs hurt a lot. Doctors warned: "If you want to live, stop running."

But Vladimir wanted all records to be long distances belonged to him. And, despite the illness, at the international competitions in Rome on October 13, 1957 at the Foro Italico stadium at the finish line, Kuts stopped the judges' stopwatches at 13 minutes 35 seconds! This new world record will stay in the world record table for eight years, and in the All-Union table for ten!

But in the future, neither will nor thorough preparation could help him. What the doctors warned about happened: the legs stopped obeying and unbearably hurt. Treatment in the hospital helped him win the cross of the Leningrad Military District in the spring of 1959. But that was the last performance of the great runner.

Leaving the treadmill, Kuts becomes a coach at CSKA. He managed to train many well-known runners who won in the all-Union and international arena. Unfortunately, his family life did not work out, and in recent years he lived alone in a one-room apartment. And in 1973, Kutz was in a car accident.

The injury turned out to be serious. Doctors doubted whether he would survive. Kuts lay in bed for about a month, then he was transferred to the military hospital named after Burdenko. Came out with a stick. Demobilized. He got a job as a coach at a school of higher sportsmanship, but could not stand it. He returned to his native CSKA, having received an appointment as head of the children's sports school.

born: 1927-02-07

Soviet athlete (stayer), two-time Olympic champion

Version 1. What does the name Kutz mean?

And my great-grandfather came from Germany to Ukraine. His last name Kurtz was changed to Kuts.

Version 2. The history of the origin of the surname Kuts

The nickname Kuts can be formed from the adjective "stubby" - "short". Therefore, this could be called a person of short stature. There is another version: in the old days a German tailcoat was called a stubby. In this case, the nickname refers to the so-called "professional" names and contains an indication of the type of human activity. Therefore, it can be assumed that the founder of the Kuts clan was a tailor. However, it is possible that this nickname was worn by a local dandy, fashionista.

It is also possible that the nickname Kuts is connected with the Polish word "kuts" - "small horse". Consequently, Kuts could be nicknamed the person in whose household there was such a horse.

Finally, the surname Kutz may be of German origin and represent a diminutive form of the name Konrad, which in ancient German means "bold advice." , eventually received the name Kuts.

Version 3

My great-grandfather is a Pole, emigrated at the beginning of the 20th century with his family to the United States after not submitting to Nicholas 2 during the redistribution of the borders of Poland with Russia. There were "small horses" - "kuts" on the farm of my great-grandfather in Poland as a hereditary horse breeder. Grandfather Kuts Ivan was exiled by Tsar Nikolai-2 to the Gutovskaya volost of the Tomsk province, where he became a farm laborer to the peasant Balyshev Terenty Pavlovich, a native of Zharkovka. So the name Kuts came to Tsarist Russia.
My grandfather died in 1933 In the state of Virginia, USA, my relatives may be Poles

Tomsk Bogashovo.Kuts Sergey.

Famous people with the surname Kutz

How to spell the surname Kuts in English (Latin)

Kuts

When filling out a document in English, you should write first the first name, then the patronymic in Latin letters, and only then the last name. You may need to write the surname Kuts in English when applying for a passport, ordering a foreign hotel, when placing an order in an English online store, and so on.

Your version of the meaning of the name Kutz

What does the name Kuts mean in other origin if you know then please suggest.
And we will publish it!

“... As a child, I was not distinguished by either speed or dexterity. On the contrary, he was known among his peers as a bumpkin, for which he received the nickname Pukhtya from them. So writes in his memoirs the famous Soviet runner, the hero of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Vladimir Kuts.

However, it must be borne in mind that little Pukhtya lived in the village, spent all his days on fresh air, moved a lot and also had a stubborn, persistent character. So, one of the funs of the village children was diving into a large barrel of water - "who will outlast whom." Little Volodya, diving, usually immediately, like a cork, flew out of the water to the general laughter of his comrades. And then, slowly from everyone, he began to practice diving every day. One day the day of his celebration came. For half a minute he “sat out” all the kids in the barrel.

He showed no less perseverance, mastering skiing. He built himself skis from the boards of a dried-up barrel and trained until he began to successfully participate in competitions.

Life brought young Kuts serious trials. At the age of 16, he went to the front as a liaison headquarters of the regiment. He will forever remember his first "cross", when he had to overcome 10 kilometers from headquarters to the front line.

And after the war, service in the twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet. The harsh conditions of service in the navy tempered the young man, taught him not to be afraid of difficulties. The sailors loved sports, and Kuts did a little of everything - skiing, boxing, lifting weights. It seemed that it was here that he would find his calling. At that time, with a height of 172 centimeters, he weighed 85 kilograms. But fate decided otherwise.

First run

One Sunday, he came to the stadium to “cheer” for his comrades and unexpectedly, replacing a suddenly ill athlete at the request of the commander of the unit, he was among the participants in the 5-kilometer run.

For the spectators, and for Kuts himself, the outcome of the run was unexpected. He not only stayed behind the leaders the entire distance, but also overtook them on the last lap. So the question of choosing a sports specialty was resolved. His sport was long-distance running.

Deciding to run and achieve in this sport high results, Vladimir Kuts, with his characteristic perseverance, went step by step towards the intended goal. Training, especially at first, was not easy. After an exhausting duty, he ran cross-country skis on the coastal hills. Only after the transfer to military service normal conditions for training appeared in Leningrad. Kuts took over the leadership of the preparation experienced trainer Grigory Isaevich Nikiforov.

In those years when Vladimir Kuts came to athletics, records in long-distance running have risen immeasurably. If the Olympic records for 5,000 and 10,000 meters set in 1924 and 1928 by Paavo Nurmi were 14.31.2 and 30.18.8, then at the 1952 Olympics, the famous Czechoslovak stayer Emil Zatopek ran these distances in 14.06.6 and 29.17.0.

Thus, the young naval runner Vladimir Kuts faced a difficult task. Surpass the results of the famous Zatopek. Defeat the British and Hungarian stayers who had come to the forefront by that time.

Among the English runners in those years, the most famous were Gordon Peary and Christopher Chataway. A peculiar figure in sports was Piri, nicknamed for the manner of loudly puffing while running "Mr. Poof-Poof", he became famous primarily for his sports longevity - he began to compete in competitions almost from the age of 10. Experts have repeatedly predicted the near end of his sports career, but Piri improved his results year after year, acquired great experience, the ability to conduct tactical combat on a treadmill.

Winners of the 1956 Olympics in the 5000 m (left to right): Piri - silver, Kuts - gold, Ibbotson - bronze.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War Vladimir Kuts began to run in 1945, being a sailor of the Baltic Fleet. In parallel, he was engaged in cross-country skiing.
July 27-28, 1956 Vladimir Kuts won two gold medals

He was tall, thin, had a wide step and, above all, was not distinguished by modesty. His constant boastful statements drew ridicule from athletics enthusiasts.

The second English runner Christopher Chataway, nicknamed the “Red Fox” for his cunning, was able to “sit on the heels” of the enemy and beat him at the finish line “from behind”.

What could Kuts oppose to these experienced athletes? Inhuman perseverance and sailor prowess were not enough here. It was necessary to surpass foreign stayers in training, in tactical thinking. The first years of work with Nikiforov were devoted to this.

By that time, the loads of the best stayers were extremely high. Should these loads be exceeded? Or maybe there is another way? Foreign athletes, including Emil Zatopek, ran a lot, but relatively slowly, making long pauses between runs. But what if you run the same 200 or 400 meters faster and with shorter rest intervals and, in addition, expand the range of your training run? Run not only 200 and 400 meters, but also 600, 800, 1200 meters? So Vladimir Kuts began to train.

Gradually, he gained experience in participating in competitions. He performed first at the championship of the military district, then Soviet army, finally, at the championship of the USSR. It was not without failures, but the results were steadily growing, approaching the record. The first meeting with Zatopek at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest ended in the victory of the famous runner. But Kuts was the first all the distance and only due to inexperience missed gold medal at the finish.

Dreams Come True

The dream came true in 1954 at the European Championships in the small Swiss town of Bern. True to his tactics, Kutz rushes forward. The gap between him and the rest of the runners reaches 60 - 70 meters. But the stands are silent. They don't believe in this crazy Russian. Too often they saw inexperienced runners like this giving their all at the start of the race and then plodding last to the finish line.

But Kuts is confident in his abilities. First he finishes the second, third, fourth kilometer. And at first timidly, and then louder and louder in the stands, it starts to be heard: “Kuts! Kutz! Viewers are close to believing in this blond Russian strong man. In all countries, spectators love it when newcomers win.

Victory

And Kutz wins, leaving his opponents somewhere 80-100 meters behind. The announcer announces the result - 13:56.6. This is a new world record.

The remaining two years before the Olympic Games in Melbourne were years of both victories and defeats. Particularly offensive were the defeats inflicted on Kuts by the British. At the competitions in England, Chataway took over, who, after sitting the whole distance behind the back of the Soviet athlete, took the lead in the last meters and set a new world record. Something similar happened at the competitions in 1956 in the Norwegian city of Bergen, where Gordon Peary applied Chataway's tactics. "Mr. Poof-Poof" not only won Kuts in this way, but also set a new record - 13:36.8.

Statements began to appear in the world sports press that Kutz's straightforward tactics were vicious. And on the eve of the Olympics, one of the Melbourne newspapers wrote: “Will a robot be able to defeat mental athletes? No! In a cunning tactical struggle, athletes like Kuts cannot win.

Piri remained true to himself and told the press: “You ask me if I am able to follow Kutz if he runs at his own pace. record run? I will perform in order to win, and only for this. I can easily show a time of 28 minutes 30 seconds on 10,000 meters, and if necessary, 28 minutes. After all, there is nothing impossible in running two times 5000 meters in 14 minutes each time.

... The starter shot, and the participants Olympic competitions in the 10,000 meters at the Cricket Ground, they set off on their long and difficult journey. Ahead is an athlete in a red T-shirt with bib number 200. This is Vladimir Kuts. Behind him are G. Piri, Chernyavsky and P. Bolotnikov. Then Finn Taipale, Englishman Norris, Australians Lawrence and Power.

The first circle Kuts passes at a high pace - 61.4 seconds. True to his tactic of chasing and taking the lead at the end of the course, Piri follows the Soviet runner incessantly. “The long shadow of Piri glided across the green grass next to mine. I heard his breathing behind me. The high pace of running, which was beyond the strength of the rest of the participants, suited the Englishman, who apparently decided that this tactic would bring him success, as happened in Bergen. This is how Vladimir Kuts will later talk about this competition. But this time he was not going to lead the English runner to victory and prepared an unexpected surprise for him. What weapon can be used against such rivals as the British? - thought the Soviet athlete during the preparation for the Olympic Games. Well, of course, a high pace, and then accelerations, jerks at a distance, which will later be called ragged running. This is the sharpest weapon that works unerringly, especially if the enemy is not ready for it. In Melbourne, the British were not prepared for Kutz's new tactics.

Melbourne

Kuts made his first breakthrough on the fifth lap, which he ran in 65.4. Piri's shadow on the grass disappeared for a while, but then reappeared. Kutz again uses "ragged run". It slows down, then picks up the pace. However, Piri stubbornly clings to his back.

Then Kuts retreats to the second track and with a nod of his head invites his opponent to come forward. But Piri's reckoning doesn't include running. After the sixth lap, a group of five people is ahead: in addition to Kuts and Piri, Chernyavsky and two Australians are here.

Kuts runs the first half of the distance in 14:06.6. In 1952, this would have been the Olympic record for 5,000 meters. After the sixteenth lap, only Kuts and Piri are ahead. Behind them about eighty meters, a group of athletes is running, led by the Hungarian Kovacs and the Englishman Norris.

Spectators, not taking their eyes off the treadmill, enthusiastically watch the tactical game, on which the outcome of the run depends. Who will be the Olympic champion? Kuts or Piri? The Soviet athlete tirelessly continues to use his "weapon". It either slows down or speeds up progress. But in such cases, the advantage is usually on the side of the pursuer: he spends less effort.

On the twentieth lap, the run slows down so much that Piri has no choice but to take the lead. Maybe he finally decided to speed up his run and break away from his opponent? But Kutz is experienced enough to assess the situation at a glance. "Mr. Poof Poof" is breathing harder than usual. His stride has lost its elasticity. Well, of course, he is tired and no longer able to resist in the last five laps that they have to run. And Kutz allows Piri to lead only a hundred meters. After that, he rushes to the last decisive attack.

Spectators rise from their seats. The stadium is buzzing. There are screams from the stands. This time, Piri has no strength to resist. He falls behind, and the gap between the runners by the last lap is already 100 meters. Kuts rushes forward uncontrollably. Here is the finish line. Stopwatches show 28.45.6. This is 31.4 seconds faster than the previous Olympic record. Olympic Games Emil Zatopek. And this means that in face-to-face meeting a Soviet athlete would overtake a Czech by at least 200 meters!

What about Piri? He is so exhausted that he cannot resist the athletes overtaking him and finishes running only eighth.

After the competition in the stadium lobby, he told reporters who surrounded him: “Fantastic, fantastic! I came here to run the 10,000 meters at my own pace, but Kutz forced his will on me, made me respond to his many sprints. I could only last 8 kilometers. Now I hope to take revenge on the 5000 meters.

Yes, everyone was waiting for this revenge. The British "coalition" was specially preparing for it. Peary was joined this time by non-runners in the 10,000 meters Christopher Chataway and Derek Ibbotson. They, as it turned out later, developed a plan of "reprisal" against Vladimir Kuts. The plan was calculated on the fact that the Russian would again use his main weapon - jerks at a distance.

But in the 5000 meters Kutz once again proved that he is not a robot, but a thinking, tactically mature runner. Knowing that Chataway had an advantage in speed at the finish line and the British were ready to rush, the Soviet runner changed tactics, offering his opponents from the very first lap a uniform, but exceptionally high pace of running.

The speed was so great that the American Delinger and the Yugoslav Mugosha soon retired. On the eighth lap, trying to catch up with the leader, Chataway made a dash, but could not stand it and came to the finish line only eleventh. Kutz finished first, at least 50 meters ahead of Piri, with a time of 13:39.6.

Under the headline “Kutz destroyed the British fortress in the 5000m race,” the French newspaper Ekip wrote: “There was no fight. The English "coalition" bowed to Kuts. We were present at the triumph of the mightiest distance runner who ever lived. What kind of person could run 5,000 and 10,000 meters at intervals of several days like Kuts did? It's a miracle! You can't be more of a fighter than Kutz. This is the devil man. Running is his natural state. It was in vain to look for signs of fatigue on his face after the finish. Vladimir Kuts was the only runner who did not change after running. He only blushed a little. His victory at 5,000 meters was even more convincing than at 10,000 meters. She created a real turmoil in the ranks of the British runners.

So the "sailor from the Baltic" became the hero of the Olympic Games in Melbourne. In Australia, he has gained amazing popularity. Local newspapers did not skimp on such, for example, headlines: "Russian sailor - the idol of Melbourne!", "Triumph of Vladimir Kuts!" Once, when a delegation of Soviet athletes was listening to opera in the Melbourne theater, a spotlight was directed at the box that she occupied, and the hall chanted until then: “Kuts, come on!” Until Volodya went on stage and bowed, as befits a real artist.

However, it must be said that Soviet athletes generally met in Australia with the most friendly attitude towards themselves, especially on the part of ordinary workers of this country. Kutz often later recalled how enthusiastically he was welcomed by the dock workers of Sydney, one of the largest port cities in Australia.

It would seem that everything that an athlete can only dream of has been achieved. 1956 brought Vladimir Kuts not only two gold Olympic medals, but also the title, which is awarded only to the greatest and most popular athletes, "the best athlete of the year."

But the 5,000m world record still belonged to Gordon Peary. Is he really never able to regain this record. We didn't have to wait long. A year later, at competitions in Rome, Vladimir Kuts ran 5000 meters for "13.35.0. This new world record will only be surpassed eight years later by Ron Clark, who lit the Olympic flame at the stadium in Melbourne.

Kutz will forever remain in the history of sports as a knight of the treadmill, an athlete with an inexhaustible will to win, leading an honest and open fight with opponents, as a person whose friendliness and cordiality earned him respect and popularity in many countries of the world.

Petr Bolotnikov

Kuts was not alone. He was just one of the best representatives Soviet school running. We have already talked about his many predecessors. But he also had followers. His successor was Pyotr Bolotnikov, who took a modest 9th place in the 5000 meters and 16th place in the 10,000 meters at the Melbourne Olympics.

Actually, Bolotnikov was nicknamed “the heir of Vladimir Kuts”. Sports biography the young runner is surprisingly reminiscent of the biography of the Melbourne hero. Like Vladimir Kuts, Bolotnikov grew up in the countryside. Only it was a northern Mordovian village. He also started in other sports. At the vocational school he met the son of the famous Russian skater Nikolai Strunnikov and spent the winter on skates and the summer on a bicycle.

Carier start

His service in the Soviet Army, like Vladimir Kuts, led him to run. Only he did not serve in the Navy, but in the tank unit. The ideal of both athletes was the same person - Alexander Anufriev. They imitated him, they sought to surpass him!

And then for many years Bolotnikov was only “in the retinue” of the Olympic champion, but continued to increase the kilometers of training run, acquiring the quality without which the runner will never achieve great success - special endurance.

His first real success came in 1957 when he beat Kutz in the 10,000 meters. It was after this that he was named the heir to the great runner.

The four years that separated Melbourne from Rome flew by quickly. This time, Vladimir Kuts was sitting in the stands of the Stadio Olimpico, and Pyotr Bolotnikov started at the 10-kilometer distance with a group of the strongest stayers in the world, among whom the audience saw Gordon again

This is what the participants of the 1st Olympic Games looked like at the start of the 100m race. Something similar to the modern low start is demonstrated only by the American Thomas Burke.

Only regret can be caused by such a technique of hurdlers. See how high they "fly" over these barriers, which are shaped like an inverted "T".

See how beautiful and easy the running of the champion of the XXI Olympic Games in the 800 and 1500 meters Tatiana Kazankina.

The Finnish runner Lasse Viren became the winner of both the Munich and Montreal Olympiads in stayer distances.

Piri. But this was a different Piri. Poorly prepared, incapable of the fierce struggle that he fought four years ago with Vladimir Kuts in Melbourne.

One of the features of the Soviet school of running was its flexibility, the absence of straightforward stupid dogmatism. It would seem that after Kutz's victories, his tactics should be put into service with the next generation of runners. However, this did not happen. After all, each runner has his own individual characteristics. If the main thing in Kuts's tactics at the Melbourne Olympics was "ragged running", acceleration at a distance, then Bolotnikov's main weapon was a swift finish.

Two more take part in the 10,000 meters run with Bolotnikov Soviet athletes E. Zhukov and A. Desyatchikov. It is Zhukov who takes on the difficult task of leading at the beginning of the race. On a short time Bolotnikov comes forward. Then the leaders change like in a kaleidoscope. Ahead of the Hungarian Iharos, then Desyatchikov, then the Australian Power. With three laps to go, Hans Gradocki makes a desperate dash forward. But three runners - Desyatchikov, Bolotnikov and Power - hold on to him together.

One and a half laps before the finish line, Bolotnikov makes a final spurt and, like Kuts, raising his hand high, is the first to cross the finish line. Running the 10,000 meters in 28:32.2, he beats his predecessor's Olympic record by 13.4 seconds. Only 1.8 seconds is not enough for him to repeat the world record of Vladimir Kuts. However, in the same 1960, he still improves this record.

After the Rome Olympiad, none of the Soviet runners managed to repeat the remarkable achievements of Vladimir Kuts and Pyotr Bolotnikov. But does this mean that the skill of our runners has declined, that the times of Kuts and Bolotnikov are gone forever? No! They are alive, these traditions. We are alive in the successes of Evgeny Arzhanov, who brilliantly ran 800 meters at the Munich Olympics and only because of a tactical miscalculation brought his team not a gold, but a silver medal, in the victories of our girls Lyudmila Bragina and Tatyana Kazankina, who won gold medals at the Olympic Games in Munich and Montreal and having numerous world records to its credit.

And we believe that the time is not far off when men will have new, full of energy young runners who will be worthy of their great predecessors - Olympic champions Vladimir Kuts and Peter Bolotnikov.

Vladimir Petrovich Kuts passed away early. But contemporaries are alive, remembering the beauty of his run and the feeling of human greatness that this run gave the audience. Films are stored in the archives, depicting competitions in which Kuts, the famous stayer, shone. And in the history of track and field athletics there are lines that recorded a rapid jump in results at stayer distances, and this jump is inextricably linked with the name of Kuts.