Lydia Skoblikova: the queen of skates with an advanced degree. “This attractive girl with a steel will is perhaps the best speed skater the world has known” 4-time Olympic speed skating champion

EKATERINA PAVLOVNA (1788–1819), Grand Duchess, sister of Alexander I4 I would rather marry the last Russian stoker than this Corsican. In a conversation with the chief equestrian S.I. ). ? "Russian Archive", 1878, no. 3, stb. 307. B

The only six-time Olympic champion in speed skating in the world: in 1960, she won at distances of 1500 and 3000 meters, in 1964 - at 500, 1000, 1500 and 3000 meters. The first female athlete in the history of women's sports to set a world record at the Olympic Games - in 1960, she ran 1,500 meters in 2 minutes 25.2 seconds. The absolute world champion in the classic all-around 1963 and 1964, the only female athlete in history who won all four distances. Multiple world record holder. Candidate of Historical Sciences. Founder of the Lydia Skoblikova Foundation.

Lydia Pavlovna Skoblikova was born on March 8, 1939. Lydia was born and raised in the Urals in a large working-class family with five children. The house where she lived in Zlatoust stands under the Kosotur mountain. As a child, Lida, a very lively girl with golden swirls, loved to jump, play volleyball, basketball. She always ran to the top of Kosotur, to the sports ground. Mother just shook her head: it would ruin her heart. No one in the family was fond of sports, but this one ... And who just went?

In the Zlatoust children's sports school, Skoblikova began to seriously engage in skiing. But the dashing, like a boy, indefatigable Lida ski soon got bored: too little speed! Time has passed. Lida entered the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute. The new coach Boris Kochkin kept repeating to her: "There is a lot of strength, but no technique. You need to train! The skater must bring his movements to automaticity."

January 1957. Bitter. Championship of the republic for girls. "Just don't forget about your hands," Kochkin admonished her. And Lida remembered this very well all the time before ... the shot of the starting pistol. Circle after circle she runs, waving her arms with might and main. “Take your hands off!” They shout to her. After the victory, Lida fervently looked at the reporters who surrounded the new champion.

Lida was training hard now. And her dreams began to come true. Country records for girls have been broken. The name of the Chelyabinsk student is pronounced at many stadiums in the country. The titles that appeared before her name were named: master of sports, medalist of the championship of the Soviet Union, champion of trade unions. Then Skoblikova goes abroad for the first time. On a cozy skating rink in the small town of Ostersund, the match between Sweden and the RSFSR is taking place. The ice is excellent, but it turned out to be too slippery for Lida. At the crown three-kilometer distance, she has two falls. The result is still not bad, but Lida almost cries: "I will come home, Boris Alekseevich will say:" Couldn't you fall again? "

A year later, Skoblikova again falls on the same Swedish skating rink. This time in a 1000-meter run. It falls when she confidently was in the lead in the amount of points and, it seemed, was already holding the laurel wreath of the world champion! Another would have despaired, but Lida did not give up. Despite the fall, she then won the distance of 3000 m and took the overall third place.

And here is the first Olympics in Squaw Valley. Lydia made her debut at a distance of 1500 meters, after the annoying defeat of our speed skaters at the "five hundred".
“The fight on it was even harder for us. Klara Guseva and Valya Stenina, who was considered the strongest in our team at this distance, had already run. But the best result remained with the Polish athlete Elvira Serochinskaya. Only 0.2 seconds did not reach the world record. It was clear to me that I had to go for broke.

She started in the eighth pair with Helena Pileychik. Started running on a small track at a purely sprint pace. I knew that I had enough strength until the end of the distance. The trainer and I built a schedule for a high result - above the world record.

The ice was slippery and rolling. I remember the wind got in the way. But he interfered with everyone. According to the reaction of the audience, I felt that I was running well. The stands gasped when I had a slight glitch at the last corner. Finished the distance - and the stadium roared! I looked at the scoreboard - victory! And even with a world record! Our trainers, who were standing "on the stock exchange," rushed to me, grabbed me and began to swing.

None of our girls made it into the top three. The silver medal was won by Elvira Serochinskaya from Poland, the bronze - by her teammate Helena Pileychik. Clara Guseva showed the fourth result, Valya Stenina was only the fifth. Everything is confused!

Rewarding. This is the first time I am standing on the top step of the Olympic podium. The Anthem of the Soviet Union is played. On the flagpole is our scarlet cloth. As in a dream ... It is even difficult to convey what you feel at such moments. With excitement, a lump rolls up to my throat. Can you imagine what kind of reaction there, in the homeland. Tomorrow here, to distant America, telegrams will come ... Chelyabinsk residents will write: "Your Olympic gold has been added to the jewels of the Urals ..."

And then, in Squaw Valley-60, I brought my first gold medal to the Olympic village, put it under my pillow and could not sleep almost all night. From happiness. The next day, we all rejoiced at the victory of Klara Guseva at a distance of 1000 meters. Alas, I was content with only fourth place. "

After the first victory Lydia Skoblikova an impromptu press conference took place on the ice. Foreign journalists bombarded the Olympic champion with questions. At first, they were somewhat stereotyped, but inevitable in this case:

How old are you? Where are you from? What do you do? But the question is unexpected:
- Are you married?
- Not yet.
- And you have not been offered here?

Lida knew that in the USA, as soon as she became famous, there would immediately be many complete strangers offering the girl a hand and a heart. And she was not at a loss, retorted with a joke:
- No, probably not in time. I only became a champion in a quarter of an hour. - And after a pause she added: - I do not need American suitors. And there will be houses.
- Weren't you upset that you set your first world record not in your homeland, but in America?
- No, why not. The most important thing is that the record should be ours, the Soviet one!

Later, in the rest room, the world famous pianist, winner of the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition Daniel Pollak approached Lida. He asked for an autograph and, in turn, wrote his best wishes and congratulations in her notebook. Lida asked to play something. Pollack smiled and said: "In the evening. For everyone, and for you especially."

In the evening, indeed, Pollack played with great inspiration from Tchaikovsky, Kabalevsky, Chopin. The crowded Olympic auditorium applauded him, and the loudest music lover, Lydia Skoblikova.

In the final 3000m race, the main contender for the victory was Evi Huttunen, the famous speed skater from Finland. She announced that she is performing for the last year and wants to win the Olympic gold medal at parting. The leaders changed several times, until the world champion Valentina Stenina took the ice. Valya decided to follow the schedule for 5 minutes 18 seconds. This was considered a very good result. Stenina even exceeded the schedule, setting a personal achievement - 5.16.9. However, Skoblikova runs even faster in the last pair. 5.14.3 - only half a second separated Lida from the world record of Rimma Zhukova. So, Lydia Skoblikova, the best stayer of the Olympics, made a golden double.

After the Olympics, another joyful event awaited Lida: she married her classmate Alexander Polozkov, also an athlete - master of sports in race walking. "To be honest, Sasha and I were going to sign after the end of each school year. But my overly prudent older sisters tried to dissuade me every time:" Well, where are you in a hurry? You are still only eighteen ... Only nineteen ... Only twenty ... "

And now I am already 21 years old, I am graduating from the institute. Independent person. I still remember how it was. Sasha and I were preparing for the next exam. Suddenly he says: "Let's sign!" And we went to the registry office. On the way we met our dean - Anna Matveevna Mayorova and said: "We go to the registry office to sign." She groaned: "How is that? Witnesses are also needed there." We laughed: "And we are without witnesses!"

We came to the registry office. We explained to the administrator, who was filling out the documents, who we are, and say: "We want to sign." By the way, we didn’t even know that a month before marriage registration it was necessary to submit an application. She was embarrassed: "But what about the statement? And where are the witnesses?" Witnesses were immediately found ... As an exception, we were painted.

The wedding was celebrated a few days later, after the exams. She didn't sew a white dress for herself. For some reason I was categorically against it. She joked: "Why do I need it? We will probably have a son, not a daughter. I will have no one to give it to!" I made myself a wonderful lilac dress with a beautiful scarf for my wedding. My older sister Tamara, who got married six months before me, put on her white wedding dress. When we headed to the cafe where we were celebrating our wedding, my sister was walking in front of me in all white. The curious gathered at the entrance, and everyone asked each other: "Which one is Lydia Skoblikova?" They answer from the crowd: "Yes, there she is - in a white dress!" - and point to Tamara. And no one even paid attention to me ... "

In 1963, the next world championship was held in Japan in Karuizawa - the twenty-first in a row. 34 athletes from 13 countries took to the ice track. But all eyes were fixed on the Soviet girls. After all, they were expected to win. And they did not disappoint the hopes of the spectators who gathered in the stands and on the hills around the rink.

In the thirteenth pair, together with a Japanese woman, Hama began to run 500 meters Lydia Skoblikova... She walked the entire distance incomparably and showed an excellent result - 45.4. This is her personal best and the best time of the day. She was the first of the championship participants to rise to the highest step of the podium. The 1500 meter races began when the sun disappeared and the mercury column dropped below zero. But the cold snap did not cool the intensity of the sports struggle.

Naturally, Skoblikova was now in the spotlight. And she was not going to give up leadership. Lida took the start together with the American D. Morshtein. But her rival was probably very worried. On the second lap, she lost her balance and fell. Skoblikova alone had to continue running. She finished brilliantly again. Her result - 2.23.3 - could not be beaten by anyone. It remains to add that she became the owner of the second gold medal and the championship record at a distance of 1500 meters. Having gained 93,167 points on the sum of two distances, Skoblikova retained the best chances of winning.

At 1000 meters Skoblikova started together with the Swede G. Jakobsson. They took to the ice when the Soviet skaters finished their run and took the first four places. Inga Voronina was the best among them - 1.35. However, Lydia Skoblikova, the Ural speed skater, did not seem to slide on the ice, but flew - so swift and beautiful was her run. She finished in 1 minute 31.8 seconds. The oldest world record has been broken!

Yes, that rarely happens. The competition continues, the audience remains in the stands, and the fate of the laurel wreath is decided. After brilliant victories at three distances, everyone rushed to congratulate Lida.

Skoblikova stormed the world record at a distance of 3000 meters. But she fell a little short of him, although she was again the best - 5.10.5. It was truly a dazzling superiority of the Chelyabinsk athlete.

The future owner of the laurel wreath had no luck at the world championships before. In 1960, after the first day of the competition, everyone believed that the laurel wreath was already hers. But she fell a kilometer distance, and the victory went to another. Lydia was not lucky in Karuizawa either. First she slammed her finger with the window transom, so hard that it swelled. Then she caught a cold. And even in training, tears blurred her eyes from a cold. However, Lida bravely overcame everything. Selflessly, not feeling sorry for herself, she was eager to win and was rewarded with the highest sports award. It should be added that before that only once - at the 1937 World Championship - one athlete won all four distances. Skoblikova was able to repeat the success of the legendary Norwegian L. Shaw-Nielsen.

Skoblikova approached the Olympic Games in Innsbruck-64 as a clear favorite. And this heavy burden was on her shoulder. In the very first race of 500 meters, the USSR champion in the sprint Irina Yegorova immediately breaks the Olympic record for half a second. They start pair by pair, and Yegorova's achievement - 45.4 - remains unsurpassed. In the penultimate, thirteenth pair, Lida Skoblikova took the ice.

The beginnings are the same as the teammates: 100 meters - 11.3. But Skoblikova's skill was manifested in the fact that she was able to find reserves of speed where others did not find them. Perfectly passing the turn along the big track, she rushed to the finish line, with every step she took, as if claiming that it was a new Olympic champion moving. She looked back at the scoreboard. The digits of the time counter stopped their frantic run: 45 seconds. So no one has run half a kilometer on low-altitude ice rinks! This is a personal achievement of the "Ural Lightning", which from now on will be a new Olympic record, inferior to the official world record by only one tenth of a second.

From the surging joy, Lida buried her face in a glove and so drove another half circle. Then she broke off a piece of "happy" ice with a skate and swallowed it secretly from the doctor. "I am very, very happy. And for our girls - Ira Egorova and Tanya Sidorova. After all, we did not concede a single medal to our rivals! I just somehow feel uncomfortable in front of Egorova. Immediately after the finish, I apologized to her that it happened. Very much. I wanted her to get the gold medal. Ira has strong nerves and she is a good sprinter. "

Foreign journalists intervene and ask a tactless question:
- Do you want to take away the other three gold awards?
“No, I'm not that greedy at all,” Lida retorts. - On the contrary, I wish that my friends got the "gold".

At a distance of 1500 meters in the second race, Muscovite Berta Kolokoltseva shows 2.27.1. In the seventh pair, Finnish champion Kaja Mustonen finished the race in 2.25.5 (new national record). Skoblikov shows 2.22.6. New Olympic record! World's highest achievement for low-altitude ice rinks. This is even better than last year's world championship at the Japanese mountain resort of Karuizawa.

Lida does not leave the rink: after all, the last word today belongs to Valentina Stenina. No one, of course, on the podium doubted that it was the Ural speed walker who was capable of giving a fight to the world champion, that “gold” and “silver” would be shared by constant rivals. And suddenly - 2.29.9. This result left Stenina behind the scoring six. I couldn't cope with my nerves, as the athletes say, I burned out in the long wait for the start.

Egorova and one of the first to run 1000 meters by lot. 1.34.3. Excellent! A good finish shot allowed K. Mustonen to surpass the national record too. But the Finnish swift walker was half a second from Yegorova. One world record holder Skoblikova, who took the third Olympic peak in a row, was able to shine with a higher result. 1.33.2 - this is now the new achievement of the winter games.

“The fourth distance remained - 3000 meters,” Skoblikova recalls. “My crown. I remember Yuri Dmitrievich Mashin, the head of our delegation, came up to me and said:“ Lidochka, we have already won three gold medals, and no one won four at one Olympiad ". There was something to think about ...
Over the past two years, no one has won my top three. But this is the Olympic Games! There are no surprises here!

The second day in Innsbruck "hairdryer" blows. The warm south wind eats up the remnants of the snow on the streets, turning it into a dirty gruel. It is not so bad, but, having taken the sun as an allies, he also eats the ice on the rink. A matte film began to appear on the artificial ice, preventing sliding.

We leave for a warm-up. The temperature is 7 degrees Celsius, and the freezers on the rink are not working. In the first pair, the Swedish skater Gunilla Jakobson falls on the mirror-like ice from the water. Valentina Stenina runs in the fourth pair and shows the best result. The ice gets softer and softer with every run.

Again, starting in the seventh pair. And again with Canadian Doreen Rain. Ice - it couldn't be worse. One straight line - along the stand - like wet sugar. Even the blades of the skates fail. I ran the distance as an athlete. One thought in my head: just not to fall. Imagine, a three-time Olympic champion would fall into this wet puddle! I don't remember how I got there. I'm finishing, and it's dark in my eyes ...

Still, I improved the result of Vali Stenina by three and a half seconds. The Canadian lagged behind me in a semicircle. There seemed to be no one else to fear. The last four pairs remained to run.

The organizers of the competition did everything to make the refrigeration units work, and they got their way. Ice literally froze before our eyes. With each pair, he became more and more firm and rolling, and the results - better and better. It was scary even to look at the scoreboard. Klara Nesterova, who ran in the penultimate pair, showed the third result. Many decided that, as in the five hundred, all three medals would go to Soviet athletes.

The last race was started by 22-year-old Pil Hwa Han from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It was then that a sensation occurred: it was announced in the stadium that the Korean woman in the first half of the distance was better than my run schedule. In no way am I going to belittle the merits of Pil Hwa Han, but no one considered her a contender for a medal, especially a gold one. When competitors run in unequal conditions, it is no longer a sport, but a lottery.
My running schedule was still beyond the strength of the Korean woman, although she ran on the rolling ice. But she repeated the result of Stenina. So Vale had to give up the silver step of the podium. And I went up to the gold one again.

What did you feel at that moment - the moment of the highest triumph for any athlete? Perhaps emptiness. And that's all. Happiness, joy will come later. It takes time to realize the value of Olympic gold ... Human memory is imperfect. Much of what happened in those early days has already been forgotten. I did not keep a diary of impressions then and did not write anything down. It's a pity, of course, but nothing can be done about it.

I remember that in the evenings at the "Icestadion" during the break of hockey matches, an award ceremony was held. And on the first evening after the end of the speed skating competition, the gold medal was awarded to Skoblikova, in the second - to Skoblikova, on the third - to Skoblikova ... When the President of the International Olympic Committee, the American Beasts Brandage put on me the fourth gold medal, all the spectators got up from their seats and in time the orchestra began to chant: "Fi-il! Fi-il! Four!" This lasted until the organizers of the competition put all four gold medals on me and asked me to climb the Olympic podium for the fifth time. I went up again to its highest step, kissed the medals, showed them to everyone and, according to Russian custom, made a low bow on all four sides. Something unimaginable was happening in the stands.

Later, at a press conference, journalists diligently asked how I managed to summon a hail of Olympic gold? What is the secret here - in a special talent, in unusual training methods or in extraordinary hard work? Laughing, she answered: "The secret is the simplest - I don't want to run faster than me!"

What enthusiastic epithets did the Ural sportswoman receive from the foreign press: “the golden girl of Russia”, “the queen of medals”, “Olympic superstar”, “fantastic queen of skates” ... And the “star of Innsbruck” was sincerely worried about her teammates. Leaving Austria, Skoblikova punished: "Dear boys! All our Olympic gold will fade if you do not win." Lida experienced Grishina's failure no less than the world record holder himself. And when Ants Antson won the 1500m championship, she awarded the winner with the Queen's Kiss.

“We could hardly have imagined that in the citadel of alpine sports - in Innsbruck - skater would be glorified with such delight. Lydia Skoblikova paved the way in Austria for speed skating, almost unknown so far in our country, opened the eyes of the Austrians to its beauty "- so wrote the columnist of the newspaper" Volkstimme "Kurt Chastka.

Much water has flown under the bridge since that time. After the Olympic victories, Skoblikova worked as a coach, defended her thesis and became a candidate of historical sciences, raised her son. Suddenly, it turned out that the eternal desire to win in sports interferes in his personal life: “Where you have to give up, you suddenly get on the rampage. Willy-nilly it turns out that the same sports struggle continues in your personal life. Sometimes you will remember: you are at home now, you just have to smile and cook breakfast for your son and husband. No, you still suddenly break down. You are determined to fight all the time, and it is so difficult to break yourself ... "

Lidia Pavlovna remained the same in her perception of life: “I have always believed, I count and will count,” she says with conviction, “that people should be respected not for their previous merits, but for what they do today. This is especially true of Olympic champions. they do not have the prefix "ex." In 1983, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, presented the "ice queen" with the silver Olympic order "for her contribution to the popularization of Olympic ideals and outstanding achievements in sports."

Another story of the Soviet Olympic triumph, and once again it begins in a small northern village. But in the current Russian national team, which goes to Sochi-2014 for victories, more than a quarter of the athletes in their passports have a Moscow residence permit. Although now we are not talking about them.

We are talking about a little girl who was born into the working family of the deputy director of an abrasive plant in the small town of Zlatoust in the Chelyabinsk region. Little Lida took an example from her older brother and served as a support and protection for her three younger sisters. Childhood was usual for that time: a small school, a friendly yard, a family, a farm with pets, with which she actively helped her mother ...

From time to time, the mothers of neighboring boys came to Lida's parents, complaining about the beatings that the growing sports star inflicted on their sons. Skoblikova explained everything simply: she defended the sisters.

An unrestrained character and wild energy, coming from nowhere, constantly let Lida go skiing in the surrounding parks, roads, trails. But until the age of 10, she went in for sports for her own pleasure. And from the third grade, when a new physical education teacher came to school, pleasure began to take the necessary form, obeying the classical sports education.


In the life of Skoblikova under the leadership of Boris Mishin, a versatile athlete, there was everything: volleyball, football, track and field athletics, and skiing ... While still in school, she completed the second adult category in cross-country skiing, winning one of the regional competitions. Then she won several local titles in athletics, also fulfilling the standards for the second adult category. She was the champion not only of Zlatoust, but of the entire Chelyabinsk region in the 400 and 800 meters and 400 meters with obstacles.

Around the seventh grade, Lydia agreed to go with her friend, to wait for her in the speed skating section. Having become interested in this species, Skoblikova decided to try her hand at it and fell in love with skates from the very first race. And when you like the job, it argues as well as possible. And now she, performing at the regional championship in the Iskra society, wins the competition and goes to the capital to try herself at the all-Union tournament of members of the sports society. Despite the fact that the tenth grader is opposed by members of the USSR national speed skating team, Skoblikova wins races at distances of 1500 and 3000 meters.


In 1956 she graduated from school and entered the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute at the Faculty of Physical Education, continuing to engage in speed skating. In the first year, she fulfills the standard for the master of sports of the USSR. In her second year, Lydia becomes the third at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, updates eight Union records and receives an invitation to the national team. In 1959, she already takes part in the world championship, which is being held in Sverdlovsk, and takes second place at a distance of 3000 meters, taking the third place in the overall standings - the first medal of the world championships.

The next big start is the 1960 World Cup, which serves only as a warm-up for the Olympics. Starting the year as an ordinary young girl who does not stand out from the rest of the teams, already at the world championship Lydia shows that in the American Squaw Valley she will be one of the contenders not just for medals, but for awards of the highest standard - gold for 500 meters and gold for 3000 meters at the World Cup.


Olympic champion, world champion in speed skating in 1963 Lydia Skoblikova in training, 1963.

At the Olympics, they already treated her more seriously, but they still could not do anything. Despite the off-start 13th place in an airplane flying to the USA and 13th room in a hotel, Lydia Skoblikova at her first Olympics, won two triumphal victories in the first Olympic speed skating competitions for women - at a distance of 1500 meters with a world record, which no one has been able to beat for seven years, and gold at 3000 meters is just a second from the world record. So the Ural Lightning, as recognized by the world community, became the Queen of Skates.


But even this success was not enough for Lydia. She could not even get into the prizes at two more distances - at 500 and 100 meters. True, no one before that could combine stayer and sprint qualities, but this did not bother her. We can say, after completing the Olympics, she began to learn to "walk" again. Lydia spent several hours a day honing her technique, which was at the expense of speed. And studying was straining. Despite all the awards and honors, she had to urgently close the winter session, which she missed because of training, to practice in sports medicine at the hospital and also to take summer tests and exams.

All this led to the absence of medals at the next national championship and not the most successful performance at the world championship. But Lydia continued to bend her line, making revolutionary changes in running technique and starting to travel the distance faster and faster.


Soviet speed skater, Merited Master of Sports Lydia Skoblikova in 1964.

And now 1963, the Olympic Games in the Austrian Innsbruck are on the nose. The main rehearsal is the world championship, to which Skoblikova is going as the owner of a new world record in running 1000 meters - this is almost a sprint distance. A little more, and the 500-meter distance will tremble under her pressure. And it happens! Four out of four gold medals in Japan. She becomes the absolute world champion, having updated her own record at 1000 meters. Everyone understands that the Olympics in Innsbruck, if, pah-pah, nothing happens, it will be Olympics Skoblikova.


She and her husband, also an athlete and her coach, are completing their studies at the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute, staying there to teach, and tirelessly preparing for the Olympics. By that time, at 1500 meters, she shows such results that cannot be surpassed not only by girls, but even more than half of the men participating in the world championships. As a result - four out of four gold medals with three Olympic records.

“This attractive girl with a steel will is perhaps the best skater the world has known,” writes a Sports Illustrated journalist. This is our Queen of Skates, says the USSR.

Just a few months later, at the next world championship, Skoblikova again wins all the medals, for the second time becoming the absolute world champion. And in 1965, she says it’s time to think about the family. She and her husband have a child. After that, the legendary athlete never returned to the ice.


Four-time Olympic champion Lydia Skoblikova signs autographs. IX Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, 1964.


As a result, Skoblikova has 6 Olympic gold medals, a record for girls. The same number of victories for the Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen and one more for the other Norwegian skier Bjorn Daly. During her career, she won 12 gold medals at the world championships, 15 highest awards at the USSR championships, set 18 records, 8 of which were world records.

But she no longer thinks about competitions, her whole life is subordinated to her family: her husband, children, grandchildren ... But she did not leave sports, continued to teach, received a Ph.D. degree, became a professor ... And all this with royal calm and shine in her eyes, compare the flash lightning, Ural lightning.


Stepan Chaushyan. "AiF"

Lydia Pavlovna Skoblikova was born on March 8, 1939 in Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk region.

Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1960), candidate of historical sciences (1982), professor.

The only 6-time Olympic champion in the history of speed skating, the absolute champion of the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck.

Sports nickname - "Ural Lightning".

Two-time Olympic champion 1960 years (1500 and 3000 m).
4-time Olympic champion 1964.
Took 4th place in 1960 year at a distance of 1000 m, and in 1968 year - 6th at 3000 m and 11th at 1500 m.
Two-time absolute world champion (1963, 1964).
World record holder at 1000 m distances (1963-1968) , 1500 m (1960-1962) and 3000 m (1967).

Lydia Pavlovna Skoblikova (March 8, 1939, Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk region, RSFSR, USSR) - Soviet speed skater, the only 6-time Olympic champion in the history of speed skating, absolute champion of the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck.

Sports nickname - "Ural Lightning".

• Two-time Olympic champion in 1960 (1500 and 3000 m).
• 4-time champion of the 1964 Olympics.
• She took 4th place in 1960 at a distance of 1000 m, and in 1968 - 6th at 3000 m and 11th at 1500 m.
• Two-time absolute world champion (1963, 1964).
• World record holder at distances of 1000 m (1963-1968), 1500 m (1960-1962) and 3000 m (1967).

Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1960), candidate of historical sciences (1982), professor.

She played for the Chelyabinsk "Burevestnik", and at the end of her career - for the Moscow "Lokomotiv".

She became the coach of the team of the Big Races sports and entertainment show.

Biography

Lida grew up in a large family (father, mother, three sisters, younger brother). The love of sports was instilled in her by the school physical education teacher B.N.Mishin, who contributed to the upbringing of the strong character of a gambling girl who always strived to be a leader among her peers. She was passionate about volleyball, athletics, gymnastics, and skiing. At the age of 14, she won the track and field championships of Zlatoust and the Chelyabinsk region (running 800 m). A year later I decided to try myself in speed skating and in the very first competition I easily fulfilled the norm of the second category. In 1956 she became the champion of her hometown. In the same year she entered the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute and studied there until 1960.

Skoblikova achieved her first serious successes in 1958, becoming a master of sports and a medalist of the Spartakiad of the peoples of the RSFSR in the 1500 m race; entered the top ten skaters in the country. In 1959, she took the overall third place at the World Championships, held in Sverdlovsk, and the USSR Championships. Having brilliantly mastered the stayer (3000 m) and medium (1500 m) distances, she was still inferior to many in the sprint (500 and 1000 m). Therefore, her performance at the World Championships in Sweden (1960), where she won gold medals in the 500 and 3000 meters, became a sensation.In 1960 she made her debut at the Olympic Games (Squaw Valley, USA), in the program of which for the first time in the history of the Olympics were included women's speed skating competition. Having won the 1500 m race, she was the first of all the participants in the Olympics to set a world record (2 minutes 25.2 seconds), then she won her favorite distance of 3000 meters. She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for high sporting achievements. At the World Championships in Japan (1963), she became the absolute world champion for the first time, proving that she became a universal speed skater: she won all four distances (1000 m with a world record of 1 min 31.8 sec).

Unique achievement

At the Olympic Games in (1964, Austria) Skoblikova set a unique achievement in the history of speed skating, winning all four distances and at the same time setting Olympic records at three (500, 1000 and 1500 m). Experts, noting the lightness, beauty and refined technique of her running, called her “The Queen of Skates”. Member of the CPSU since 1964, was admitted to the party by NS Khrushchev by telephone after the triumph in Innsbruck. Vice-President of the International Skating Union (ISU) S. Lofman said that Skoblikova's loud triumph contributes to the development of the popularity of women's speed skating. In the same 1964, Skoblikova convincingly won the World Speed \u200b\u200bSkating Championships (Sweden), again winning all four distances. Such an achievement (8 gold medals out of 8) cannot be surpassed, it can only be repeated. In 1964 she was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

She has a sports family: her husband, A. Polozkov, was a member of the USSR national track and field team, was the world record holder in race walking, and her son, G. Polozkov, was in the early 1990s. senior coach of the Russian national speed skating team.

The Ice Sports Palace in Chelyabinsk bears the name of Lydia Skoblikova.

results

• Places in brackets are for individual distances, in order of races (500, 1500, 1000 and 3000)

State awards

• Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (1999)
• Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1960 and 1964)
• Order of the Badge of Honor

"Russian lightning"

Lydia Skoblikova - an outstanding Soviet athlete, six-time Olympic champion in speed skating.

Lydia Skoblikova was born on March 8, 1939 (International Women's Day) in Zlatoust (Russian SSR). Since childhood, Lida has been involved in an incredible number of sports. But gradually volleyball, athletics, cross-country skiing and many other sports faded into the background, the fifteen-year-old "Russian lightning" took up speed skating seriously.

For the first time, they started talking about Skoblikova as a promising athlete in 1957, when a student of the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute won the Russian Championship in Gorky. Experts immediately noted the incredible speed that Lydia demonstrated, but at the same time, the running technique of the novice athlete wanted the best. Skoblikova waved her arms so hard that it seemed she wanted to take off, thereby wasting a lot of extra energy.

The following year, Lydia received the title of Master of Sports and became a prize-winner of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. In 1959, the speed skater made her debut at an international tournament in Sweden. Two falls at the crown distances did not allow the young athlete to rise to the podium. But already the next year, at the world championship in Sweden, Skoblikova won two victories at distances of 500 and 3,000 meters, which allowed her to become the third in the overall standings.

In 1960, Lydia Skoblikova, a young and inexperienced skater, went to conquer winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley (USA). Preparing for the Games was incredibly difficult. Lydia did her best 100 percent. She wanted to forget about the failures in Sweden and prove to everyone that they were accidental. The very first performance of Skoblikova at a distance of 1500 m was triumphant:

“The ice was slippery and rolling. I remember the wind was terribly in the way. But he interfered with everyone. According to the reaction of the audience, I felt that I was running well. The stands gasped when I had a slight glitch at the last corner. Finished the distance - and the stadium roared! I looked at the scoreboard - victory! Moreover, with a world record! ”, -recalled the legendary athlete. It was at a distance of 1500 m that Skoblikova won the first Olympic gold.

At these Games, Lydia Skoblikova won another gold award - at a distance of 3000 m. As time has shown, the games in California were not peak in Lydia's sports biography. It was just a rehearsal for an incredible show in Innsbruck. But there were still four years left before the Games in Austria.

In 1963 "Russian lightning" shone at the Japanese World Championships in Karuizawa. Japan turned out to be "inhospitable" for the athlete. At first, Lydia pressed her finger very hard, and only pain-relieving injections allowed her to endure the pain. But that was not all. Before the very start, the skater caught a cold and her eyes were very watery. Despite everything, the Soviet beauty showed a phenomenal result - she won four out of four possible victories.

In 1964, Skoblikova went to the second Games for herself in Innsbruck. The already titled and experienced athlete was an irritant for her rivals. Lydia only needed to win. Any other result would have been perceived negatively by Soviet officials. The speed skater not only brilliantly coped with the task, Lydia went down in the history of world sports as the only speed skater who won four Olympic awards of the highest standard. At the Games in Innsbruck, the athlete was the strongest at distances of 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, 3000 m.

At the final press conference, Lydia Skoblikova was asked to reveal the secret of incredible success, to which the six-time champion replied:

"- The secret is the simplest - I don't want to run faster than me!"

In the 60s, Skoblikova had no equal in speed skating. She was the world record holder at three distances at once: 1000 m (1963-1968), 1500 m (1960-1962) and 3000 m (1967).