Legend of the past. Leonid Zhabotinsky died

The great athlete Leonid Zhabotinsky died. Now somehow it turned out that weightlifting does not cause the mass interest that caused earlier - in the times of the Soviet Union. And, probably, the blame for that ... is a massive physical culture. Now the bodybuilders are on hearing, and many prefer the crossfit to other fashionable hobbies from what goes into a healthy lifestyle. But once in a dispute between the weightlifters at the World Championships and the Olympics were watched with a sinking heart. And Arnold Schwarzenegger counted in his idols the Soviet weightlifter.

Not only the bar

Not surviving just a few days to 78 years (January 28, 1938 - January 14, 2016) twice Olympic champion Zhabotinsky was carried away by sports from an early age. He was engaged in athletics, and such tough sports as boxing and wrestling. And having finished seven classes and having gone to work on the now famous Kharkov tractor factory, Leonid was carried away by weightlifting.

Step by step

At first, Jabotinsky's sports achievements were limited to the Ukrainian SSR. He won prizes in various competitions and gradually improved his skills. "Shooted" Zhabotinsky in 1963. It was in that year that he set his first world record and was called to the banner of the Soviet national team. Then, in Stockholm, Leonid was the third in the world championship.

"Who is the mother of history is more valuable ..."

Soviet sport then rattled. The achievements of Soviet athletes drove millions of sports fans crazy, not only in the Union itself, but also far beyond its borders. In 1964, for example, Japanese newspapers noted that someone who did not see the rivalry of Zhabotinsky and Vlasov, he simply missed the Olympics. Speech, of course, about the Olympics in Tokyo. Then Leonid became the champion, having outstripped the comrade in the sum of triathlon by only two and a half kilograms and having set three (!) World records during the tournament.

The second Olympic ...

Now idle wits would say something like that, they say, skill will not spend on drink, but they would be right only in that the skill of Jabotinsky grew year after year. At the next Olympics, in Mexico, Leonid outperformed the silver medalist by seventeen and a half kilograms, setting two Olympic records, taking in triathlon a weight of five hundred and seventy two and a half kilograms. True, all this took place without participation in the struggle of Vlasov.

Rewards, illness and return

It would seem that everything is going smoothly. Successes in the sport were marked by a well-deserved recognition. Jabotinsky receives the title of international category judge and the title of Honored Master of Sports. But then comes the turn of the tests. The athlete is trapped by a serious illness with which he fights for four years, he suffers an operation ... It would seem that the sports career is over. But this was not the nature of Zhabotinsky. He comes out of the situation with honor, returns to the big sport, wins the 1973 Soviet Cup and sets a world record again. And a year later - a new world record. The last world record for the athlete.

If life after glory?

Leonid Zhabotinsky gave an example of the fact that life after the sport exists, although many sportsmen of those times, leaving sport, dragged, let us say frankly, not the best existence. Just a great weightlifter was also a very worthy person in the personal plan. Since Jabotinsky was a "army man", he played for SKA, and he went on a sports-military path. After graduating in Odessa, in an artillery school, he eventually became head of the department of martial arts in the sports committee of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union. And then worked as an adviser in ... Madagascar. And he headed the weightlifters team was the best on the African continent.

Further - teaching

Further, Leonid Zhabotinsky went into teaching and science. He received the title of Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation, was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Moscow Institute of Entrepreneurship and Law, Honorary President of the Russian Weightlifting Federation.

How Schwarzenegger for Jabotinsky was sick

It is known that Jabotinsky was the idol of the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger. And Arnold himself, when he happened to meet with the sportsman, admitted to the spirit that it was for him that he was ill during the 1964 Olympics, and not for the compatriots.

Died of influenza

You will not believe, but the outstanding sportsman, "honorable resident" of Zaporozhye Leonid Zhabotinsky died of ... flu. From the most strange flu, which now mows Ukrainians, causing complications that result in death. Summary from hospital beds reminded now in this country of a summary of the military losses of Ukrainian soldiers in the Donbas. At least, it is the flu, referring to the words of the son of the legendary athlete, called the cause of Zhabotinsky's death Ukrainian media. And in the hospital the athlete was lying because of a broken leg. And there he allegedly contracted the flu. There is no other legend of the legendary Soviet sport.