Alexander Gorelik: the history of figure skating

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

One of the most fascinating, interesting, breathtaking spectacles is considered by many to be figure skating. The beauty of pirouettes, magical sliding on ice, double and triple sheepskin coats, salchow, rittberger, axel and other jumps are a complex coordination sport.

Skating at present, demonstrating all five directions, cannot be compared with the tasks that figure skaters had to perform in the 50s of the last century, taking part in their first championships and olympiads. They just had to draw certain figures on the ice, maintaining balance and demonstrating a beautiful body position while moving. And, of course, no speed.

Biography of Alexander Gorelik

In 1955, a ten-year-old boy came to the sports school in Sokolniki, who really wanted to learn how to skate. It was Sasha Gorelik. With coach Elena Vasilyeva, he went through an elementary school of skating. Then there was pair skating with partner Tatyana Sharanova. In 1962, at the first Winter Spartakiad organized in the Soviet Union, the guys took the third place of honor,received bronze medals in pair skating. They also brought bronze from the international Blue Swords tournament held in the GDR.

In 1964, the figure skating championship in the Soviet Union brought them silver. The same year was their debut at the European and World Championships. A pair of Alexander Gorelik - Tatyana Sharanova took seventh place at the European Championships and fifteenth at the World Championships.

The year turned out to be ineffective. According to the results of the championships, they did not get into the top ten couples, which was disappointing, and this most likely caused the couple to break up.

Stanislav Zhuk's solution

The next sports season for figure skater Alexander Gorelik might not have worked out at all, but he came to the attention of Stanislav Zhuk, already known in these years. He noticed the skater back in 1963. As Stanislav Zhuk said later, the duet of Sharanova - Gorelik looked great on the ice, but he did not like the style of skating. Since the athletes did not train with him, he did not voice his opinion anywhere. At the same time, the sports couple of Stanislav Zhuk's sister, whom he trained for almost four years, broke up. It so happened that in the autumn of 1964, Stanislav Zhuk created a new duet, inviting Alexander Gorelik to become a partner of his sister Tatiana Zhuk.

Duet Zhuk - Gorelik

Stanislav Zhuk had far-reaching plans in his work with this couple. He really wanted to embody passion and speed in figure skating, to saturate the program with complex elements. Most importantly, he felt that the guys would cope with thetasks. I had to go through grinding in pairs, since the partners had previously skated in a different line-up, and the coaching requirements were different. The couple quickly picked up the necessary pace, increasing the level of their skills with each workout. Their debut performances in 1965 at the European and World Championships brought them bronze medals.

The sports couple is off to a good start. Intensive training and the introduction of new elements in the short and free programs allowed Alexander Gorelik and Tatyana Zhuk to receive bronze medals already in 1966 at the European Championships held in Moscow. At the World Championships in Davos, hotbeds Zhuk - Gorelik climbed to the second step of the podium, taking silver, literally following on the heels of the famous couple of those years, Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov. One judge's vote decided the distribution of places on the podium. Of the nine judges, four ranked them first and five ranked second. Two seasons of skating in pairs brought the result expected by the coach.

1968 Olympics

An unexpected injury to Tatyana Zhuk prevented the couple from entering the ice at the European and World Championships in 1967. But the ambitious goal of the couple and the coach - winning the Olympic Games - did not leave them, and they were not going to give up. By the time the Olympic Games were held, the sports duet was in good physical shape and had a well-prepared program.

At the Olympic Games and the World Championships, the couple showed a wonderful result - silver medals were their meritfull return after Tatiana's recovery from injury. But it so happened that the couple stopped performing in amateur sports. Tatyana Zhuk, being married to football player Shesternev, decided to become a mother, and Alexander Gorelik was again unlucky, he was again left without a partner.

And life went on

In his book about figure skating and figure skaters, Stanislav Zhuk wrote about Gorelik as a man of rare talent, who had a broad outlook and looked at life not as a square of an ice rink, to which many gave themselves without a trace. He was interested in music, poetry, theater. He read a lot and liked to communicate with interesting people. That is why Gorelik Alexander Yudaevich found himself in a different field. He began reporting with sports commentator Nikolai Ozerov, he was invited to shoot films. So, in the movie "Blue Ice" he plays the main role - a skater-hotbed. After former figure skating partner Tatyana Zhuk came out of maternity leave, Alexander Gorelik works with her at Circus on Ice.

In 1974 Alexander Gorelik got married. Alexander's son did some figure skating, but did not follow in his father's footsteps. In 1976, Alexander was the coach of the USSR national team at the Olympic Games.

In the autumn of 2012, at the age of 67, Alexander Yudaevich passed away. The memory of him is kept by his friends and grateful fans of his performances in those distant 60s.