Ivanova Lidia Gavrilovna - a famous domestic athlete, who then became a gymnastics coach. In 1960 she received the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.
Athlete Biography
Ivanova Lidia Gavrilovna was born in Moscow. She was born in 1937. In her youth, she began to engage in children's and youth sports school located in the Kirovsky district of the capital. The first coach of the future Olympic champion was Boris Dankevich.
She continued her professional sports career in the Petrel, the Oilman and Dynamo metropolitan societies. In 1955, 18-year-old Ivanova Lidia Gavrilovna begins to work with the Honored Coach of the USSR Alexei Alexandrov, who at that time worked in the sports society Dynamo. Soon after, she was honored with being included in the national team of the Soviet Union.
In 1958, Ivanova Lidia Gavrilovna became the absolute champion of the USSR in gymnastics. The end of the 50s was her finest hour. She became the silver medalist of the USSR Championship in floor exercises, the bronze medalist in the all-around and vault. In team competitions, she repeatedly won gold awards.
First Olympiad
Ivanova Lidia Gavrilovna is a famous Soviet athlete. In 1956, she went to the first Olympic Games of her career. It is noteworthy that they took place immediately in two cities located in different parts of the world. In Australian Melbourne and Swedish Stockholm. The heroine of our article at that time was only 19 years old.
Benefit gymnasts Ivanova Lydia Gavrilovna accounted for team competition. In addition to Ivanova, the USSR national team at that Olympiad was represented by Tamara Manina, Sofia Muratova, Polina Astakhova, Lyudmila Egorova and the legendary Larisa Latynina. It is noteworthy that the heroine of our article at that time was still not married, therefore she bore the maiden name Kalinin.
The team of Soviet girls won a landslide victory by winning gold medals. The heroine of our article also distinguished herself in group performances. She also won a bronze medal in group floor exercises with the subject.
Personal life
Olympic champion Lidia Ivanova arranged her life in 1959. She married the famous football player Valentin Ivanov. By the way, at the 1956 Olympics, he also distinguished himself by winning gold medals.
It was the finest hour of the USSR football team. The team gathered the strongest players in the country - Lev Yashin, Eduard Streltsov, Igor Netto, Nikita Simonyan, Boris Kuznetsov. After 4 years, almost the same composition, they will win the first ever European Football Championship in 1960, which took place in France.
Ivanov's success at the Olympics
At the Olympics in Melbourne, 16 teams were supposed to participate, but many at the last moment refused to speak for various reasons. The Soviet football team in the 1/8 finals met with the United German team. At the very beginning of the match, Isaev opened the score, and literally five minutes before the final whistle, Streltsov doubled him. In the end, the guests were able to play one ball, but at the end of the meeting this did not affect. Victory of the USSR 2: 1.
In the quarter finals, the rival of the Soviet players was the national team of Indonesia, which fell into this stage of the competition because Vietnam refused to participate. The USSR national team did not have serious difficulties with the Asian team. Already in the first half, goals were scored by Salnikov, Valentin Ivanov and Net, and in the second half of the meeting Salnikov scored twice.
In the semifinal confrontation, the USSR team met with Bulgaria, who defeated the British at an earlier stage with an indecent score of 6: 1. The main time did not reveal the winner of the meeting. And the beginning of the extra 30 minutes turned out to be discouraging for the Soviet players - Kolev struck Lev Yashin. The real savior of the team was Eduard Streltsov, who equalized at 112 minutes, and a few minutes later Tatushin scored the second goal. USSR in the final.
The decisive match turned out to be about as stubborn as the game with the Bulgarians. Yugoslav football players turned out to be a tough nut to crack. The only goal at the very beginning of the second half was scored by Anatoly Ilyin. The USSR team became the gold medalist of the Olympic Games.
That Olympics was generally successful for Soviet athletes. It is noteworthy that both Valentin Ivanov and Lidia Kalinina contributed to the common piggy bank. They only got married three years after the Olympics.
In the team event, the USSR team won first place, winning 37 gold, 29 silver and 32 bronze awards. The Americans who became the second fell behind by five awards of the highest standard, and if you evaluate the total number of medals, then the Americans have 74 against 98 of the USSR team.
Olympics in Rome
In 1960, gymnast Lidia Gavrilovna Ivanova-Kalinina went to the second Olympics in her career. This time to Rome.
At these competitions, the heroine of our article again won gold in the women's all-around in the team event. Together with her, the honor of the country was defended by Larisa Latynina, Sofya Muratova, Tamara Lyukhina, Margarita Nikolaeva and Polina Astakhova.
At that Olympics, the USSR team was again the first in the team event. In the piggy bank of Soviet athletes were 43 gold, 29 silver and 31 bronze medals. The Americans again became the second. But this time they lagged even more significantly. The US team had only 34 gold medals and only 32 medals less.
Ending a sports career
Vivid sports biography of Lidia Ivanova lasted only until 1964. Having been seriously injured, she was forced to leave professional sports.
The heroine of our article decided to become a coach. Already in 1970, she headed the youth team of the USSR, having worked in this post for 10 whole years. Then she received the certificate of a judge of the international category.
Over the years, she was considered one of the most insightful and reputable referees in the world. She has judged many important competitions, including the Olympic Games. In 1972, in Munich, in 1976 in Montreal, in 1980 in Moscow, in 1984 in Los Angeles (where the Soviet team did not go, but highly professional Soviet referees took pleasure), in 1988 in Seoul and in 1992 in Barcelona.
Having finished her sports career, Ivanova took up education. In 1973 she received a diploma from the Institute of Physical Culture in the specialty "trainer-teacher". In 1977, the trainer Lidia Gavrilovna Ivanova became the Honored in the RSFSR, and two years later - in the USSR.
After 1982, she was exclusively engaged in the selection of gymnasts for the Soviet, and later the Russian team. Developed advanced training methods for athletes. In 1992, she acted as a coach for the United Team at the Games in Barcelona.
Nowadays
Even now, at 80, the biography of Ivanova Lydia Gavrilovna is very saturated. In recent years, she has been working as a commentator on television. For example, she conducted a series of fascinating live coverage of the London Olympics in 2012 and the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.
Stories from the life of gymnast Lydia Ivanova
When the heroine of our article became a TV presenter, journalists again showed interest in her figure. She began to appear frequently on the pages of newspapers and magazines, to give interviews. Of course, many were interested in the story of her meeting with her husband, the famous football player Valentin Ivanov, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 76.
Contrary to popular belief, they did not meet at the Olympics in Melbourne. In fact, this happened in Tashkent when the pre-Olympic training camp took place.
TV presenter Lidia Gavrilovna Ivanova (she devoted almost all her life to gymnastics) recalls that when she first saw her future husband, she was sitting on a bench with the other gymnasts. At that time they were very young and inexperienced girls, and then football players appeared in front of them. Many of them at that time were real stars. Then a friend told her to meet someone, having suspected Valya.
This coincidence was the first, but not the only one in their life together. Therefore, they were almost sure that they were brought together not only by love, but also by fate.
Travel to Australia
Footballers and gymnasts flew to the Olympics on different flights. In addition, the female and male parts of the Olympic village were separated by barbed wire. And if a free man reigned on a man, then a woman was more like a monastery.
According to the recollections of the athletes themselves, by the end of the competition they were so exhausted that there was simply no strength for anything. There were many temptations around that struck a Soviet man, Ivanova recalls. For example, bananas that none of them have ever tried.
One evening, the women's gymnastics team still got into the male part of the village at a disco. There Lydia again met Valya, who invited her to a dance.
An interesting fact: the athletes returned home for several months. They sailed on the ship. At the same time, the players took the money from the gymnasts, saying that they do not need them. And they themselves will spend them on the right thing. It is clear what kind of business this is, Ivanova always recalled with a laugh.
Death of Valentin Ivanov
Valentin Ivanov passed away in 2011. Together with Lydia, they lived a long and happy life. This is noted by everyone who knew their family. They had two sons. One of them became a famous football referee. They also raised their daughter Olga, who became a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater.
Even a year after the death of her husband, Lidia Gavrilovna was very worried about the loss. At the London Olympics, she joked a lot and joked on the air, but when the break came, she plunged into much thought.
Ivanova herself admits that after the death of her husband, she never watched football.
Commentator work
As a commentator, Lidia Ivanova deserves conflicting reviews. Some idolize her, seeing her as the Olympic champion of past years, who knows in detail about gymnastics. Others criticize for superficial judgments.
Do not forget that Ivanova was not only a brilliant athlete, but also a judge. At that time, her authority was so high that no one in the world could afford to offend our athletes, condemning them. The situation at the Olympics with Alexei Nemov was simply unacceptable.
For example, Ivanova defended the right of Elena Davydova to become the absolute champion of the Moscow Olympics at a closed referee meeting, although many opponents were against it.
