In the Moscow region, the Krasnogorsk region is known as a center for winter sports. The first mention of cross-country skiing in our country dates back to the wartime, when in February 1943, regional individual and team skier competitions and a star ski relay were held in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Red Army. And to this day our region is known for the competitions of the strongest cross-country skiers - the Krasnogorsk Ski Track, which has been held since 1971.

These ski competitions gained even more popularity when the famous “Utrobinskaya track” appeared, consisting of constant ascents and descents. Today, probably, neither in Moscow nor in the Krasnogorsk region there is not a single avid skier who has not at least once traveled along this route, created by the hands of the Honored Master of Sports Ivan Stepanovich Utrobin, popularly called “Ivan’s Circle”.

He is also a bronze medalist at the World Championship (Poland, 1962), winner of a bronze medal at the IX Winter Olympics (Austria, 1964), 14-time champion of the USSR, winner and prize-winner of international competitions.
“I ran the first stage, and we were already greeted as Olympic champions, but at the last moment everything changed... Of course, it was very disappointing that we only took bronze when we confidently went for a well-deserved victory,” Ivan Stepanovich recalls about the difficult struggle at the Olympic Games .

...Ivan Utrobin was born in the village of Orlovka, Chelny district of the Republic of Tatarstan. Since childhood, he worked on the collective farm along with adults. At school he was very fond of physical education, and in 1954 he started skiing. He achieved his first serious sporting results in 1958, when he worked at the Tomsk Military Plant: he fulfilled the standards of a master of sports in bicycle racing and cross-country skiing, won the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the RSFSR and was included in the national team.
- That is, in four years, as they say, “with earflaps” I got into the national team. “With earflaps,” because at first I ran in competitions wearing a hat with earflaps. And in 1966 they gave him an Honored Master of Sports,” recalls I. Utrobin.

All his victories and achievements are the merit of the athlete himself. Ivan Utrobin never had his own coach.
– I started and finished training on my own, I gave myself as much load as I could, combining training with physical work.
He gave himself the most difficult loads - he skated on roller skates and roller skis not on asphalt, but on the ground, which is much harder. Sometimes I even got to competitions under my own power.
– Once we started in Ukraine, and the place of this very start was 1800 km. I set myself a task and reached it in 7 days,” says I. Utrobin.

The first ski race in Krasnogorsk, in which Ivan Stepanovich took part, took place in 1959 in the area of ​​the Otradnoe sanatorium. The route ran mostly on flat terrain, without descents or ascents, without any difficulties. In general, it was not interesting.
Then I found time free from training and competitions, went on an excursion around the area, through its forests and discovered “beautiful” ravines along the Banka and Sinichka rivers.

This probably became the determining factor for his move to Krasnogorsk in 1960. And he immediately set about preparing the ski slope. There was a lot of work - complex, requiring a lot of effort and time.
“But,” says Ivan Stepanovich, “I’ve never been afraid of work, and besides, we haven’t yet noticed that the eyes are afraid, but the hands do the work.”

He outlined a circle 15 km long, cleared the forest, trying to leave the “fertile” trees intact, uprooted stumps and roots along the entire distance, built bridges and bridges across ravines, sometimes dug the ground for 10 hours straight - this is how he also trained his muscles .

There are a huge number of responses and articles on the Internet about the Krasnogorsk ski track, the Utrobinskaya track, and Ivan’s Circle.
About the World Amateur Cross-Country Championships in 2005: “In my opinion, Krasnogorsk did not lose to Europe in any respect: fast registration, a brand new ski stadium, comfortable locker rooms, TRAILS (!!!) - all “5 points” . The track is perfectly flat, 8 meters wide, with a clearly cut ski track along the edge. After all, we can, when we do it with understanding, love and responsibility, and the money goes to its intended purpose! Thanks to the organizers!”

Spring ski festival “Rosavtobank”, Krasnogorsk, March 2007: “Thanks to everyone who prepared and held this race in the most difficult weather conditions - I. Utrobin, Krasnogorsk district administration, “Rosavtobank”, A. Kulakov. The race turned out great! A well-groomed track, a calm start from two “pockets”, instant protocols, awards and a very good atmosphere. Well done!”

Final of the Duathlon-Trophy ski competition - classic ski race of the Honored Master of Sports Ivan Utrobin, Krasnogorsk, March 2009: “Everything was super! Utrobin confirmed his brand. The ski track was excellent, the laps were not easy, but not boring either. Thank you very much!"

Probably, such gratitude speaks better than any other words about a person’s deeds. There are a lot of them; not only one, but two, three, or even four newspaper pages are not enough to print them all.

When I started cross-country skiing, my main training track was the ski track in the Bitsa recreation area, which was closest to my home, and I first visited the legendary Krasnogorsk only in 2003, when I ran my first marathon in my life, Rozhdestvensky. - then, however, reduced to 30 kilometers due to frost. However, when it came to Krasnogorsk, from my ski comrades I heard mainly not about the circle on which I had a chance to run this “thirty”, but about another one - Utrobinsky - so difficult that it took 40 minutes to ride it on the “ten” was considered a good result. Then I learned that it was actually made by hand by one and only person - Ivan Utrobin, and in the magazine “Skiing” I once came across a phrase from the famous coach Alexander Alekseevich Grushin, who said that he had seen a lot of good ski circles both in Russia and in the world, but I have never seen a track in which so much manual human labor was invested as on the Utrobinsky circle in Krasnogorsk.

Then I myself had the opportunity to work on this circuit, when our university coach Sergei Ivanovich Doronenkov took us out to help prepare the track for the World Veterans Championship. I remember how emotions overwhelmed me when I came to ski on this ski track prepared by a retrack during the World Championships among veterans, how long it took me to climb the long climbs of the “all-Union”, how I flew from the slopes on a specially wide-cut ski track. By the way, I sincerely believed that such wide ski tracks on the slopes were made on all tracks where major competitions were held, and I was very surprised to learn that this was also the know-how of Ivan Stepanovich Utrobin. That same Utrobin, a medalist at the Olympic Games and the World Ski Championships, a man whom all ski people respectfully call a great worker and who will turn 80 next year.

The magazine “Skiing” could not ignore this event - we met with Ivan Stepanovich on the eve of the anniversary.

YOUTH

- Please tell me where you are from?

I was born in 1934 in Tataria. My village of Orlovka is now a suburb of Naberezhnye Chelny, and the famous KamAZ automobile plant is located there. There, in Orlovka, I spent my entire childhood, the war and post-war years. My childhood, of course, was difficult - there was war, I had to work all the time, and my working experience began, one might say, at the age of five, when my father took me with him to field work. They reaped, mowed down on horses, harnessed one in front and two behind, and so he put me on the front goose horse, and she, feeling that someone was sitting on her, walked forward.

This was before the war, and when it started, my father was drafted into the army, and I also began working with my brother. And already at the age of 12-13 I independently worked on the mower, on the reaper, and I myself put the same goose kid on the front horse. I had to work a lot: plowing, harrowing, herding horses and cows - but this, of course, was in the summer, and in the winter I, like all my peers, went to school. I had to run a lot, which later, perhaps, helped me in sports. So I finished 8th grade and went to Perm, to a vocational school.

- Who were your parents?

They were collective farmers. My father is a rural machine operator and worked with all agricultural machinery.

- How did you get acquainted with skiing?

In Perm, I studied at a vocational school for two years, and there I decided to join the ski section, but they didn’t take me because I was short. However, at the competition, without practicing, I beat their entire team. "How so?" - they ask. “It’s possible,” I answer. When we were children, we used to run races with horses. You graze horses - there’s nothing to do there. Sometimes you oversleep and the horse runs away. Sometimes they ran ten kilometers into the fields: by the time you find it, by the time you catch it, you’ll be running...

- Did you also have to ski as a child?

No skiing. After all, no one had them. Of course, some semblance of skis was made by breaking off boards from a herring barrel and nailing straps to them. But we mostly rode them from the mountains, jumped, whoever could go further. As a child, I had no idea about ski competitions.

- And after vocational school, where did you end up?

I went to Tomsk to work, they sent me to a closed enterprise that manufactured military products. I didn’t do anything there for two years, and then I was once asked to ride behind our mechanical workshop at a cycling competition. And when I was a child, I rode a big bicycle, stuck my right leg into the side of the frame and just kept turning the pedals - so I decided that I could handle it now. In general, I again beat everyone: both our “mechanic” and the workshop - and after that they began to attract me to competitions, including skiing. It was 1954. At that time, no one really had skis: ordinary work boots, semi-rigid bindings - and off we went. But success came to me again immediately, and in 1955 I already began to engage in training - although mainly with a bicycle. We had two more athletes at our plant: an engineer and a mechanic from Moscow, who graduated from the Institute. Bauman and ended up at the distribution plant. They offered to train me, and at first we raced on road bikes, and then they gave us racing bikes. And already in 1956 I went to compete at the Russian Championship.

Tell us how you did cycling in those years, when there wasn’t even asphalt on the roads?

What kind of coverage is there?! Only cobblestones and crushed stone! In Tomsk we had the Moscow Highway: an ordinary clay road sprinkled with gravel. My grandfather also told me that when he served in the army, they walked along this route for five years (then they served for 25 years) to the Far East. That’s how we trained, traveling 300 kilometers from Tomsk to Novosibirsk. We left on Saturday afternoon, because back then there was only one day off - Sunday. We spent the night, and the next day - back. So we drove 600 kilometers over the weekend. In Russia, of course, I didn’t perform well. I had a track bike, converted for a road bike, and it was shaking so much that by the finish line, as they say, everyone was brainwashed. And I didn’t have much experience: they pushed me to the side of the road, and I only got there sixth. At the Championship of Siberia and the Far East I was already a prize-winner, and in the same 1956 I competed at the same Championship in athletics. He competed at three distances: 400, 800 and 1500 meters - and ran practically in the first category. Summer ended, winter came, and it was necessary to compete on skis...

- Were you the one who spoke for the plant all the time?

I don’t ride a bike, I’ve already ridden for the regional team. And in skiing, my first competitions in 1956 were held here in Yakhroma. The championship of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, that is, of trade unions, was held. Everyone fled except the army men: Kuzin, Kolchin, Anikin, and Shelyukhin - in general, that whole galaxy. Five hundred people ran, and I, starting at the very end, took about 250th place, positioned in the middle. Kuzin then won, and Anikin was second. I remember the climbs were steep, the ski tracks were crumbling, we were waiting for each other, like in a marathon. This was my first acquaintance with the ski stars.

In the summer of 1957, I continued to compete for the regional team in cycling and athletics, and, of course, participated in city competitions. I even started going to training camps with the team. We mostly went south, to Kazakhstan.

- How did they look at your sports activities at work?

They were released from work during training camps. But we left for a short time: for a week or two. I was lucky that we had a very good plant director, Gromov, a two-time winner of the Stalin Prize. And then he somehow came into my room in the dorm, and all my walls were marked with letters. And that’s how it was. I loved music very much: I played the accordion and button accordion myself, and at night I recorded different melodies on the radio - so he heard them and came in - that’s how we met. Since then, he always let me go to competitions and training camps, even if the shop manager was against it, the director said: “No, let him go.”

But I was also in good standing at work. After my craft degree, I specialized in “repairman of metal-cutting machines.” Of course, I had to be able to work for them - I had to test it before passing it on. Out of almost 400 graduates, I was the only one who had a fifth grade - they gave it to me as an exception. And in Tomsk, after three months, I was assigned the sixth category. That is, I became a repairman of the highest level.

TEAM

- Did training camp bring even more serious successes?

Yes, at the Siberian and Far East Ski Championships I won two personal races: 15 and 30 kilometers. We also won the relay race as a team from the region. I ran the fourth stage, and my comrades then laughed: “How much should you bring?” “More than five minutes,” I say, “don’t bring it, otherwise I won’t win!” (smiles). True, I didn’t go anywhere that year, and I wasn’t particularly well-known in the country. At the same time, he continued to compete in athletics and cycling, that is, he regularly completed three events in the region. In 1958, our team again won the Championship of Siberia and the Far East, and we got to the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the RSFSR in Sverdlovsk - the largest competition in their entire history. With a competition participant's ID, one could travel for free on any public transport; athletes had many privileges. And there, at this Spartakiad, I was second in the 15-kilometer race and third in the 30-kilometer race, and all the strongest athletes, members of the Union national team, took part in the competition. In the relay, at my fourth stage, I then showed the best time.

After that, I decided to take part in the 25th Festival of the North in Murmansk. There, I was not a prize-winner in personal races, but in the relay race we, the fifth Russian team, managed to take second place, overtaking the first team, where members of the USSR national team ran. At the last stage I again showed the best time, only just missing Kuzin! And I had skis like that! One is 2 meters, the other is 2.05, they didn’t even have a gutter, it’s a pity that they weren’t preserved for history.

Thanks to these results, I was included in the USSR national team, and I went with them to the training camp. My running training was good, and I dealt with almost all the skiers easily. In my ski training I focused on cycling; however, I either won all the tests or was in the prizes. Despite this, before the summer I was removed from the Union team. The fact is that I worked at a closed enterprise, and I was not allowed to travel abroad. There was nothing to do, so I concentrated on the bike. I drove 40 thousand kilometers over the summer, and then I received a letter from the national team. Kamensky changed his mind and in September summoned me to a training camp in Bakuriani. I just had to go to the Union Cycling Championship, but I figured that there was no chance for me there anyway - I knew the guys, my main rivals, well. And I went to Bakuriani. “How much did you run over the summer?” - they ask. “I ran 200 kilometers,” I answer (smiles). At the first controls I was second, third, fourth, and when we returned, I took part in the traditional cross-country skiers on Planernaya. At that time, along with skiers, the strongest track and field athletes and marathon runners took part there. They ran for 15 kilometers, and when they ran the first 7.5-kilometer lap, I told them: “Of course, whatever you want, I’m in a hurry, I need to hurry,” and ran away. So for these remaining 7.5 kilometers I beat everyone by two and a half minutes. The climbs were very steep, but for me after cycling they were not difficult. I used to ride up to 25 kilometers as a “dancer” without sitting in the saddle, so my legs were very pumped up.

In 1959, I came fourth at the Union Championship in the 30-kilometer race, and at the Festival of the North I took second and third places. In 1960, the national team was preparing for the Olympics in the American Squaw Valley, and I may not have been number one, but I definitely qualified for the team, but again I was not allowed to leave, and the team left for the Games, and I stayed at home. At the USSR Championships, which took place after the Olympics, I was not even included in the strongest group, where our Olympians ran, they gave me number two hundred. Even then, the ski track was not prepared very well, and when 200 people ran along it, can you imagine what was left of it?! Nevertheless, I won the 30-kilometer race, 58 seconds ahead of my closest pursuer. Moreover, the belt on my stick broke, and Kuzin gave me his. I was running with 132 cm poles then, but here I had to walk almost 15 kilometers with a 145 cm pole. When I finished, there was no one in the stadium: neither athletes, nor correspondents - of course, who would wait for number two hundred?! It was only the next morning that representatives of the press came to my hotel.

At the end of the season, I was again included in the national team to prepare for the World Championships in Zakopane, Poland in 1962. Since Tomsk did not allow me to leave, I quit there and moved here to Krasnogorsk. I was here back in 1958, when the Central Council of Labor was held in Krasnogorsk. I immediately liked this place: near Moscow, excellent terrain formed by steep slopes of ravines. But then the distance was made flat, with one big climb at the beginning. As soon as I moved, they immediately gave me an apartment here, and before that they also offered to run for Dynamo, they gave me an apartment in Moscow, where Vedenin later lived. But then I decided that there was no point in living there, because I would still have to go to Krasnogorsk to train.

Also, after moving, I started preparing a training track here. At first I had a circle of 11 kilometers, then more. At the same time, he entered Malakhovka, a coaching school, where he studied for two years. There was a funny incident: I couldn’t pass the technical events: shot, javelin, and so on - and one of the teachers didn’t want to give me a test without it. And with my height, pushing a cannonball eight and a half meters - can you imagine what the trajectory should be?! Then I tell him: “Let me run one and a half thousand in the first category - then will you give me a test?” For him, of course, it was wild, because in his athletics group, at most, people ran in the second category. And he, of course, didn’t believe it - how is it possible for a skier to run in the first category? I remember a lot of fans gathered to watch me run: teachers came, students. But I didn’t even have spikes; my roommate, a member of the USSR marathon team, Ogryzkov, gave me one. The weather was still like this: it was raining, there were puddles - and so as not to spoil other people’s spikes, I ran around all these puddles, and the result showed about 3:50 (now this result corresponds to the KMS level. - Note ed.). I then ran the ten mark around the stadium in 30 minutes, 800 meters in 1:49. In general, I had the data, the engine, as they say, was working.
In 1961, I was given permission to leave without any problems, and I immediately traveled to all the Scandinavian countries. Also this year, test competitions took place before the World Championships in Poland, where I took fifth place in the individual race, and also won the relay race as part of the national team. In 1962, at the World Championships, I was fifteenth in the 15 km race, seventh in the “thirty”. He ran in the first stage of the relay and won it, and the team ultimately took third place. That same year I won two races at the Kavgolov Games, took second place at the Lahtin Games, was sixth in the 50 km at Holmenkollen, and fourth in the race at the Falun Games, and we also took second place in the relay there. But the Scandinavians were in the lead in skiing back then. In Falun, the famous Ernberg, the king of skiing, decided to start with me from the first stage. The struggle was colossal! At these competitions, the Swedes had Rode ointment for the first time, and they then ran all the races on red liquid Rode ointment, and it was simply impossible to fight with them. Fortunately, the ambassador in Sweden came to root for us, and, having learned about our problems, he called our ambassador in Italy, his friend, so that he would also urgently send us ointment. And indeed, they brought us ointment, but the weather changed, and we flew over with the lubricant again.

Later I continued to participate in international competitions. Then there was no World Cup, but just international competitions: in Kavgolovo, Lahti, Holmenkollen, Falun. And at these starts I was in the top ten in almost all races. It’s a pity that there was no general classification, because then I could have won. But since it didn’t happen, then why talk about it now? Naturally, after the World Cup we began preparations for the Olympic Games, which were held in Innsbruck, Austria in 1964.

- How did you prepare in general, who did you train with?

I never had a coach, I prepared myself all the time and, perhaps, that’s where I got burned - there was no one to stand up for me... And I didn’t need an assistant for training, I was well versed in this matter myself.
- Have you read special literature?
- I haven't read anything. I trained as I felt. I started the season more calmly, but then it got better and better, both in speed and in volume. I generally trained at these speeds: on average I ran 15-16 km/h. When I made myself a circuit, I first ran it for a while, in about 55-56 minutes, and trained a minute or two weaker. It used to be that I would run four laps of 15 kilometers each, and would still get out within an hour. And the 15-kilometer circle here was a very serious track.

- And how often did you do such 60 km training sessions?

60 not very often, about once a month. Mostly I ran 30-40 kilometers, that is, a lot. I never trained much. The volume was healthy!

- How long did you run like that?

Crosses of 3,000 - 4,000 km turned out. But I not only ran cross-country, I also had a bike three times a week. Even in the national team, when we were training, I only went to those training sessions that I considered necessary, I did the rest, but I tried not to interfere with anyone. When I was studying in Malakhovka, I trained on a bicycle with the Union cycling team. I remember the following people went to Kurkino: Kapitonov, Melikhov, Saikhudzhin, Petrov, Cherepovich. And so they took me with them to train, I sometimes came forward, tugged, but mostly I also tried not to interfere, I understood that they had their own specific job...

- Let's get back to preparing for the Olympics...

I then won two races at the qualifying starts and asked to skip 50 kilometers to recover. But no, they forced me to run, they said that I, a marathon runner, could not miss a long race. I had to run, I took second place there, but at the Olympic Games I immediately realized that that was it. My fighting weight was 65 kilograms, and then another 5 kilograms fell off from this weight, and during long training sessions my muscles began to cramp. I ran the first race, I was 12th, but I immediately said that I wouldn’t run 50 km, because there was simply no point. I began to prepare for the relay race, which I started from the first stage. I ran my segment normally, passed it to the group of leaders, we were there in seconds: first, second and third. The Swedes then came first in the end, the Finns came second, and we came third. We could have won, but Kolchin was running at the last stage, and he, as we said then, was a jock. The baton was passed to him with a margin of 37 seconds. Everyone was already congratulating me, but he lost those 37 seconds three kilometers away. Then, it seemed, he worked hard, came along with his rivals, but lost to them at the finish line. But in this relay race, a tricky situation happened to me. To make it more convenient for us to start, the start was moved 700 meters away, and because of this, so that the distance would not be longer, the steepest climb on the route was removed. I didn’t know this before the start, and I kept waiting for it so that I could deal with my rivals. We drove up, and I saw that the arrow was pointing past him. The distance went on so playfully, and I couldn’t do anything, but if there had been this rise, I would, of course, have pulled away, because I knew all the starters very well, since at the competitions they always put the same ones in the first stage. They didn’t even run the race, they just started the relay from the first stage. But we worked hard then, of course, despite the fact that the distance was not difficult. To hell, as they say. They finished simply insane. True, they are falling now, but I believe that in any case you can find the strength within yourself and not fall. Moreover, now such a ski track is good, tough, you can do whatever you want on it: wash your face and change clothes (smiles).

The Olympics are over, and we began to prepare for the next one. The selection for it took place in Vorokhta, in Western Ukraine - the Union championship was played out. I was second and eighth there, but they didn’t take me to the Games. I didn’t have a coach, there was no one to stand up for me. More precisely, they took me, but they didn’t tell me to run away as a tourist. It turns out that for one Olympics I was not allowed to travel abroad, but for the other I became old. And in my place they took young Dolganov from Omsk, whose coach Viktor Dmitrievich Baranov worked in the Union team. We came back from the Olympics - and I didn’t train there at all, I just went to cheer for our guys in all sports, but at the USSR Championship in Otepää I again beat all the Olympians by one wicket. He won all the distances, only we were second in the relay.

KRASNOGORSK

- Please tell us how your famous ski slopes appeared in Krasnogorsk? What happened here before you?

Before me, there was nothing here. There was one plain. Since 1961, I started digging all these slopes here, and somewhere I had to cut them down. At first, of course, the track was a bit narrow, but previously it was not necessary to be wide for the classics. My first lap was 11 kilometers, then I increased its length to 15 kilometers. But I took up the track closely when I had to finish the sport.
After the 1968 Grenoble Olympics, thanks to my success at the USSR Championship, I was left on the national team, and I began to train independently in my homeland, in Naberezhnye Chelny. And there, during cycling training, I was hit by a car. I was shot down halfway between Chelny and Zainsk, the homeland of Fyodor Simashev. The driver of Zaporozhets was simply dead drunk, and he broke everything on me: my legs, my arms - in general, everything. After that, I still tried to run, but my closest place was ninth at the Union championship. Every year it became more and more difficult, despite the fact that I had the desire. My leg practically stopped bending, I had to run on tiptoes, and in 1974 I decided that it was time to stop torturing myself and those around me, and stopped training.

- What happened to the person who hit you?

Nothing happened to him. What will you take from him? I didn’t even bother to sue or get dressed up... It’s also good that a regular bus was passing by, saw how it hit me, and picked me up. And if it weren’t for the bus, I don’t even know how it all would have ended. I was driving along the edge of the road, and a car hit me in the calf muscle, and my legs were secured with toe clips. The spikes were made of duralumin - three flew out, but the fourth remained, and my leg did not come off, which is why I was broken. I had a good bicycle, a French CMS, intended but not suitable for one of the members of our cycling team. I still have it intact, only there are no wheels on it. He let me down and I did a somersault and fell onto the side of the road. I broke four ribs near my spine. I was lucky, apparently, that the bump lay that way, but if I had broken my spine, I wouldn’t have survived.

I spent more than three months in the hospital. From Zainsk I was transported by plane to Kazan, and then to Moscow, to the first physical education clinic on Kurskaya. There I walked on crutches for 15 kilometers, spinning a bicycle ergometer, and as soon as the cast was removed, I immediately sat on such a bicycle. In the fall, I stood in the snow for 15 days and then went to the competition in Apatity. There then the famous Ivan Garanin won, and I was sixth. During the forced downtime, I pumped up my arms very much; I could complete any race without ointment on just my arms. While I was in the dispensary, we competed with a circus performer to see who could lift the dumbbell the most times. At that time I only had one arm without a cast, and I used it to lift it. At first he lifted it 300 times, then I lifted it 500, and when I was discharged, I had already lifted it 1000 times.

In general, my strength training has always been at the level. I remember at the factory there were 120-kilogram cylinders on the shoulder - and I dragged them up the stairs. It’s a pity we didn’t skate then, because that move would have worked great for me. But then there was no place, and when the skiing allowed, I skated. For example, I won my last 70 km by skating half the distance. There, a ski track was prepared with a bulldozer, and the dumps were six meters high - there was room to push off. And on the descents I rolled down on the edges.

In 1974, plastic had already appeared. That year I was already preparing the track for the Krasnogorskaya Ski Track, and I competed a little. A week before Krasnogorka, Russia was held there, and I ran the tag in about 42 minutes. And Belyaev, who won the Krasnogorsk Ski Track, ran the same distance in 38 minutes. The speed was about 90 km/h! There was a colossal descent, and after it the climb was also huge, so due to the speed he gained, he flew to the middle of this climb! Now, they say, the preparation has become better, they run faster, but why do they run fast? Because of the tracks, because of the equipment. Now put them on wooden skis, spread liquid ointment along the entire length and see what they show. Here the preparation required is completely different. Now fifty kopecks run out of two hours, but I won the Union championship - I barely ran out of three. Can you imagine how much more I worked to the limit? For an hour! He now walked 50 and fell, and I had to work in the same mode for another hour!

- When you stopped running, what did you start doing?

I tried to work as a coach, but there was no material base at all. I had guys, and as long as I had ointments and equipment left, I gave them, but little by little the supplies began to deplete. I fed them before training, because my salary was 200 rubles, and they had 80, and some had families more. During training, I set the pace for them myself, and even though I was actually running on one leg, the pace for them was still prohibitive. Until I was 50, I beat them the way I wanted. But working as a coach requires traveling to training camps, and even before that I lived in hostels and hotels for 20 years. Family life did not work out because of this, and I had to separate from my wife. So I quit coaching and became a school director, but it turned out that it wasn’t my thing either - fiddling with papers. Then I decided to focus only on preparing the tracks. I invented a device for preparing myself - at that time it was like a retractor. Platform 1.05 m wide, engine, cutter at the back. I cut the track in one pass. Then the Buran appeared, they started cooking on it, and my retractor is still standing here. It would be a pity to disassemble it for scrap metal.

- And how did this “retractor” of yours work?

Very simple. He loosened the snow with special spikes, and I, holding on to him, skied on soft snow and left the track. On the descent I kept my legs wider, on the ascent - narrower. Then he began to attach the cutter to it. The engine on it was weak, from a disabled woman. Cruising speed - 5 km/h. So I drove 15 kilometers for three hours, but in one go the ski track was ready. In icy conditions, however, we had to drive several times to break the ice properly.

- They say they filed a case against you for cutting down trees on the highway...

Yes, this happened back in those Soviet times. I paid a fine of 12 thousand. At that time, this was much stricter than now. It’s good that then the sports committee allocated money for this; I had something to pay.

- Why has your legendary track fallen into disrepair now?

You see, now a 15-kilometer lap is not needed for racing, and there is no money to prepare it just for someone to train. Previously, it was all factory stuff, the factory provided money and gasoline. And when that stopped, I stopped preparing the track. It was easier for me to come to an agreement with the plant; everyone there was familiar to me. And now they only ask questions: who will you cook for, and how will you explain to them?

From my own experience I will say that ski slopes in Krasnogorsk are in great demand. Even on weekdays there are a lot of people riding in the forest.

Yes, indeed a lot. It was in the 90s, when all this devastation began, that there was a slight lull. And before that, the plant constantly held some kind of competitions; there was Health Day, when one of the workshops went out on the ski track. Every Friday I had to do the distance for the competition, but now they hold the factory championship once a year, and that’s it. On February 23, there was a run from Nefedyevo (a village 15 km from Krasnogorsk, where the Memorial to those killed in the Second World War is located - Ed.), which attracted 800 people! They also prepared a ski track. It was a colossal amount of work, but it was all organized by the plant.

- Do you have any hope that your circles will now be restored?

No, none of this will happen anymore. There are no more people like me and there never will be. After all, I worked on a circle for 10 hours. When I was on the Union team, according to my plan, I had two days of general physical training. So these days I was digging a distance, chopping - imagine how much earth I dragged!

- But they prepared new loops for the World Championship among veterans...

Yes, but again, I selected everything. Planning a route is not so easy either. Before I laid those loops, I walked there a lot: both on foot and on skis. There, the farthest point in a straight line is only 3 km from the stadium, but it was necessary to cover 15 kilometers! I did everything alone, and had to redo a lot, especially when plastic appeared and speeds became much higher. I made one and a half meter counterslopes, almost like on a track.

- What about in Bitsa? After all, they maintain a 25-kilometer circle there...

Well, that means the funding and organization are different.

- Does the city really have no money to prepare the route? After all, we don’t live in a poor country, we trade oil...

So we bargained! I went through all the hardships with my country: the war, the difficult post-war years... Now they say that they were oppressed then. I will say this: “Whoever worked was not oppressed!” After all, I was never an October student, nor a pioneer, nor was I a member of the party. I didn’t need this, because I did the kind of work that no communist would have been entrusted with. And there was money for the tracks. And now it is presented in such a way that it was bad then. We're still doing well, so far Rasskazov * works, but what happens after it? One “Krasnogorsk ski track” costs so much, it’s terrible! Such means! It’s good that at least here the leadership is meeting us halfway. Markov (director of the sports school - editor's note) is given at least some money for training - and that's bread...

* “L.S.”: Boris Egorovich Rasskazov is the head of the Krasnogorsk district of the Moscow region.

- Doesn’t your soul hurt that your route is disappearing?

It hurts, of course, but I’ve already come to terms with it. They always ask me why I don’t do it, but I won’t go and skate all this at my own expense? And in order to prepare 15 kilometers, I need to sit on the Buran for 5-6 hours.

- Now there is a retractor at the stadium, it shouldn’t be cold in it.

Yes, the retractor won’t fit there. For it to pass, the route needs to be widened, but cutting down one tree requires so much effort. Here, near the stadium, one oak tree was bothering us: it was all dried out and gnarled, and they were barely allowed to cut it down. Although now the forest is all rotten, in the past they at least cleaned it. When I came here, I did this myself and also earned money from it. The underbrush was cut down, the dead wood was pulled out, and then it was all burned. Still, I had to work. You won’t do the same gymnastics for five hours, no matter what your desire. But you can work, but you have to work in such a way that sweat flows from your forehead! There are, of course, progress, some are working on the track, but there are only a few of them, such as Sasha Kulakov, Sergei Kondratkov. It’s good that now they will at least dig somewhere, mow somewhere, but they will leave, and there is no change in sight for them.

- So now there are employees at the stadium whose duties should include this...

Now we are walking, mowing down the “five”. And before, I first mowed 15 kilometers in one direction, and then in the opposite direction. 30 kilometers at a time. It’s difficult to go through so much with a scythe, but I mowed. Undergrowth too: aspen, hazel, elderberry, raspberry - not just grass. I’ve been mowing since I was six years old, when my father made me a special small braid. And I made a braid for my daughter at the age of five - she also walked here and mowed it.

- Have you heard about plans to build a shooting range at the ski stadium?

I heard that biathlete guys came and watched something here. But for this purpose our stadium is located incorrectly. I immediately told them that it should be built not as it stands now, but along the road where the finishing climb is now located. Firstly, the building would reliably protect the starting town from the winds, and secondly, it would be possible to build a shooting range directly opposite the stands. And now either the targets will not be visible from the stands, or the shooting range should be located opposite residential buildings...

Why do you think fans used to stand like a wall at the Krasnogorsk Ski Track, but now there is no trace of that?

Previously, at “Krasnogorka” there was a lively corridor not only to the forest, but even in the forest there was no crowd! There was such a descent, it was called a helicopter, there people flew 10 meters in the air, the boys ran there specifically to watch. And when all this perestroika began, children’s sports were suppressed, and everyone fled... It’s a pity, of course.

ABOUT MODERNRACING

- What do you think about current ski racing? Are you following?

Yes, I’m somehow not interested anymore. Everyone goes in a group, who will make it to the finish line. This is not all for me.

- Will ours be able to win medals in Sochi?

Hard to tell. Only sprinters can. I really like them: both the way they walk and the way they work tactically - head on! Here at Krasnogorka I kept a close eye on them. By the way, here we have one of the best tracks for sprinting, since the finish comes after an ascent, and not after a descent, as is often the case on other tracks. Here, when the inspectors from FIS arrived, they told me that the sprint circuit is our most important highlight.

Eh, of course, if the World Cup were held here, everything would be completely different. But then the height difference was not enough - six meters in total. Then, of course, we created the necessary lift, but it was too late, Rybinsk intercepted the stage.

- How did you create this rise?

When they were building the stadium and the surrounding houses, I negotiated with the builders, and they transported the earth from the foundation pit here. This was beneficial for them - they didn’t have to travel far, and they helped me. First we made the ascent, and then the descent here, to the bridge.

A LITTLE ABOUT PERSONAL

- Is your wife a skier?

Yes, she and I were on the Union team together. I even made ointments for her, and then she won the Union championship with them. Previously, there were recipes, so I went to the chemical laboratory at the plant, and they gave me all the components there. But this is not an easy matter, you need to strictly maintain the temperature regime, because the melting points of the components are different. While one will already burn, the other will not melt yet.

- You are a grandfather now. Do you manage to babysit your grandson? Do you have enough time?

No, time is short. Yes, there is someone there to babysit without me.

- Will he be a skier?

That's how it goes. I made a small circle for my first daughter. I’ll go to the tag myself, and she’ll be spinning here. As I got older, I started taking it with me. She walked up the climbs on her own, and on the descents I stood her between my legs and carried her so that she wouldn’t fall. It’s the same with my second daughter Tatyana. When she was 10 years old, she beat 15-year-olds, then she performed well in marathons, passed everything, won and was a prize-winner of many major marathons included in the Worldloppet series. My endurance was passed on to her.

Krasnogorsk, April 2013

The editors thank you for your help
in organizing an interview with Yu.S. Pochestnev

FROM THE AUTHOR

Almost 10 years have passed since I first skied along the Utrobinsky circle. During this time, he managed to get married, have children and move to live from Moscow to... Krasnogorsk. In the summer and fall, I go to the Circle several times a week to run a cross-country race or do an imitation. However, when the snow falls, I say goodbye to it until next spring. The fact is that in recent years this circle has ceased to be prepared in winter: only its first and last kilometers are used. However, all the clearings are intact, and if desired, it could be rolled, having first removed a dozen or two fallen trees. But will this desire appear among those who are responsible for the functioning of the Krasnogorsk ski stadium and the preparation of the ski tracks? It seems that the 2 kilometers that are wound around the new stadium are quite enough for them, and, having held the Krasnogorsk Ski Track once a year and the marathon once a year, which, by the way, bears the name of Ivan Utrobin, they consider it their task to prepare the tracks completed. But, you know, for some reason I am sure that sooner or later we throughout the country in general and in Krasnogorsk in particular will come to the conclusion that there will be many ski slopes in the forest, that they will be constantly prepared by retracks, that they will have different due to the complexity of the terrain, we will come to everything that has already existed in Europe and the rest of the world for a long time. And then our Krasnogorsk will become one of the best ski centers in the country, because through the efforts of Ivan Utrobin in the distant 60s and 70s of the last century, everything necessary for this has already been done. And the famous Utrobinsky circle will become a semantic center, a pearl among dozens or perhaps even hundreds of kilometers of Krasnogorsk ski tracks - it will become the best gift that a person like Ivan Stepanovich Utrobin can give to subsequent generations.

Ivan Stepanovich Utrobin - Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, bronze medalist of the Games of the IX Winter Olympics in 1964 (Innsbruck, Austria), bronze medalist of the 1962 World Championship (Zakopane, Poland), twelve-time champion of the USSR at distances from 15 to 70 kilometers and in the relay race , member of the USSR national ski team 1959-1970. Having achieved the highest results in cross-country skiing, Utrobin also fulfilled the standards of a master of sports in cycling and athletics.
Ivan Utrobin was born on March 10, 1934 in the village of Orlovka, Chelny district. While studying here at a seven-year school, I was passionate about sports, standing out among my peers for my hard work and results.

After completing seven years of school, Ivan studied at a vocational school in Perm, then worked as a mechanic in Tomsk. There, at the age of 21, he began to seriously engage in skiing and cycling.

Training on his own, he soon fulfilled the standards of a master of sports in cycling and cross-country skiing, and in the late fifties he became a prize-winner at the Winter Spartakiad of the Peoples of the RSFSR. The results achieved opened the way for Utrobin to the 1960 Olympic Games in the USA, but work at a secret military plant prevented this. For the opportunity to travel to international competitions, Ivan Stepanovich changed his job and moved to live in Krasnogorsk, Moscow region. Here, for his training, he personally prepared a special track, which he personally improved year after year. Nowadays Ivanov Circle is considered one of the best ski slopes in the country.

He began creating his famous ski slopes more than 40 years ago. A large number of international and all-Russian skiing competitions have been and are currently being held on these slopes. More than one generation of Russian skiers grew up on the Utrobinsk slopes, including “stars” of the highest level - Nikolai Zimyatov, Galina Kulakova, Raisa Smetanina, Elena Valbe and Larisa Lazutina. A few years ago, a modern ski stadium was built on these slopes.

The following Winter Olympic Games in Innsburg (1964) brought the Outstanding Skier a bronze medal in the 4 x 10 km relay, where he finished his leg first. By the 1968 Winter Olympics, Utrobin was still in excellent shape, but was not included in the Olympic team due to his supposedly great age. The native of Orlovka proved the sports officials wrong by subsequently winning three gold medals at the USSR Championship.
In 1968, while training on a bicycle in the Zainsk region, he was hit by a car, and the athlete had to deal with the consequences of injuries for a long time. Upon recovery, he began training again, but in 1972 he stopped competing.

Andrey Batashev

Business card Bronze medalist in the relay at the 1962 World Ski Championships in Zakopane.
Bronze medalist in the relay at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck.
12-time champion of the USSR at distances of 15 km (1966), 30 km (1960, 1962, 1965), 50 km (1961, 1963, 1965, 1966) and 70 km (1965, 1967, 1968), as well as in the 4x10 relay race km (1962).
Awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the Krasnogorsk District.”

Is it possible to become one of the best racers in the world if you only took up skiing at the age of 21, if you never had a coach, and if the homemade skis you skied as a child could hardly be called skis? It would seem that such a question can only be answered with the immortal phrase of one of Chekhov’s heroes: “This cannot be, because this can never be.” However, the person to whom it was addressed gave a completely different answer, having made an unimaginable sports career...

He was born in 1934 in the village of Orlovka, not far from the city of Naberezhnye Chelny, where no one had ever thought of great victories.

So what brought you to the road leading to big-time sports? And when did you first feel its attraction? - I asked Ivan Stepanovich Utrobin, hoping to hear at least a hint of his childhood sports hobbies. But he started talking about something completely different.

“I only remember the good things,” said Ivan Stepanovich, “although I also had to go through bad things.” We had a large family: parents, grandparents and five children (I’m the youngest). There were two cows and a horse. And when dispossession began, one cow was taken away. I remembered this, although I was very small. We, like everyone else, went to the collective farm. I also worked with my father from the age of four, although only in the summer. They mow, for example, on three horses, he puts me on the horse that goes in front, and by driving it I earn my workdays.

And what was good about that?

In those days, life was different, cheerful... In 1937, when the Agricultural Exhibition opened, my father, as a leader, was sent to Moscow as a representative from Tatarstan. They saw him off with the whole village, with an orchestra...

Today, when the film “The Rich Bride” is sometimes shown on television, many say: it’s all made up and faked. But that’s exactly how it was when the first grain was brought to the state. I still remember how I got on the cart, and with me there were two or three girls... Songs, harmonica, celebration...

Did you know how to play the harmonica?

I played all instruments - guitar, accordion, accordion. So, little by little... But mostly on the accordion. I had a good accordion, it was called lame...

In those years, you apparently did not think about becoming an athlete. What were you going to do?

After graduating from eight-year school, I decided to go to Perm and enter a vocational school. My parents let me go without further ado. They only said: “When you finish your craft, you can do something else. You can’t spend your whole life running after horses on a collective farm.”... Collective farmers did not have passports. But before leaving I was given a passport.

In the crafts I received a specialty as a metal-cutting machine repairman. And when I graduated from college two years later, I, one of the four hundred who studied there, was assigned, as an exception, the fifth grade (for everyone else, the highest grade was fourth).

Why were you singled out among everyone?

Probably because I went through a good industrial school back in Orlovka: I knew how to forge and mechanic, I could make any part.

What preceded your sporting successes? How did you get into physical shape?

I didn't do any special exercises. I just worked all my life. Since childhood, he has tended all the collective farm animals: ducks and geese, cows and horses. I ran after them a lot...

I read that your height prevented you from taking up sports at that time. What is yours like? - Now 165 centimeters. And before I was ten centimeters smaller. Because of this, I was not accepted into the ski section. “Where do you want to go skiing?” - the coach told me. “We don’t take such kids.” When, in the year we graduated from college, we took a test in physical education, I, standing on skis in my work boots, beat the entire team of our school.

You probably weighed very little back then...

My racing weight is 65 kilograms. He is still the same.

Herring barrels and his first skis...

Where did you learn to ski so fast? Maybe in a rural school?

No. But I ran a lot, because at work on the collective farm I was always on the move.

I read that as a child you skied on skis made from boards torn from herring barrels...

Well, yes, there were no skis before...

But the boards made from barrels are crooked...

They are arched, but that's okay. Just attach the straps to them and you're good to go.

Where did you get these barrels from?

They brought herring to the village store. And then they threw away these salty barrels: you couldn’t put anything in them... True, later my father made me skis. But I didn’t ride them: I went to Perm...

After college - it was 1955 - I was sent to work at a military plant in Tomsk. It was there, at 21, that I started playing sports: skiing, cycling, and athletics. I ran a marathon for masters. And the rest of the distances - from 400 meters to “ten” - are in the first category. And in cycling competitions of all kinds, he more than once met the standard of a master of sports. But he paid most attention to cross-country skiing. In 1958, I was included in the USSR national team. That same year I took part in the Festival of the Peoples of the North, held in Murmansk. He ran in the relay for the fifth Russian team and showed the best result at his stage. And I also had skis then... The length of one was 2 meters, the length of the other was 2.05. I later ran on the same skis at the Russian championship. There wasn’t even a gutter on them anymore: everything was being demolished...

How did you train when you worked at the factory? Did you have time for this?

We worked four shifts, six hours each. I finished my shift and went to training.

And how many hours did you train?

If by bike, then three, four, or five hours. It also happened that on Saturday (previously the day off was only on Sunday), at two o’clock, after lunch, we went to visit one of our friends who lived in Novosibirsk, three hundred kilometers from Perm. We arrived, spent the night and went back on Sunday. These were the training sessions. I've cycled a lot. I covered up to forty thousand kilometers per season.

What about skiing?

About four thousand. Plus walking and roller skiing...

You have said more than once that you didn’t have a coach...

Why do I need it if, when I started skiing, I immediately beat everyone? I only needed the coach to tell me how long it took me to complete this or that segment, and to give me a drink of water.

“I ran in the first stage of the relay races...”

I never warmed up. I’ll just try to see if the skis are properly lubricated, and then I’ll go to the start. I didn't need a warm-up. I psyched myself up so much that when I went to the start, my forehead was already wet with sweat...

As a child, I raced horses. And I always chose the one that looked calmer than the rest... So she stands and waits for a sign to take off... My horse didn’t like having someone’s head in front of it. I didn’t like it either: already in the first meters I beat everyone and took the track. I didn’t care whether I ran five kilometers or fifty.

How did you master running technique? Did this really work out for you by itself?

Nature itself forced me to walk the way I walked. In Tomsk, where I started training, the snow was like ash: my skis couldn’t slide on it. But I figured out how to deal with it. It was necessary to push the shin forward, that is, to make an overhang, as I call it. Other skiers acted differently: they seemed to sit on their knees, thereby shortening their stride.

Many people didn't like my technique. “You are walking awkwardly,” they told me. “And you can’t push well with your hands.” “Look at my stick,” I answered. - She even bent because I pushed off so hard. And my arm, due to the fact that I worked so hard physically, does not fully extend at the elbow joint, which is why it seems like I’m not pushing well.”

With a saw, a shovel and an ax...

In 1960, you could have made it to the Squaw Valley Olympics if...

If I didn’t work at a military plant and would be traveling.

Why weren’t you taken to the Olympics in Grenoble?

They said I was too old for such competitions. I went to Grenoble as a tourist, and when I returned from there, I won three golds at the USSR Championship, proving that I was still far from sunset.

They say that you were not afraid to enter into conflict with the leaders of the national team, defending your innocence...

Yes, I did this often. Sometimes I even left the training camp if, say, there was no snow and normal conditions for training. “We will kick you out of the team!” - rushed after me. But I returned to Krasnogorsk, where I had moved back in 1959, and, after training here, I won control competitions. After that, all misunderstandings were smoothed out.

One of the main attractions of Krasnogorsk is the 15-kilometer ski slope, or “Ivan’s Circle”...

I made this circle with my own hands using an ax, a shovel and a regular two-handed saw. When I arrived here, there was nothing here at all. I walked through the forest and laid out a route: somewhere you’ll dig up something, somewhere you’ll cut down a tree...

How much time did you spend on this?

About three years. In the Soviet Union national team, three days a week were devoted to general physical training. These days, in the morning or evening, I worked in the forest with an ax and shovel. It is unlikely that anyone will be able to do gymnastics for at least five hours every day. I don't have the patience for this. And in the forest I worked for five, six, and sometimes ten hours... My eyes fill with sweat, and my nervous system rests, because I do what I like. ...It’s scary to think how much earth I turned over. We have a ravine here, very steep. And first it was necessary to lay out a support wall from turf, placing some trees under it, pouring earth and driving stakes. And the excess soil had to not just be dumped into a ravine, but carefully placed...

When leaving for the training camp, I recorded the time it took me to complete my lap, and when I returned, I tested myself again. And the result that I showed was for me a criterion of my athletic form.

“I did a backflip and fell on my back.”

You entered the big sport very quickly and left it even faster - after you got into an accident...

In 1968 I was training on a bicycle in my home country. And some disabled person (later I found out that he had no leg and that he was drunk) on the highway between Naberezhnye Chelny and Zainsk hit me in the leg with his car. The impact cut off three duralumin rivets on the tuplex, but one still remained. I did a backflip and fell on my back. Since he was close to the edge of the road, he collapsed on the side of the road. Broke his arms and legs and four ribs near his spine. If I drove further from the side of the road, I would fall on the asphalt, and then there would be nothing left of me at all: I would end up under that “Zaporozhets”...

I spent three months in hospitals. When the treatment ended, he began training again and in 1969 even took ninth place at the USSR championship. But I couldn’t achieve more. I got worse and worse: my ankle stopped bending altogether, I ran on one leg, and in 1970 I left the USSR national team.

The load on my right leg was such that it was all on fire... In 1974, I ran my last 70 kilometers and called it a day. My left leg still doesn’t bend, so I can’t stand on skis.

However, you are still in the world of skiing...

This is true, since I work in Krasnogorsk as a driver for the preparation of ski slopes. I completely re-equipped my Buran, and now I’m putting a new engine on it, because the old one is already worn out.

Have you tried your hand at coaching?

I tried it. In '75 and '76. At that time I was training with four teenagers from the local sports school. They lived very poorly, but I received decent money - 250 rubles - and could feed them. On the other side of the reservoir I had a little house where I was based, and before running, say, 30 kilometers, I invited these guys there to drink tea and have a snack.

At that time I had skis and ointments. But then my supplies ran out, and I was unable to replenish them: I had no money for food or equipment. That was the end of my coaching career.

"We have no real competition"

What, in your opinion, is hindering Russian skiing today?

In my opinion, we have no organizational or technical problems. The only pity is that there are not so many top-class skiers in Russia, because of this there is no real competition between them. In the USSR national team, the rivalry between riders was much more intense. Among our best skiers, I don’t see a constant leader: first one wins, then another. But now this picture is typical for all “ski” countries.

Which Russian master, in your opinion, is capable of shining in Sochi?

I really hope for sprinters Nikita Kryukov and Alexander Panzhinsky. A couple of years ago they performed at our Krasnogorsk Ski Track, and I awarded them. I think that Alexander Legkov can also reach an Olympic medal.

***
“Ivan’s Circle” - this is how one of the best Russian ski slopes is called today in honor of its creator Ivan Utrobin. Once upon a time, Utrobin amazed everyone with his speed, which, as experts believed, was impossible with his “clumsy” technique. Today, only by driving the Buran, Ivan Utrobin can race as his soul requires... However, even today he can be called the creator of high speeds, because the “Ivan Utrobin Circle”, from year to year, attracts hundreds of different skiers , from experienced professionals to novice amateurs, has long become a powerful accelerator for the entire Russian ski sport.

Andrey BATASHEV

Ivan Utrobin. Five tips for beginners
1. Is it possible to develop your speed qualities or should you be content with what nature has given you? My practice says that these qualities can be improved. And to achieve this, you need to perform accelerations of 100, 200, 300 meters... And not stop after finishing this or that segment, but continue to run at a fairly high speed.

If during the so-called repeated training you need to run a certain distance with acceleration 10 or 20 times, then you should strive to ensure that the last acceleration is the same as the first. If the last time you ran a minute worse than the first time, then such an activity cannot be called productive.

I never accepted training according to this scheme: I ran a certain segment, accelerated, and then stopped. You have to run all the time... And having overcome the climb, there is no need to pause. Otherwise, as it usually happens: the skier went up, and before descending he sat down, as we say, that is, he relaxed and went down without expending any effort. You can't give yourself a break. Everything needs to be done very actively. And to be capable of this, you need to not feel sorry for yourself in training.

During the preparatory season, you need to cover all distances - from 500 to 5000 meters, working at the same pace from start to finish.

2. A skier must devote a lot of time to physical training. And for this it is best to do physical labor in the village.

If you have time for morning exercises, then include stretching exercises in it. You can also go for a run of 3, 4 or 5 kilometers. You need to run at a pace, not a jog.

3. Don't forget to visit the bathhouse at least twice a week. But, of course, not after training (it is advisable to combine this with a massage).

4. I am often asked: “How to choose ski wax?” I am not able to give any universal answer to this question. There is not a single person in the world who could say: lubricate your skis in such and such a way and you will definitely be ahead of all your rivals. I once made my own ointment. And my wife, Nina Shabalina, even once won the USSR championship using my ointment.

It was impossible to find out the secret of making the best ointments in earlier times, since their manufacturers kept their secrets secret. But my skiing friends from Finland, Norway and Sweden sometimes gave me these ointments, and I used them during competitions. Today, various companies offer quite decent ointments, which - after consultation with their trainers - can be used by amateur athletes without any fear.

5. If you have a trainer whom you trust, try to follow his instructions as closely as possible. He should become a close person to you, that is, someone with whom you can be absolutely frank. By training under his guidance, you can even become a master of sports. If, of course, you are attentive and hardworking enough.

Utrobin Ivan Stepanovich.

Ivan Stepanovich Utrobin(March 10, 1934, Orlovka village, Chelninsky district, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, RSFSR, USSR) - Soviet skier, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1966).

Born in the village of Orlovka, Chelny district, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. After graduating from school, he worked as a mechanic in Tomsk at a military plant, and therefore, in 1960, he was not allowed to go to the USA for the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley. To participate in international competitions, Utrobin moves to Krasnogorsk, where he builds and prepares a ski slope near his home with his own efforts.

In 1962 at the World Championships in Zakopane and 1964 at the Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, both times as part of the relay, Utrobin won bronze medals.

By the 1968 Winter Olympics, Utrobin remained in excellent shape, but was not included in the national team due to his age. He proved the officials who made this decision wrong by later winning three gold medals at the USSR Championship.

In 1968, while training on a bicycle, he was hit by a car. After this incident, Ivan Utrobin’s career began to decline and he soon stopped performing.

After finishing his career, Utrobin put a lot of effort into improving and popularizing the Krasnogorsk ski slope. Today, many competitions are held here both among professionals and among lovers of skiing and simply a healthy lifestyle.

Ivan Stepanovich lives and works in Krasnogorsk. You can often still find Ivan Stepanovich on the ski slopes of Krasnogorsk, as a Buran driver.

Every year, since 1985, the traditional Krasnogorsk Marathon is held in Krasnogorsk for the prizes of I. S. Utrobin.

• Bronze medalist in the relay at the 1962 World Ski Championships in Zakopane.
• Bronze medalist in the relay at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck.
• 12-time USSR champion: 15 km (1966), 30 km (1960, 1962, 1965), 50 km (1961, 1963, 1965, 1966), 70 km (1965, 1967, 1968), 4x10 km relay (1962) .

He was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the Krasnogorsk District” with the presentation of the Certificate, Ribbon and Badge “Honorary Citizen of the Krasnogorsk District”, awarded on August 27, 2009 (Decision of the Council of Deputies No. 443/26). Veteran of labour.

• Ivan Stepanovich created one of the most famous tracks in Russia, located in Krasnogorsk, almost entirely with his own hands. Today, the “Eastern European Cross-Country Cup” competition is held annually in Krasnogorsk to identify the country’s strongest athletes. The ski slope in Krasnogorsk claimed to be the site of the World Cup stage, which is now held in Rybinsk. However, “Krasnogorka” lacked several meters in height difference.
• Ivan Stepanovich trained on his own.

Partially used materials from the site http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/