Category Archive: Sport

In 1927 thirty-five-year-old Alexander Alekhine became the first Russian to win the world chess championship title. He defeated the Cuban grandmaster Jose R. Capablanca, who had held the world title. Alekhine won six games, Capablanca three, and 25 were drawn.
The match was more than a personal victory for Alekhine, it was a triumph for the ideas of the Russian chess school.
“For me chess is not a game but an art,” Alekhine once said. “Yes, I consider chess an art and accept all the responsibilities it lays upon its devotees.”
“Alekhine’s win”, wrote Emanuel Lasker, the eminent German grandmaster who held the world crown longer than anyone (from 1894 to 1921), “is the victory of an inflexible fighter over a mind that shies away from anything obscure. Capablanca aims at precision, using scientific methods. Alekhine is a greater artist, has a more searching mind, and, in principle, such creative work is on a higher level”.
Richard Reti, a Czechoslovak grandmaster, remarked that “in games won by Alekhine, beneath the ice-cold cloak of modern technique, there burnt the bright and passionate flame of searchings for new paths — something quite alien to Capablanca”.
More »

Larisa Latynina was world champion in gymnastics for many years. She was born in December 1934 in Kherson. Her father Semyon Andreevich died in 1943, her mother Pelageya Anisimovna was a cleaner. As a child, Larisa began to study choreography and dreamed of ballet. In the 5th grade, after the club was closed, she began to attend the gymnastics section.
Later she became a member of the national school team of Ukraine. The girl took part in the all-Union championship in Kazan, but performed there unsuccessfully. Her coach Mikhail Sotnichenko helped the young athlete prepare for the next competition and she became a master of sports. At the age of 16, Larisa became the fourth in the adult championship of the republic in Kharkov.
In 1954 Latynina finished school and went to study at the Polytechnic Institute. But a year later she moved to the Kiev Institute of Physical Culture. In 1954, as part of the USSR national team, she took part in the 13th World Championships in Rome and became the first in floor exercise.
More »

On that unfortunate December day in 1984, the life of 17-year-old Frenchwoman Pascale Berkovich hung in the balance. Trying to jump on the departing train, the girl fell under the wheels. Eyewitnesses called an ambulance, and after half an hour Pascale was on the surgical table. Skilled doctors saved her life, but they had to amputate her legs.
The girl had time to think about the terrible tragedy that turned her into a human stump. She thought that if she survived, she could never do her favorite gymnastics. Moreover, she couldn’t go to college anymore. Suddenly the girl realized: everything that she knew so far, what she enjoyed, what she lived for – all that had gone. Merciless steel wheels grinded her legs, turned a healthy flowering girl into a weak invalid. She was horrified to realize that she would spend the rest of her days in a wheelchair. But time passed, and she said to herself: “You must not give up! You must fight for every day, hour, minute. Live with hope and faith!”
The recovery was incredibly difficult for Pascale, but she was strong and brave. In many ways, the move from France to Israel in 1985 helped her. Doctors gave hope. They told her: “You will return to normal life. You will be happy!”
More »

Basketball is one of the few sports in which there is no dispute who is the greatest player of all time. The answer is the same for everyone – Michael Jordan. The words “Jordan” and “basketball” are synonymous. He was an Olympic champion in 1984, 1992, and NBA champion in 1991-1993, 1996-1998.
Michael Jordan was born on February 17, 1963. Little boy often played baseball and basketball with his father and brothers. However, he wasn’t taken to the school basketball team. After a year of hard training the future legend became a part of the school team. Later the young player received an invitation from the university team of North Carolina, where his family moved from Brooklyn. The debut season was great and he became the best NCAA newcomer. He came, he saw, he conquered was Jordan’s motto.
For the next two seasons, the young star was one of the top five stars of the League. And in the summer of 1984 he decided to participate in the NBA draft, which gave the world such stars as Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley. It’s hard to believe now, but Jordan heard his last name only the third in the list of newcomers. The Chicago Bulls representatives got the lucky ticket, not knowing how lucky they were.
More »

James Walter Braddock, also known as Jim Braddock, was an American professional boxer, world heavyweight champion. His nickname was Cinderella Man. Braddock, just like the fairy-tale character Cinderella, went from being a poor person to becoming a rich person – although he didn’t marry the handsome prince.
During the 1930s, Jim Braddock became a champion for the common man, a symbol of the fight against poverty, and a hero for millions of Americans who were trapped in a desperate and helpless situation. Just recently Braddock’s story has been turned into a major film starring Russell Crowe.
When the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Depression started millions and millions of Americans lost their jobs, houses, all their savings. There was no food. The whole life came crashing down.
When the Depression started, people reacted in different ways. Some packed up and headed out west to look for work. Others hung around looking for any part-time work they could pick up. Some signed on for government benefits. And others even committed suicide. Braddock, like many others in the same situation, decided that he would never give up.
More »

Jack Johnson was an American boxer and perhaps the best heavyweight athlete of his generation. He was the first black world champion in 1908-1915 and became infamous for his relationship with white women. From 1902 to 1907, the boxer won more than 50 matches. Johnson’s career was legendary, for 47 years of fighting, he was knocked out only three times, but his life was full of problems. You know, Johnson, while still alive, wasn’t recognized as a champion, and supporters of extremism were constantly looking for “great white hope” to take away his title. They asked heavyweight champion James Jeffrey to fight with Johnson in Reno, Nevada, in 1910. However, their “hope” was defeated in the fifteenth round.
As a boxer, he achieved some of his greatest victories already being close to defeat. Outside the ring, he was attacked by the racists of America, and in response showed his arrogant position and publicly violated racial taboos.
After the end of his boxing career, the great fighter, nicknamed The Galveston Giant, being a cello amateur and violinist, a connoisseur of Harlem nightlife, opened his own Club Deluxe. He died in a car accident near Raleigh, North Carolina, in June 1946.
More »

Alina Zagitova is a Russian figure skater who performs in women’s singles. She is Olympic champion (2018, Pyeongchang County, South Korea) in personal competitions, silver medalist in team competitions, champion of Europe (2018), the Grand Prix winner (2017), World Champion among juniors (2017), champion of Russia (2018), Honored Master of Sports of Russia (2018). In January 2018, she held the 5th place in the rating of the International Skating Union (ISU).
Alina Il’nazovna Zagitova was born on May 18, 2002 in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, Russia. Her father, Ilnaz Zagitov, is a hockey coach. Alina has a younger sister, who is also engaged in figure skating. The girl’s parents named her after the artistic gymnast Alina Kabaeva. Zagitova gave up figure skating for seven times and returned. In her childhood she was fond of drawing.
More »