Nikolai Andrianov

Nikolai Andrianov, the gymnast who died on March 21 from a degenerative neurological disease aged 58, held the Olympic medal record for men until 2008, when the American swimmer Michael Phelps surpassed him at the Beijing Games.

Nikolai Andrianov competing in 1978 Photo: GETTY

 

From the Munich Olympics in 1972 to the Moscow Olympics in 1980, Andrianov notched up 15 medals for the Soviet Union, seven of them gold.

Nikolai Yefimovich Andrianov was born on October 14 1952 into a poor family in the city of Vladimir. Unruly as a child, he played truant from school, but developed an interest in gymnastics after seeing a boy walking on his hands. Encouraged by a friend, the 12 year-old enrolled in gymnastics classes at the local sports school. He left after a month, but his coach, Nikolai Tolkachov, persuaded him to return.

In 1969, when he was 17, Andrianov joined the USSR’s youth team and, the next year, its senior national team. He was a reserve at the 1970 World Championships, but the following year won six medals at the 1971 European Championships in Madrid, two of them gold.

His first Olympic medal, at Munich, was a gold in the 1972 floor competition (he also took a silver and a bronze). In 1976 he won four golds (in the floor exercises, rings and vault, as well as in the all-around), two silvers and a bronze, becoming the most decorated medallist in the Games that year. On home soil in Moscow in 1980, he won two more golds (in the vault and team competition), two silvers and a bronze.

In the same period Andrianov won 12 world championship medals (four gold and eight silver) and 18 European championship medals (10 gold, six silver, two bronze), with all-round titles in the 1975 European Championships and the 1978 World Championships.

His Olympic record stood until the Beijing Games, at which Michael Phelps won eight medals, taking his overall total to 16.
Despite his dominance in the men’s events, Andrianov — who was a smoker and enjoyed a glass of vodka — never surpassed the achievement of the female Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, who had won 18 medals in the 1956, 1960 and 1964 games.
After retiring following the Moscow Olympics, Andrianov served as head coach of the Soviet junior men’s team from 1981 to 1992 and was elected president of the Soviet Gymnastics Federation in 1990.
In 1994 he accepted the invitation of his Japanese former rival Mitsuo Tsukahara to coach in Japan. One of his protégés was Tsukahara’s son, Naoya Tsukahara, who helped Japan win the team gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
In 2002 Andrianov returned to Russia to become director of gymnastics at the sports school at Vladimir, where he had begun his sporting career.
At his peak as a gymnast, Andrianov’s powerful musculature allowed him to perform with impeccable technical and artistic finesse, but in recent years he had developed a rare degenerative neurological disorder called multiple system atrophy. He was unable to move his arms or his legs, and he could not speak.
Nikolai Andrianov is survived by his wife, the former Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Lyubov Burda, whom he married in 1973, and by their two sons.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/8404820/Nikolai-Andrianov.html