"Veterans of rhythmic gymnastics". Former FIG head and world sports legend Yuri Titov
Soviet artistic gymnast, USSR Honored Master of Sports, USSR Honored Coach, member of the International Olympic Committee from 1995 to 1997, President of the International Gymnastics Federation from 1976 to 1996, who made a great contribution to the development of rhythmic gymnastics. Thanks to him, it became an Olympic sport.
Yuri Titov was born on November 27, 1935 in Omsk. When the boy was nine, his family moved to Kiev.
Young Yuri liked various sports, and especially liked swimming. However, Yuri’s classmate suggested that they join the school gymnastics club together. The boy was already 14 years old, which, by contemporary standards, is quite late, but this did not stop him from building an impressive career.
Over time, together with coach Evgeniy Yarokhin, they embarked on the path of professional training. Yuri entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and tried to combine his studies as an engineer with training. They did not give a deferment from exams to compete, and in his second year, Titov transferred to the Kiev Institute of Physical Education.
In 1955, Yuri Titov turned out to be one of the best at the USSR championship, the next year he passed the Master of Sports standard and competed at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, where he joined the national team and went to his debut Olympics in 1956 in Melbourne. There he won four medals: team gold, (the USSR team consisted of Viktor Chukarin, Valentin Muratov, Boris Shakhlin, Albert Azaryan, Pavel Stolbov), silver on the horizontal bar, bronze in the vault and overall championship. Titov admitted that he performed on the platform for two: for himself and for the coach, noting the merits of Evgeny Yarokhin.
In total, Yuri Titov had three Olympics in his career: in addition to Melbourne, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964. The gymnast has nine Olympic medals of various denominations. He also performed successfully at the European and World Championships, winning a total of eight gold medals at the continental championship and four at the world championship. In 1966, he finished his sports career.
It is interesting that Titov also went to graduate school, where he tried to generalize his experience and the findings of scientists and practitioners. Among their joint developments with seven-time Olympic champion Viktor Chukarin is a system of twice-daily training.
Soon after leaving sports, Titov began coaching, and also took the position as the head of the gymnastics department of the Committee on Physical Culture and Sports under the USSR Council of Ministers and received the status of an international category judge. And in 1976 he became President of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). He held this position for 20 years.
As one of the most influential sports officials in the world, Yuri Titov helped make rhythmic gymnastics an Olympic sport. It was under him that it was first presented at the Olympics, in 1984 in Los Angeles. Convincing the sports community that rhythmic gymnastics is not dancing, but a real sport, was not easy. And the President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, helped Titov in this.
Subsequently, Yuri Titov also promoted trampolining, which became an Olympic sport in 2000. From 2004 to 2006, Titov was the President of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation.
Photo credit: TASS / Sychev Vladimir