The name of Arnold Schwarzenegger is forever inscribed in the history of bodybuilding: he did everything to popularize bodybuilding and a healthy lifestyle, becoming an icon of a harmonious physique for many decades. But would the "iron Arnie" become what he is if it were not for the Russian weightlifting legend Yuri Vlasov?
Arnold Schwarzenegger said that the episode when the record holder Yuri Vlasov - the strongest man on planet Earth - shook his hand at the championship in Vienna, forever engraved in his youthful memory.
The strongest man on the planet
American weightlifting coach Bob Hoffman wrote the following lines about Yuri Vlasov: “… You were born to help a Man know himself. Believe that we all have an infinite supply of strength. That each of us is capable of performing miracles. " And Vlasov really had this endless supply of strength: exhausting trainings, to which the future champion came, regardless of his studies, and this, for a minute, the Suvorov School, neither the fever, nor chronic fatigue. "The strongest man on the planet" is a title that Vlasov justifies not only with his records in weightlifting, but also with his life position, attitude to sports.
Moreover, Vlasov did not even think about records and world championships at the beginning of his journey: he simply, like many, admired the American Paul Anderson, who amazed the world with his strength, setting records unthinkable at that time: 200 kg in the clean and jerk of the barbell and 185.5 kg in bench press, while the USSR records were less than 180 and 160 kg, respectively. But at 24 years old, in 1957, Yuri Vlasov broke Anderson's record, becoming the strongest man on the planet. Three years later, Vlasov performs at the Olympic Games in Rome, which later became known as the "Vlasov Olympics". Intense struggle from 9:00 pm to 3:00 am: set by set in each of the triathlon exercises - snatch, clean and jerk and bench press. Moral fatigue, the total tonnage of the weights being lifted … But the audience bursts into applause: "Yuri, bravissimo!" - there is a world record in disciplines and triathlon - 537.5 kg!Then Vlasov wins "gold" at the championships in Vienna, Stockholm, Budapest, and raises the bar to an unprecedented 580 kg!
Vlasov (center) on the podium at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
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Fatal mistake
“… He combined all the qualities that can be required from an athlete. Strength, harmony, form and, at the same time, friendliness and intelligence, - wrote a journalist from Sweden Torsten Tanger in an article, paying attention to the glasses that Vlasov did not take off even in very difficult approaches. “This multilingual engineer is a perfect human being.” But perfect people, too, sooner or later make mistakes …
This happened to Vlasov at the games in Tokyo, when he lost to his compatriot, another weightlifting legend, Leonid Zhabotinsky. And here Vlasov was taught a huge lesson, although he himself skillfully used psychological tricks to defeat the enemy.
“With all my appearance, I demonstrated that I was giving up the fight for the“gold”, and even reduced the initial weight. Vlasov, feeling himself the master of the platform, rushed to conquer records and … cut himself off,”later commented Zhabotinsky. “I had to push 212.5 kg, Jabotinsky would then have to push 222.5 and he would not have been able to do this, and then I pushed 212.5 many times in training. Why didn't I do that? Because he did not consider Jabotinsky as a rival. Why didn't he? By his behavior behind the scenes. And that was my biggest mistake,”Vlasov confirms the words of his opponent. By the way, Arnold Schwarzenegger successfully applied the principle of psychological attack in his competitive career.
The defeat was a blow to Vlasov. He left big sport. Competitions in Tokyo were held four days after Khrushchev left the post of general secretary of the party. "Two of the strongest men in Russia - Nikita Khrushchev and Yuri Vlasov - fell almost on the same day," one of the Japanese newspapers wrote. Vlasov himself said that he did not sleep from the thought of possible records, which could be set by age, experience and strength, but stopped short: “It's not playing chess or bridge at the World Championship - you pay with your life. I saw how hands stuck into the platform and the bones came out."
But Vlasov's departure was not final, because of financial problems he returned to the platform and in 1967 set his last world record in Moscow, for which he received 850 rubles. In a few years, the body will begin to avenge the exhausting annual training, for all victories and records, but man-strength will cope with colossal problems, this has happened more than once.
Meeting of Schwarzenegger and Vlasov
An interesting incident occurred in 1988, when Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing a Russian policeman, came to Moscow to shoot the film "Red Heat". At a press conference, the actor, the idol of millions, said that, in addition to work, he needed to buy a sable fur coat for his wife and meet his idol. “Vlasov was always by my side. I flew to Moscow with the thought to definitely meet this legendary person,”said Schwarzenegger. And until he met with Vlasov, he did not fly away - he even handed over the tickets for the flight.
The meeting took place in the sports club "Athletics", and Arnold presented his idol with a photograph with the caption on the back "To my idol, with love and bow". And the photographer, who was present at that epoch-making meeting, preserved a photo with Vlasov's autograph and the words that the athlete made his credit for life: "Power is given to a person for good deeds."
Yuri Vlasov and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Author: Natalia Khlystova