Leonid Yakovlevich Arkayev biography
Leonid Yakovlevich Arkayev, (born June 3, 1940, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Russian gymnastics coach whose athletes dominated the game. From 1980 to 2004 his Olympic groups received greater than 80 medals, together with 37 gold.
Arkayev was the youngest of three kids; his father died in 1943 whereas serving in World War II. In 1954, helped by the sister of Olympic champion Yekaterina Kalinchuk, Arkayev was admitted to the gymnastics part of the Stroyitel (“builder”) sport society. He was named grasp of sport of the U.S.S.R. in 1958 and from 1959 to 1969 was a member of the nationwide group. Interested in coaching, he turned a coach for the Soviet group following its disastrous exhibiting on the 1972 world championships in Ljubljana, Yugos. (now in Slovenia). Arkayev, who finally turned the top coach, restructured the nation’s gymnastic program, utilizing Japan, then the world chief within the sport, as a mannequin. In specific, he pressured continuity in coaching, permitting a gymnast’s authentic coach to stay concerned within the athlete’s growth after his or her choice to the nationwide group. In 1975 the nation’s elite gymnasts started coaching on the Krugloye Ozero Sport Base, working towards two to 3 occasions a day, six days every week.
Though Arkayev by no means competed on the Olympic stage, it was there that his athletes shone, not solely dominating the game but in addition offering historic performances. At the 1980 Games in Moscow, which had been boycotted by the U.S. and Japan, amongst others, Aleksandr Dityatin turned each the primary athlete to win eight medals in a single Olympics and the primary male gymnast to obtain an ideal rating of 10. Moreover, the Soviet group captured a complete of 9 gold medals. After boycotting the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, the Soviets competed within the 1988 Seoul Games, successful 19 medals, 11 of which had been gold. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Unified Team was fashioned, consisting of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Georgia. At the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Vitaly Sherbo received six gold medals in essentially the most profitable gymnastics efficiency in Olympic historical past. In addition, the ladies received the group competitors, their third successive victory within the occasion. At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Arkayev led the Russian males to one more group gold. Moreover, Russia’s sturdy gymnastic efficiency—eight medals, together with the ladies’s group silver—got here amid the departure of former stars who had gone on to compete for his or her respective homelands within the wake of the Soviet Union breakup.
At the 2000 Games in Sydney, the Russian group received 15 medals, 5 of which had been gold. However, after a poor exhibiting on the 2004 Olympics in Athens—Russian males did not medal, and the ladies received solely 3 medals—Arkayev was pressured out as head of the Russian group. He cowrote Gymnastics: How to Create Champions (2004).