Vladimir Kuts got his start in professional sports at a late age and purely by chance, but soon became the best runner in the USSR. The talented athlete brought the country many prestigious international awards, but he ended his career ahead of schedule. The athlete could not find himself after leaving the sport.
Failures in his personal life and pressure from the government brought Vladimir to a terrible end.
war and sports
Vladimir’s sports career began thanks to military service. In 1943, 16-year-old Kuts was called up to the front in the ranks of artillerymen. To go there, he gave himself two years. After the end of the war, the runner was sent to the location of the Baltic Fleet, where he rose to the rank of foreman and head of the artillery crew.
Photo source: RIA Novosti
In the late 1940s, he was asked to fill in for an ailing fighter in Army cross-country meets. Kuts agreed and won without any preparation. He became interested in racing and began to participate in several starts, where he won one victory after another. The self-taught athlete attracted the attention of coaches in 1951 at a training camp in Sochi. The first talented athlete was noticed by Leonid Khomenkov, who introduced Vladimir to Grigory Nikiforov, one of the coaches of the USSR national team.
From that moment on, Vladimir began to take an active part in all-Union competitions. The main episode in the runner’s career was the 1956 Games in Melbourne. Three years after the start of professional training, Kuts became an Olympic champion and one of the most successful athletes in the Soviet team. His incredible run against Britain’s Gordon Peary has gone down in history forever. Thanks to a brilliant tactical plan, Vladimir managed to overtake one of the best riders of that time.
Photo source: RIA Novosti
A few days later, almost all the Soviet leaders persuaded the exhausted runner to take part in the 5000-meter race. He was promised a large pension and other material benefits. Kutz agreed…and again won in amazing style. From the beginning, he stayed away from the group and did not allow anyone to get close to him. The whole world, after a brilliant career, discussed only the Soviet athlete.
tragic return
The famous runner’s weakness was alcohol. When the Soviet team was returning from Australia on a ship, Vladimir spent the entire trip in a binge. From that moment on, his career went into decline. Injuries acquired during the Olympic Games also affected: the athlete was found to have increased capillary permeability in the legs. With such a diagnosis, running is contraindicated.
All these factors angered the head coach of the national team Nikiforov, who was already a real dictator:
– Imagine my surprise when I found straight brandy… in a “tea” glass. I had to drink, sipping slowly and not grimacing. But Nikiforov then noticed that we were a little numb, and he was furious. I decided that I was cheating on my younger comrade. He even wrote a memo about me, in which he told the management that I was a bad influence on Kuts, – Vladimir’s teammate recalled in an interview with Viperson.
Photo source: RIA Novosti
For several years, the athlete tried to continue his career, but to no avail. With new complications, Vladimir could not show good results. The last outings were held for him in Rome in 1959.
Kuts moved to the status of a coach – CSKA invited him to this position. However, the new job did not bring him satisfaction. The athlete’s position was aggravated by failures on the love front. Vladimir divorced her first wife, with whom he was passionately in love, until the end of his days he could not forget her and kept in touch with her ex-wife, although later he married a second time.
Photo source: RIA Novosti
Before the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, the runner tried to resume his career and even began to prepare for the tournament. The organizers of the Games sent a personal invitation to the Soviet athlete, but the Sports Committee refused to give Kutsu a second chance. Vladimir’s dream turned out to be unattainable, for him it was a terrible blow.
Three years later, Kutz was unexpectedly found dead in his own home. Before his death, he took sleeping pills and washed them down with alcohol; the accident was very similar to suicide, although it turned out to be impossible to prove this version. Together with Vladimir, his protégé Sergei Skripka lived in the apartment. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop it in time.
