Olympic medallist from London 2012, five-time world champion, eight-time European champion, rower Alexey Korovashkov, after 12 years of suspensions and non-admissions, is once again racing towards an Olympic medal.
“Let him row, he’s smart.”
Alexey Korovashkov’s sports career was shaped by a wild childhood, which he recalls with admiration:
“My childhood was very dangerous! There was so much! They capsized in the boat, they drowned, wherever they went when they were children, they threw salt at us, they picked nuts with a club, they fell on me. One day I was going to training, I was watching the fishermen and I fell off a cliff, breaking my leg,” the athlete laughs.
Alexey couldn’t sit still in class. He says that every page of his elementary school diary was covered with the teacher’s red pen.
Alexei Korovashkov
Photo by: RIA Novosti
“I was drawn to the first coach, who was a physics teacher at our school, and in the evenings he trained the children on the Dniester. He always invited me there. He even came to his mother’s house: ‘Give him a paddle, I see he has good skills, he’s smart.’”
“Mom always had the final say and agreed. She said: ‘Well, you’ll go for a week. If you don’t like it, you’ll leave.’ And this week has been going on for ten years already, I wonder when it will end (laughs),” Korovashkov said in 2014.
Then Evgeny Logvin, Alexey’s first coach, paved the way for the boy to go in for sports.
First blow: the McLaren report
Alexey’s career developed rapidly. Already at the age of 14, Korovashkov established himself in the Russian youth team and within three years he reached the level of the senior team, where he teamed up with Ilya Pervukhin.
In the double canoe, the boys began to take medal after medal, and already in 2012 they made their debut at the London Olympics. The start of the 1000m race did not go well for 20-year-old Korovashkov and 21-year-old Pervukhin, but they still won bronze medals for the country.
Alexey Korovashkov and Ilya Pervukhin
Photo by: RIA Novosti
After the Olympics, the athletes continued to perform together at long distances, and at shorter distances, Korovashkov was paired with Ivan Shtyl.
During the Olympic cycle between London and Rio, Alexey won titles. As one of the leaders of the Russian team, the 24-year-old athlete was preparing for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. But he was not destined to go there.
According to McLaren’s report, the International Canoe Federation suspended Alexey from the Games without giving reasons or providing evidence. Instead of him, Pervukhin was paired with Ilya Shtokalov at the Olympics. Our double canoe raced to the top of the rankings and finished in fifth place.
This is painful to watch:
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Second strike: “I didn’t dope”
Before Korovashkov could recover from his suspension, a new scandal broke out. In August 2017, during an out-of-competition test, erythropoietin was detected in his doping sample. The athlete insisted on opening the “B” sample, but it only confirmed the result. Alexey was disqualified for four years. This meant that the next Games would be held without him.
“I didn’t dope and I was sure of my innocence until the last moment. When I found out that I had failed the doping test, I immediately started studying materials about this drug. I found out that it was for those who stayed, but I was a 200-meter sprinter… I have no idea how a drug that I didn’t need at all got into my body,” Alexey explained, confused.
Alexei Korovashkov
Photo by: RIA Novosti
After his disqualification, Korovashkov decided not to return to the big sport. Two consecutive suspensions were a hard blow.
“In general, without the Olympics I am not ready to seriously engage in sports. These Games were everything for me,” Alexey said a year after his disqualification.
But Korovashkov still couldn’t live without a canoe. In August 2021, just after his term of office ended, the restless athlete returned.
“It was very difficult to come back, I had to work hard. From now on I will only win. When you win against strong opponents, it makes you happy, because you can also get good results at international tournaments,” Korovashkov said after winning his first tournament.
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“We are giving hope, there are possibilities”
Alexey teamed up with Ivan Shtyl again and went to the European qualifying tournament to get a ticket to the long-awaited Olympic Games. The guys did everything right, winning the 500m swim. It would seem that the Games are already in their pocket, but again this is not the case. This time the IOC did not refuse Korovashkov and issued him an invitation, but Shtyl was not allowed to enter Paris.
What should Alexey, who planned to compete only in a two-person canoe, do? Join Zakhar Petrov, who was admitted to the Games! There is another problem: the guys row on one side. However, they had time to train before the Olympics.
“I won’t use big words yet. Happiness loves silence, as they say. We are preparing, training, getting used to it, because rowing on one side… This is something new. It’s too early to talk about anything. But we give hope, there are possibilities. We are just at the beginning of our journey, give us a couple more weeks,” Korovashkov said.
We expect such progress from the boys:
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And now, 12 years later, Alexey is competing at the Olympics again and has already qualified for the semi-finals of swimming. How much it cost him, only the athlete himself knows. The best description of his path was given by Dmitry Guberniev: “Korovashkov has a very difficult sporting destiny. Alexey is a very experienced athlete. He has long been familiar with the taste of victories and awards. I wish him to develop all his best qualities at the Olympics.”
