Nikita Kryukov is the only representative of Russian and Soviet skiing who has won more than two world championship medals. What was his sporting path?
Nikita Valerievich Kryukov is a famous Russian skier who has repeatedly won awards, including the highest dignity in competitions of athletes from around the world. Despite his young age, Nikita has an interesting biography; in addition to sports, he is also involved in politics and is a true patriot of his country.
Childhood and youth.
Nikita was born in the city of Dzerzhinsky (Moscow Region) on May 30, 1985. As a child, he was not much different from his peers. Everything changed when Nikita got into the ski school section under the leadership of Yuri Mikhailovich Kaminsky. This coach raised real professionals, 4 of his students were in the Russian team. He still accompanies Nikita in all competitions. At the age of 14, Nikita was in the school of the Olympic reserve. Parents supported their son's sports endeavors, as his mother Svetlana Kryukova herself was an athlete in the past and the owner of the first adult track and field athletics. After school, Nikita graduated from the University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow with the rank of senior police lieutenant, faculty of pedagogy of Moscow State Technical University. Sholokhov.
Sports career.
The professional career of the skier Nikita Kryukov began in 2006 at the World Cup, from that moment he took part in more than 30 stages of the World Cup. He repeatedly won the World Cup stages, won the Russian Championship, including as part of the relay. He achieved the greatest success in such discipline as sprint. In 2007, he won the Russian skiing championship. He was the champion of Russia in 2008 and 2011 in the sprint, the winner of the sprint relay in 2009. The real success came to the athlete in 2010 after a victorious performance in Olympic Vancouver, where he won the gold at the last meters of the distance from his compatriot Alexander Panzhinsky, all other rivals were far behind. Moreover, only the photo finish could determine the winner, which showed that Kryukov was ahead of Panzhinsky by half a shoe. A year later, at the World Championships, Nikita became a bronze medalist in the team sprint.
At the Sochi Olympics in 2014, Nikita was less fortunate. In personal sprint racing, he stumbled to the finish line and lost speed, as a result he dropped out of the fight at the ¼ final stage. In the team sprint, paired with Maxim Vylegzhanin, he could count on the highest place, but the next fall, this time the German athlete at the finish, who had to go round, allowed to take only a silver medal.
In 2013, Nikita Kryukov became two-time world champion, winning both in the individual and team sprints.
To date, Nikita Kryukov is the only man in the history of Soviet and Russian skiing who has won more than two gold medals of the World Cup.
At different times, Kryukov’s coaches, in addition to Yuri Kaminsky Kryukov, who is a senior trainer in sprint disciplines, were Rif Zinnurov and Mikhail Devyatyarov.
In the sports career is always guided by the motto "The impossible is possible."
An interesting fact: Nikita, being a true patriot of Russia, in 2017 was one of the first to refuse to participate in the 2018 Olympics under a neutral flag. Although it was at that time one of the main contenders for gold medals.
Disqualification.
At the end of 2017, Nikita Kryukov became a defendant in a high-profile doping scandal. The IOC for the violation of anti-doping rules deprived him and another part of the Russian athletes of the medals won in Sochi-2014 with a life suspension from participation in subsequent Olympics. In February 2018, the athlete was acquitted by the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the silver medal and the athlete's name were restored.
Last season, Nikita missed due to injury and suspension after a doping scandal. He was not declared in the Russian national ski team for the season 2018/2019. But the decision to end his career as an athlete has not yet been made.
