Vladimir Bure is one of the legends of Soviet navigation, on the account of which there are four Olympic medals. After leaving sports, he went overseas and worked as a physical training coach at the clubs of the National Hockey League, where his famous sons Valery and Pavel Bure performed.
Biography: early years
Vladimir Valerievich Bure was born on December 4, 1950 in Norilsk. His father was a famous water polo player who successfully played for the Soviet team from 1929 to 1936. Then he was repressed, as he himself said, for a joke about Stalin and exiled to cold Norilsk.
There Valery Bure worked at a local metallurgical plant, and also taught in the swimming section. Vladimir’s mother was a secretary at one of the city’s industrial enterprises, and before her marriage she was known in Norilsk as a talented jazz singer.
In an interview, Vladimir noted that it was his father who taught him everything. He never spoiled his son with compliments. Even if Vladimir showed excellent results in training or competitions, his father always said that he could do better. Thanks to this, he had the motivation to improve further, and not stop there. Later, Vladimir admits that he similarly raised his sons, who became legendary hockey players.
In 1956, Valery Bure was rehabilitated, and the family moved from the harsh Norilsk to his native Moscow. There, Vladimir's father began to actively develop synchronized swimming. He organized a spectacular show in the Luzhniki basin, which was going to half of Moscow. Of course, he introduced his two sons to swimming. The elder brother of Vladimir - Alexei - later concentrated on scuba diving. Soon he became the world champion and European champion.
The first coach of Vladimir was his father. He also studied with Leonid Ilyichev, who subsequently adequately represented the USSR in various competitions. Vladimir specialized in freestyle. Initially, he sailed for long distances, and Leonid - for short ones. However, then he learned to effectively use the physical capabilities of his body, which led to a significant improvement in the results of sprint heats.
Career
The first "serious" performance of Vladimir took place in 1966 at the All-Union Championship. Then he was 16 years old. He sailed third at a distance of 1, 500 m. A year later, Bure was third again, but at a different distance - 400 m. In 1968, Vladimir became the USSR champion in a 1, 500-meter swim. At the same time, he showed a third result at a distance of 200 m.
The heyday of the sports career of Vladimir Bure came in 1971-1975. During this period, he was the undisputed leader of the USSR championship.
In 1968, Vladimir won his first Olympic award - “bronze”. He received it for the relay 4x200 m. At the next Games Bure has already taken as many as three Olympic awards. In his piggy bank there were two "bronzes": at a distance of 100 m and in the relay 4x200 m. And he also won the silver award in the relay 4x100 m.
Vladimir Bure five times set European records in the heats of freestyle. In 1970, he became the champion of the Old World.
In 1974, his father passed away. He began to train under the guidance of an older brother. However, after the death of his father, Vladimir’s career gradually began to decline.
After the Spartakiad-79 Bure, where he took the “silver” in the relay, he decided to leave the big voyage. By that time, he was going through hard times in his personal life. All this left an imprint on his sports career.
In the same year, Vladimir began coaching at the club CSKA. In parallel, he tried himself in sports journalism. So, he took notes at Moskovsky Komsomolets, conducted programs on Mayak radio station, commented on various swimming tournaments on television, including competitions at the Moscow Olympics-80.
In the mid-80s, his services on television were refused. This was due to the revealed details of his personal life. They refused to accept Vladimir into the party when they found out about his daughter, born out of wedlock. The non-partisan man in those days was tight, he was not expected anywhere. And Bure decided to go to the States. At first, he was an agent of his sons, who settled well in the NHL clubs.
In 2010, Vladimir returned to Russia at the invitation of a longtime friend Vyacheslav Fetisov. He became vice president of the hockey club CSKA. At this post, Bure worked for two years.
In 2015, Vladimir became a physical training coach for the hockey team of Belarus. After a stroke, he left this post.