“It seemed to everyone that his power would be enough for a whole century”: the coach Zagorulko, who brought up four Olympic champions, died

On the night of April 3, the honored coach of the USSR and Russia, one of the most titled specialists in high jumps, Yevgeny Zagorulko, died.

He was 78 years old.

He died in hospital, where he was in serious condition with stomach cancer and coronavirus infection.

During his coaching career, Zagorulko raised four Olympic champions and four world champions.

In addition to two adult children, he has a four-year-old daughter.

On the eve of Zagorulko's serious health problems, it became known from the words of his former student, the gold medalist of the 2008 Games, Andrei Silnov, when he announced a fundraiser for the coach's treatment.

“The situation in which my coach and the coach of many champions found themselves ... Evgeny Petrovich Zagorulko is very difficult.

The diagnosis is disappointing: oncology plus COVID-19.

He is now in the hospital.

The condition is very serious.

If he receives calls, this will create a tense, annoying situation for him.

Thank you for understanding.

I would like to ask you for support in any amount.

His family will now need it very much, ”the athlete wrote.

In a conversation with RT, Silnov said that Zagorulko had been ill with oncology for a long time, but heart problems or coronavirus infection prevented him from completing the full course of treatment.

Because of this, it was not possible to achieve improvements in his condition.

“The problem with oncology has arisen a long time ago.

Evgeny Petrovich intended to undergo an operation to remove the tumor, and even money was found - it was given by football coach Leonid Slutsky.

But it turned out that the heart condition does not allow this operation.

Therefore, treatment was started in a cardiological clinic in order to first put in order the general condition of the body.

Everything seemed to be going well, and a month ago Zagorulko was diagnosed with COVID-19, although when he was in the hospital, all tests were negative.

One of the serious problems was that oncology continued to develop, metastases began, and we did not immediately succeed in finding an oncology clinic that would accept patients with covid.

As a result, Evgeny Petrovich was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, but it was no longer possible to achieve improvement: fluid began to accumulate in the lungs, and every day the condition only worsened, ”the athlete said.

Acting President of the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) Irina Privalova noted such qualities of Zagorulko as kindness and professionalism.

According to her, he was always ready to help any athlete achieve results.

“This is a great loss both for Russian athletics and for me personally.

I have known him since 1983, he always helped me with advice, you could turn to him on any question.

He never had a division into his own and others' athletes, for him everyone had his own.

Maybe because of this kindness, he had problems lately, - TASS quotes Privalova.

- We will all remember him.

He did not have time to convey all his experience. "

Zagorulko began his coaching career in 1967, and in 1983 his pupils Gennady Avdeenko and Tamara Bykova became the first world high jump champions at a tournament in Helsinki.

In 1988, Avdeenko won gold at the Olympic Games, and Bykova took third place.

In the 2000s, Zagorulko's students won three more victories at the Games.

In Sydney, two-time world vice-champion Elena Yelesina achieved this, eight years later in Beijing - Andrei Silnov, and in London - Anna Chicherova, who had won the world championship a year before.

In 1999, Vyacheslav Voronin, who studied with Zagorulko, also became the world champion.

The last known student of the coach was Danil Lysenko, who won silver at the 2017 World Championship.

A doping scandal was associated with his name, which cost Zagorulko work.

In 2019, he was recognized as an accomplice of a high-profile case of forging Lysenko's medical certificate and was temporarily suspended from coaching.

According to Chicherova, this case could undermine the health of a specialist.

“We didn’t talk very often, but now I don’t even want to remember any roughness in the relationship - all the grievances have faded into the background.

Evgeny Petrovich was ill, although few people knew that he had oncology, and when he contracted the coronavirus, everything started spinning very quickly.

Absolutely all sores, all concomitant diseases worsened, although it seemed to all of us that the coach's power would be enough for a whole century.

Recently, he was deprived of the opportunity to engage in coaching.

Perhaps this also affected, "Chicherova told RT.

Recall that Zagorulko was accused of appealing to the head of the Athletics Federation of the Moscow Region, Artur Karamyan, with a request to forge a certificate that would help avoid disqualification for three missed doping tests, and delivered it to the athlete.

The coach himself claimed that this idea belonged to the then leadership of the ARAF.

According to the former head coach of the Russian national athletics team Valery Kulichenko, Zagorulko did not want to participate in the collusion from the very beginning and was substituted by its other participants.

“As I was once persecuted, so he was. Yuri Borzakovsky (the head coach of the Russian national athletics team. -

) framed him, the head coach Anton Nazarov framed him, Elena Ikonnikova (the former anti-doping coordinator of the ARAF -

), who was in charge of this case, also framed him. They did not tell him anything, they did not inform about any of their own actions. And he told me personally that there is nothing wrong with Lysenko being suspended for a year or two. Let him serve a disqualification, and in the time remaining before the Olympic Games, he will still have time to prepare him. They began to calm him down, they say, we will make a certificate, everything will be in order. They did ... In a polyclinic that does not exist, without any entry in the journals. A bunch of bloody amateurs. Sorry for Zhenya to tears. I would have lived and lived. In our last conversation, he said: "If only I could raise my daughter, put her on her feet, she is only four years old." I also told him: "Do not worry, Zhen, you will live ...", - Kulichenko told RT.