Maxim Samartsev An incredible fate. Most hockey fans know Tatyana Ovechkina only as the mother of the greatest sniper of our time and the captain of Washington, Alexander Ovechkin. However, Tatyana not only gave birth and raised a real legend, but she herself was a unique athlete in the past: Alexandra’s mother is a two-time Olympic champion and one of the best basketball players of her generation. Sport24 tells her story.Life in barracks, accident and leg injuryTatyana Kabaeva (maiden name of our heroine) was born on March 19, 1950. Her father, Nikolai Mikhailovich, worked as a driver. And a mother named Evdokia Yegorovna worked as an ordinary worker in a factory. It is easy to guess that the Kabaev family did not live richly. Tatyana, together with her parents, sister Valentina and brother Mikhail, lived in the Khoroshevsky highway area of Moscow (to modern residents this location is more familiar as the Polezhaevskaya metro station) in a very modest house. Locals called such housing barracks. There were about 50 rooms on one floor of such a building, and only one toilet and one kitchen were provided for all this space. It can be assumed that living in such an environment was very difficult from a moral point of view. But the locals found a way to relax and distract from the surrounding reality for a short time: they built volleyball, basketball and football grounds in the yard on their own. So sports became a stimulus to the life of all the inhabitants of the surroundings. The Kabaev family was no exception. Tatyana’s sister played basketball, her brother was fond of football, and her father regularly played for the football team of the car depot. Looking ahead, it can be noted that the mother of the future Stanley Cup winner always took an example from her sister. This predetermined her whole future life. Tatyana regularly participated in sports competitions with adults and loved constant activity. But one day she had to forget about her favorite backyard games for a long time. On her way to school, as a first grader, she was hit by a car. The accident was so serious that the girl spent the next 8 months in the hospital and underwent several operations on her injured leg. After one of the unsuccessful surgical interventions, the question of a possible amputation of the limb even arose. In the end, the leg of the future Olympic champion was saved. But the consequences of that injury haunted our heroine for the rest of her life: the right leg was noticeably thinner than the left, even despite constant physical exertion. The accident seriously affected the entire family. After the accident, Tatyana’s parents were very worried about her and did everything to prevent any problems with her health in the future. Due to excessive precaution, the girl, who missed outdoor games, spent the whole spring and summer in felt boots – her family was worried that she might catch a cold in her injured leg. But the future basketball player did not always follow the instructions indicated to her: when her parents left for work, she took the ball and threw it at the basketball hoop for hours on end. The turning point in the sports life of Alexander Ovechkin’s mother occurred upon her return to school. Due to a leg injury, she was released from physical education and rhythm lessons, which made young Tatyana very upset. The situation was changed by the rhythm teacher, who invited the student to dance. She tried to explain to the teacher that she was not allowed to put a load on the injured part of her body, but he was adamant. And when the dance turned out, Tatyana realized that physically she was quite healthy. After that, she secretly took slippers to school, went to dance classes once a week and pumped her leg muscles. Tatyana loaded her leg with the help of shopping carts stuffed with stones. And in physical education classes, she hid behind the backs of her classmates and performed physical exercises on an equal basis with everyone else. After this, did she have any other choice but to become a famous basketball player?RIA NovostiDespite the additional classes, the injured leg still occasionally made itself felt. But over time, Tatyana resigned herself and got used to chronic pain and inconvenience. And the medical board, passed shortly after returning to school, allowed her to officially engage in physical education and conduct full-fledged physical activity. Then the girl began to seriously engage in basketball and went to the school “Young Dynamo”.First successes in professional sportsYou already understood that by nature the youngest daughter of Nikolai and Evdokia Kabaev was a real fighter. Therefore, the moment when she achieved success in the chosen sport was only a matter of time. And so it happened – the first notch on Tatyana’s path to the gold of the Olympics was getting into the Moscow team. By that time, the heroine of this text was a talented point guard – the mother of Alexander the Great mastered the skill of an accurate and unexpected pass to perfection. And since her height was 175 cm and was not suitable for fighting under the ring, Tatyana took other qualities: speed, agility, jumping ability, briskness and vision of the site. As part of the USSR youth team, Kabaeva became the European champion, and at the age of 16 she won drew attention in the Dynamo team of masters. An incredible scenario, which a few years before seemed like a pipe fairy tale. After getting into the adult team, it was very difficult for Tatyana – dimensions that were not outstanding for basketball affected. But thanks to her character, will and talent, she managed to carve out a place in the main team of masters and soon became one of the best attacking defenders in the country. It is not surprising that after playing professionally, Kabaeva dominated at the junior level and managed to again adequately perform at the European Youth Championship, but this time in the status of captain and the best point guard of the tournament. And already in 1970, the gifted basketball player received a call to the main USSR national team and won the title for the first time in her adult career, becoming the European champion.From the personal archive of the Ovechkin familyReturn to sports immediately after childbirthIn parallel with her sports career, Tatiana’s personal life also developed. After the debut and at the same time a triumphant tournament as part of the Soviet national team, the star of the Moscow Dynamo married football player Mikhail Ovechkin, taking his last name. Very soon after these events, the first-born of a famous couple named Sergey was born (he passed away in 1995 due to a blood clot that came off while driving). Mikhail was serving in the army at that moment, and Tatyana was trying hard to persuade her to return to the court as soon as possible: three other key players went on maternity leave with her, so the Dynamo coach begged her to go on the most important trip a month after giving birth. And Tatyana Ovechkina would not be herself if she refused this challenge. Together with her, her mother went to the games, who was supposed to help her daughter with her newborn son. Ovechkina’s teammates also supported their leader in a difficult situation: they washed her son’s diapers, Tatyana’s mother walked with him, and the basketball player herself breastfed her first child during the breaks of the match. At the same time, Mikhail did not know about the intrigues of his wife, and when she told him, he was shocked by the love of his soulmate for sports. Over the next 10 years of a wonderful career, the great basketball player has collected a collection of awards that has no analogues in women’s basketball. The mother of the great athlete won 2 Olympics, 5 European Championships and 1 World Championship.coaching careerTatyana Ovechkina received a coaching education during her playing career, graduating from the State Central Institute of Physical Culture. And the famous basketball player received her first coaching experience in 1984, having settled in a children’s sports school. Many specialists try to bypass this most important stage in their development and do not want to work with children, but Tatyana decided to do otherwise and started from the very basics of coaching. Having worked with young and talented basketball players for 6 years, the Olympic champion replaced her former coach, Evgeny Gomelsky, as the head coach of the Dynamo adult team. Just at that time, the blue-and-whites were experiencing a huge structural and financial crisis. Ovechkina enlisted her husband to help with the financial support of the club, as well as to carry out breeding work. Tatyana personally traveled to sports schools in Moscow, selecting talented girls. Despite all the efforts of the Ovechkin family, the financial collapse was inexorably approaching. Due to funding problems, the men’s and women’s volleyball teams of the Dynamo masters closed, and the basketball school was on the verge of life and death. But over time, the situation was corrected. “There was no money, the teams fell apart. I was both the coach and the president of the club, I did everything in a row, if only the team existed. I am very grateful to the former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov, who supported our team. Thanks to Yuri Mikhailovich, Dynamo Moscow successfully performed, retaining its face, and as a result, repeatedly won gold medals in the Russian championship, ”said the mother of the Washington captain.RIA Novosti Thus began a new chapter of Dynamo basketball: in 1996, the women’s team of masters won silver, and 2 years later, for the first time in its history, the club managed to win the gold of the Russian championship. In 2003, Tatyana ended her coaching career and took the managerial position of the club’s president.Education of Alexander OvechkinAccording to the mother of the captain of “Washington”, he grew up athletic from childhood and was a leader in all sports that he was fond of. From an early age, Alexander played football, basketball, tennis, and even billiards. Over time, the training process became a real drug for Ovechkin. “He really loved training. If he received a deuce at school, then his mother immediately punished him by skipping training. Sasha immediately began to cry, and promised to fix everything. It used to be that they trained 2-3 times a day. We had an apartment on Selskokhozyaistvennaya Street. Next to it, near the hotel, there was a stadium. In the morning, my mother poured tea into a thermos, made sandwiches and gave us all this with her. The guys were playing on the football field, and I was sitting in the car, because it was cold. The boys left, did their homework, and Sasha spent the whole day on this site. I told him: “Did you even go to the toilet? And he never asked.” He replied that he did not want to. Everything came out through sweat. They came home, and he immediately fell. That’s how I trained. He loved this business very much, ”said Mikhail Ovechkin. Mikhail and Tatiana had their own house in the village, in which they made gates for their son. Hardboard was placed on the floor, which successfully imitated ice, and Ovechkin practiced his legendary throw. According to Ovi’s parents, he made at least a thousand throws a day. And watching hockey matches is a separate topic that Alexander the Great adored. He did not miss a single game of his native Dynamo Moscow and sometimes even reviewed some of the matches in the recording. According to Mikhail, in such cases, his son’s observation began to work, and he practiced many tricks or tricks seen on the screen in training. And so the champion was born, whose upbringing parents devoted a huge amount of time and effort.@aleksandrovechkinofficialRepresenting OvechkinAlexander Ovechkin is a unique hockey player also because formally, from the moment of signing the first contract in the NHL, he did not have an agent. Before moving overseas, Don Meehan was in charge of the striker’s affairs, but a year before signing an agreement with Washington, the striker refused his services and trusted his parents, with whom he made all contract decisions. It is known that Ovi used the help of financial manager George Land and applied to him only for rare legal advice, so he could not be called Alexander’s agent. Ovechkin’s mother can rather be considered a representative – Tatyana Ovechkina played a significant role in her son signing the largest contract in NHL history for 13 years and $ 124 million. “I would not call Ovechkin’s mother uncompromising, because she really compromised. But Alex’s mother is very strong, very caring. And she knows what she wants, ”the general manager of the club, George McPhee, shared his impressions of the negotiation process with the mother of the great sniper.