The fate of an athlete
The Forgotten Names
“Equal to Boychenko! Beat records like Boychenko in the water and Chkalov in the sky!”
In such words, Stalin himself in 1938 welcomed the swimmer Semen Boychenko, who returned from Europe with triumph. A Soviet athlete in a red star hat in France set a new world record, embarrassed the main competitor and fell in love with thousands of fans. Stalin was one of his favorite athletes.
Semen was born in 1912 in the village of Maryvka on the territory of modern Ukraine. There, in the games with peers in the local river Ingul, fast and full-water, he set the base for future outstanding records - he swam excellent from a young age.
“They lived in the village poorly to get some food, had to fish and spend days on the river. Already then I learned the strange art - to walk on the water on foot, showing different water focuses to the skiers," the athlete recalled many years later.
For the first time seriously with his skills he struck others when he went to serve in the navy. One day, on the command of the captain, a hundred sailors arranged a sailing from the shore to the ship. The distance was about a kilometer. And Boychenko overcame him first, overtaking the rest.
This swim and became the beginning of the career of an outstanding champion. A strong, wide-armed sailor was sent to the Black Sea Naval Forces Spartakiad – he won. Included in the team of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet - became the best. As a result, Boychenko was sent to the Central Sports Club of the Army for continued service.
Without knowing it, Boychenko still in his native village mastered the youngest and most fashionable swimming style of the existing: in 1935, the international swimming federation recognized a variety of brace with throwing hands out of the water. This method was later called batterfly.
This is how the seeds swim. With the help of coach Andrei Vankov, he refined the technique of movements, and the young athlete was not able to occupy. A series of recordings began.
In all, Boychenko has set 111 records in Moscow, the Soviet Union and the world.
The first national record was set on November 8, 1935, at a 100-meter race in Prague. And literally two months later he dropped from him four seconds and updated the best world achievement – 1.08,0. In 1936, he sailed even faster! Swimmers who took prize seats at the Olympic Games in Berlin in the off-road struggle were much inferior to Boychenko in the results shown, but the Soviet Union then did not play at the Olympics.
Foreign competitors were convinced that Boychenko either violates the technique of swimming, or his time is incorrectly fixed, so they were especially waiting for a personal meeting with him. In 1937 it took place: at the World Labour Olympics in Antwerp, Semen became the first with a new record!
Immediately after this tournament, the Soviet delegation was invited to France. But all the attention was drawn to the smiling and muscular record swimmer. Boychenko was offered to swim the distance under close supervision of judges. In addition to experts and representatives of the press, 20 thousand spectators visited such an unusual flood. All of them were delighted: Boychenko's technique was magnificent, and the world records he set were real, they struck the imagination.
However, the famous and popular French swimmer in those years, Jacques Carton, did not agree with this. Boychenko called Cartone to the match – decided to swim 400 meters. However, before the very beginning, the French simply fled. He came down from the tub, allegedly paying attention to the red star on the opponent's hat and felt that he could be punished for participating in a competition with a representative of the USSR, which was not then part of the International Swimming League. Fans whispered to Cartone and remained to support Boychenko, who again sailed alone in the entire pool.
And set a new world record in the eyes of the crowded tribunes!
“Sorry, it’s time for me to go home.”
Boychenko was not allowed to pass. He was invited to solemn events, dinner, offered not to return to the USSR, but to stay in France. They even offered to go to the cinema! The press almost broke through the battle to the hero, not even to ask a question, but simply to record on the film, how the "Butterfly King" or "Red Whale" breathes, such nicknames were given to him by fans.
All tempting proposals Semen polently rejected: “I’m sorry, but it’s time for me to go home.”
In his home country, he was also seen as a hero. Just then Stalin from the tribune and spoke about Boychenko and Chkalov. However, the glory of the athlete did not lose him. Until 1941, he showed remarkable results. At the 100 meter distance, his world record is 1.05,4, and 200 meters he overcame with 2.29,8. Incredible achievements for the early 40s!
Then the war began. Boychenko wanted to go to the front, but, as they say, Stalin personally freed him from mobilization and sent him to the troops to train special combatants. During the war, the champion trained swimming more than ten thousand soldiers.
“They are not broken here!”
It seemed that after the war, Boychenko would be able to return to the big sport and show rivals the power of domestic athletes at international competitions. But in 1948 he was suddenly arrested for many.
Having read the materials of the case, the swimmer said that he would not sign anything. “There are no such breaks!” the investigator rejected him. Boychenko endured the pressure for six months, for which he lost 40 kg, and eventually promised himself to save from the persecution of his relatives.
According to a false report, Boychenko was accused that he allegedly allowed himself disrespectful statements in the address of the son of the ruler of the USSR Vasily Stalin. And in the end, they were condemned for ties with the bourgeois press and immigrants, recalling the triumphant performance of the swimmer in France.
According to the popular version, Boychenko was arrested on the personal order of Vasily Stalin, who competed for the athlete young and beautiful swimmer Capitolina Vasilyev.
Capitolina later became the wife of Vasily, and Semena was sent to serve the term. The legendary swimmer worked on the harvesting of forests in the Solikams camps. Usollag (one of the Gulag camps) was little different from the other NKVD forest camps: the same abandonment in the most deaf places and complete detachment from the outside world, the same punishment work on forestry and forestry, the same deadly conditions of existence. From there, Semen Boychenko wrote letters to Stalin's father with a request to review his case. But he was released only seven years later, in 1955.
A year later, Boychenko was fully rehabilitated. He received all the rewards and honors.
After being released, the swimmer went to Maryvka, where he swam and dive in Ingul until he lost his strength.
At the age of 43 he had to start his life again, and he succeeded. He began to do what he loved and knew - passed his skills on to young swimmers. Already in 1960, at the Olympics, he was the coach of the Soviet Swimming team, then became the honorary president of the Moscow Swimming Federation. Even in his 70s he showed results to envy young people.
The legendary athlete died in January 1987, three months before his 75th anniversary. Before this, he managed to return to Maryvka with his family and his native Ingul.