Stanislav Zhuk

Stanislav Alekseevich Zhuk (1935 -1998) was one of the most talented and famous coaches in the history of the national and world figure skating.

Stanislav Zhuk was born on 25 January 1935 in Ulyanovsk. His father was a naval officer, therefore his family had to move a lot.

In the late 1940-s there was a revival of figure skating in the post-war Leningrad. Here Stanislav started skating. Many of the most promising athletes trained in the Dynamo physical culture and sports club. There was formed the most powerful Soviet figure skaters’ team headed by the coach, Master of Sports Peter Orlov. Peter Orlov met Stanislav when he was a student of the physical education college. He offered him to skate in pair with Nina Bakusheva, a ladies single skater from Leningrad who later became his wife.

In the late 1950-s they started to skate together. Stanislav was a very ambitious person. He always followed his motto: “If it's necessary, it’s a must!”. If he didn’t do what he had planned during the trainings, he would have never left the ice-rink. The coach trusted him with the preparation of performance programs and trainings.

In 10 years the pair won three silver medals at the European Championships and they were four time winners of the USSR Championships. This was the start of an era of Soviet figure skaters’ great victories worldwide.

They were the first Soviet skating pair to take part in the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif. Later Nina and Stanislav Zhuk won silver medals at the European and World Championships.

In 1962 Stanislav Zhuk attended the World Championship in Prague as the coach of Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov. Due to his highly professional program they won a silver medal. Zhuk became a coach for the Central Army Sports Club. He invited a promising skater Alexander Gorelick to his team and 9 months later the skating pair Tatyana Zhuk (Stanislav’s sister) and Alexander joined the Soviet team. They were the 1965 World and European bronze medalists and then the 1966 World and European silver medalists. They also won a silver medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics.

It was the start of Stanislav Zhuk’s great victories. He raised many world famous figure skaters in all kinds of figure skating. He was a real discoverer of stars such as Irina Rodnina, who is one of the most successful figure skaters ever. His trainee, Elena Vodorezova, was the first Soviet woman to win a silver medal at the European Championships. Alexander Fadeyev is the first figure skater in the world who performed a quadruple toe-loop. Zhuk’s world famous pairs were Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev, Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakhrai, Marina Pestova and Stanislav Leonovich, Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov.

In 20 years of Stanislav Zhuk’s coaching career his trainees won 67 gold, 36 silver and 35 bronze medals at the Olympic Games, World and European Championships.

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If it's necessary, it’s a must! - Надо – значит надо!

a quadruple toe-loop - прыжок в четыре оборота