Speech therapy portal / Parents / Maxim Vylegzhanin: “Family is more important to me than Olympic gold. Maxim Vylegzhanin: “I was hoping to win, but I’m very pleased with the third place Maxim Vylegzhanin biography

Maxim Vylegzhanin: “Family is more important to me than Olympic gold. Maxim Vylegzhanin: “I was hoping to win, but I’m very pleased with the third place Maxim Vylegzhanin biography

13.09.2023

Maxim Mikhailovich Vylegzhanin(October 18, 1982, Sharkan, Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR) - Russian skier. Three-time vice-champion of the 2014 Winter Olympics in the relay, team sprint and ski marathon. World champion 2015 in skiathlon. Three-time vice-world champion, winner of the 2007 Winter Universiade, bronze medalist of the multi-day ski race Tour de Ski 2013, multiple champion of Russia. Honored Master of Sports of Russia. Lives in the city of Izhevsk.

Sports career

Maxim Vylegzhanin is the 2015 world champion in the 30 km skiathlon, a three-time silver medalist at the Olympic Games, and also a three-time vice world champion in individual races: 2009 in the 50 km freestyle mass start, 2011 in the 30 km skiathlon and in the 50 km freestyle mass start.

Winner of the World Universiade (2007) at a distance of 30 km freestyle, bronze medalist in the 15 km pursuit race.

He was a member of the Russian Olympic team at the Vancouver Olympics. The best result is 8th place in the 50 km race.

Three-time champion of Russia at distances of 30 km (duathlon, 2007) and 50 km (2007 - classic style mass start, 2008 - free style mass start).

Maxim Vylegzhanin has two victories at the World Cup stages at a distance of 30 km free style in the 2010/2011 season and at a distance of 15 kilometers classic style at the Tour de Ski stage in Oberhof in the 2012-2013 season.

On February 9, 2014, at the Olympic Games in Sochi, he took 4th place in the skiathlon (15 km classic style + 15 km skating), losing at the finish line to the Norwegian athlete Martin Sondby. On February 16, 2014, he won Olympic silver as part of the relay four (Dmitry Yaparov, Alexander Bessmertnykh, Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin). On February 19, 2014, he won his second silver medal at the Olympic Games in Sochi together with Nikita Kryukov in the team sprint classic. On the last day of the Olympics, Maxim became second in the 50 km freestyle mass start.

World Championships and Olympic Games

Year	Location	Discipline	Place
2009	World Cup Liberec	Skiathlon 30 km	24
2009	World Cup Liberec	15 km Kl	45
2009	World Cup Liberec	Marathon 50 km St.	2
2011	World Cup Holmenkollen	Skiathlon 30 km	2
2011	World Cup Holmenkollen	15 km Kl	10
2011	World Cup Holmenkollen	4x10 relay	7
2011	World Cup Holmenkollen	Marathon 50 km St.	2
2013	World Cup Val di Fiemme	Skiathlon 30 km	5
2013	World Cup Val di Fiemme	15 km St.	57
2013	World Cup Val di Fiemme	4x10 km relay	3
2013	World Cup Val di Fiemme	Marathon 50 km Kl	8
2014	Olympic Games Sochi	Skiathlon 30 km	4
2014	Olympic Games Sochi	4x10 km relay	2
2014	Olympic Games Sochi	Team sprint 6x1.8 km Class	2
2014	Olympic Games Sochi	Marathon 50 km St.	2
2015	World Cup Falun	Skiathlon 30 km	1
2015	World Cup Falun	4x10 km relay	4
2015	World Cup Falun	Marathon 50 km	4

Statistics of performances in the World Cup

2004-2005

Pragelato

Lahti

Oslo

Falun

Results

30 D

KS 6x1.2 Cl

15 St

50 Kl

30 D

E 4x10

Points

Place

2005-2006

Kuusamo

Nove Mesto na Morave

Otepää

Falun

Oslo

Results

15 Kl

15 St

C 1.2 St

15 St

15 Kl

20 D

50 St

Points

Place

DNS

152

2006-2007

Gällivare

Kuusamo

Val d'Aosta

La Clussa

Oslo

Falun

Results

15 St

E 4x10

With 1.2 Cl

15 Kl

30 St. Mst

E 4x10

50 Kl

30 D

Points

Place

2007-2008

Beitoshtolen

Davos

Rybinsk

Tour de Ski

Canmore

Otepää

Liberec

Falun

Oslo

Results

15 St

E 4x10

15 Kl

E 4x10

30 St. Mst

102 cm

30 D

With 1.2 Cl

15 St

C 1.2 St

15 Kl

11.4 St

30 D

50 St

Points

Place

127

2008-2009

Gällivare

Kuusamo

La Clussa

Davos

Tour de Ski

Rybinsk

Lahti

Trondheim

Falun KM Final

Results

15 St

E 4x10

15 Kl

30 St. Mst

15 Kl

102 cm

15 St. Mst

15 St

50 Kl Mst

40 cm

Points

Place

290

2009-2010

Beitoshtolen

Kuusamo

Davos

Rogla

Canmore

Lahti

Oslo

Falun KM Final

Results

15 St

E 4x10

15 Kl

C 1.0 St

30 Kl Mst

15 St

C 1.7 Cl

30 D

E 4x10

50 St. Mst

40 cm

Points

Place

532

Disqualification

On December 27, 2016, President of the Russian Ski Racing Federation Elena Vyalbe announced that Maxim Vylegzhanin was temporarily suspended from participation in competitions due to suspicion of violating anti-doping rules.

Equipment

Uses Fischer skis. Adidas clothing

Awards and titles

Order of Honor (February 24, 2014) - for his great contribution to the development of physical culture and sports, high sporting achievements at the XXII Olympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi.
Honored Master of Sports of Russia (February 17, 2014).

Russian skier Maxim Vylegzhanin made a stunning comeback today, finishing third in the marathon in Holmenkollen. After the race, with the help of a translator, he gave an interview to the Norwegian publication Dagbladet, in which he talked about what this podium meant to him. Here is a translation from Norwegian of the Russian’s words, as well as the statements of several of his rivals.

Maxim Vylegzhanin:
“I love performing in Holmenkollen”

“I’m very glad to be back and to be able to compete again here in Holmenkollen.” I was hoping to win, but I’m very happy with third place,” says the Russian.

He makes no secret of the fact that the last year has been a nightmare for him. Just like Alexander Legkov and other Russian ski stars suspended by the IOC and FIS, he lived without knowing how the situation would be resolved.

– It was very difficult for me. One day there is a desire to train. And the next day you’re tired and want to end your career. It was a very difficult period,” says Vylegzhanin.

He is outraged that the decision to suspend was made on the basis of the testimony of one person - the former director of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov.

– There is nothing good about listening to the opinion of one person and making a decision based on it. How can one draw conclusions based only on McLaren's work? Why doesn't anyone follow the normal rules? If you fail a positive doping test, you should not be suspended.

– But McLaren’s report provided evidence that during the 2014 Games in Sochi the samples were changed?

– You see the CAS decision. This is what we should proceed from,” says Vylegzhanin.

The Russian admits that he is very glad to have the opportunity to perform in Holmenkollen, with which he has good memories.

– It’s great to make a comeback in Holmenkollen. This place is special for me. It's absolutely amazing that people pitch tents and camp out here while waiting for the race, creating an insanely cool event. I love performing here.

Hans Christer Holund: “I assume that in the future we will not see Vylegzhanin and Legkov very often”

The Norwegian did not express his delight at the Russian’s return to the World Cup.

– Is it nice that Vylegzhanin has returned?

- No. Do not know what to say. He has a story. If there is truth in what became known about Sochi, then he probably should have been in a different place,” Holunn said. – Now a new generation of Russian skiers has appeared, so I assume that in the future we will not often see Vylegzhanin, Legkov and the whole group.

Andrew Musgrave:
"It's a little strange that they came back"

According to the Briton, the appearance of previously suspended Russian skiers on the ski track looks strange.

“But we must proceed from what decisions were made.” For me this is quite normal, because he was given the command to perform by those who have power. But it's a little strange that they came back.

– Do you have any contact?

– We said hello a couple of times, but there was no special contact.

Daniel Rickardsson:
“I congratulated him immediately after the race”

The Swede showed the greatest diplomacy in assessing the situation.

- Well, what can I say... He was allowed to perform again, so it’s difficult to have very many opinions on this matter. His doping suspension has been overturned and I try to think that those making the decisions know what they are doing. If you walk and think differently, it will be difficult to compete,” Rickardsson told Expressen. “His performance was very strong considering how little he has run in the World Cup this season. I congratulated him immediately after the race, but we didn’t communicate anymore.

Translation from Norwegian and Swedish

Translation of the Norwegian Aftenposten material is about the Russian skier Maxim Vylegzhanin, of whom Petter Northug himself is openly afraid in Sochi.

On Sunday, February 9, he will defend the honor of Russia in the first race at the Olympic Games.

It was a wonderful day in August 2012, a little more than a day and a half after Maxim Vylegzhanin went home from the World Championships in Oslo with two silver medals. A Russian skier heard “yes” from his beloved. 80 guests congratulated the happy couple. The wedding took place in Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia, where the athlete and the TV reporter lived together.

The day before this event, Maxim was standing in his wedding suit and checking the last details when there was a knock on the door. Opening the door, he saw a German representative of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He came without warning.

– WADA always knows where we are. They can come right now or tomorrow.

Maxim gives this example when we ask him about suspicions of doping against Russian skiers. He himself became the victim of speculation shortly before the World Championships in Oslo in 2011, when he was denied a start during the Tour de Ski due to a high hemoglobin level.

“Of course, it was unpleasant, but after I received the blood passport, it did not create any problems for me.

In the midst of wedding preparations, Maxim completed the doping control procedure. The next day – August 3, 2012 – became the most important day in his life. Teammates dressed up in costumes and competed in a sprint on roller skis. Evgeniy Belov won. Maxim received his Albina.

– Are you sure that all participants in the World Cup are clean?

– I try not to think about it. I know for sure that I am clean. And I don't care about the rest.

Maxim Vylegzhanin believes that a lot has changed in Russian skiing after 2010.

– New people appeared in the Federation, and new doctors were invited to work. There have been no cases for four years. Now the situation is normal.

He grew up in the small Ural town of Sharkan with a population of 5,000 people, an hour and a half drive from Izhevsk. During the Soviet regime, the region was closed to foreigners for military and industrial reasons.

I wanted to become a policeman

His father was a policeman, and his mother was a librarian. Maxim was the same as most village boys in the Soviet Union. He played football and volleyball with his friends and helped with housework.

“We were neither rich nor poor. Something in between, an ordinary Russian family.

Maxim was nine when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

“For us in the outback, this did not lead to any big changes. I remember only one thing well.

Maxim describes the long queues at the shops. He says that the mother stood for several hours to buy something. His dream was to become, like his father, a policeman or make a career in the military.

First race

Around the same time that the Soviet Union collapsed, Maxim Vylegzhanin ran his first race. He was ten and not particularly interested in skiing.

“I ran the race, picked up my skis and went home. Two days later I was told that I had won.

There was interest, and the boy from Sharkan quickly showed his talent. At the age of 17, he went to study to become a policeman and at the same time made a full bet on ski racing. Soon he received a place at the Institute of Physical Education in Izhevsk.

Maxim made his World Cup debut in 2005 and took his first World Championships medal in the marathon in Liberec in 2009. After two silver medals in Oslo in 2011, Maxim is firmly among the skiing elite.

The 31-year-old is Russia's best hope at most Olympic distances and likely the main rival of Norway's Petter Northug and Martin Jonsrud Sundby.

Olympics

Seven years ago, Vylegzhanin first heard that Russia would host the Winter Olympics. At that moment he was at a training camp in Russia and on his way to the ski elite.

– My first thought was: “How can the Olympics be held in the south, near the sea?”

This season he skipped the Tour de Ski in order to optimally prepare for the main competitions. At the dress rehearsal for the Olympic relay in Lillehammer before Christmas, he beat Petter Northug in the spurt. Everything suggests that he is able to show results at the decisive moment.

The Norwegian publication Adresseavisen met Vylegzhanin in the fall at a training camp in Tyumen. After the interview, he borrowed a teammate's car and we took him for a ride outside the sports complex.

He stopped in one of the villages. For us Norwegians, it was a time travel back 50 years.

Residents collect water from wells and dogs run through the streets. Compared to the modernly equipped training complex just a couple of kilometers away, the contrast was colossal.

Maxim stopped the car, got out and said that the place where he grew up looked almost the same.

He talks about his interest in photography and shows his photographs. Among them are photos from a wedding and a trip to Norway during a vacation in the spring after the World Championships in Oslo.

– I want children, but at the moment I’m too busy with training camps and training. After finishing my career, I would like to continue doing something related to sports. Our region helps me a lot. That's why I want to live in Izhevsk.

A year and a half has passed since the wedding - the most important day in his life. Over the next month, Maxim will be in pursuit of new experiences that will forever remain in his memory - good or bad. But can Olympic gold outweigh the significance of that day in early August 2012?

– No, for me family is most important.

Maxim Vylegzhanin, or “Prince Serebryany”, as he is called for his large number of silver awards, is an all-around skier, three-time Olympic medalist in Sochi, world champion and vice-champion. The Udmurt athlete worthily continues the victorious traditions of his fellow countrymen - Galina Kulakova and Tamara Tikhonova.

Childhood and youth

Maxim Vylegzhanin comes from the village of Sharkan in the Republic of Udmurtia, where he was born in October 1982. The family is simple: father Mikhail is an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, after retirement he works as an ambulance driver, mother Rufima is in charge of a children's library. The children - daughter Natalya, sons Maxim and Alexander - were accustomed to hard village labor from an early age.

Little Maxim started skiing at the age of 9. I really wanted to play sports, but there were no other sections in the village. In the summer the boy played football and was also interested in photography. A year later, Vylegzhanin won the first race in his biography. As the skier said, he ran the distance, took his skis and went home. I only found out that I had won two days later.

In 2015, when Vylegzhanin won gold at the World Championship, the Sharkan Youth Sports School named him after an outstanding graduate.

After school, Maxim entered the police school, and then he began to take skiing more seriously. Successes allowed me to get a place at the Institute of Physical Education in Izhevsk. If not for sports, Maxim would have chosen the Suvorov School and a military career.

Sport

The skier's sports career was difficult. At the very beginning, he was invited to the national team for the summer training camp, and in the winter, when the main competitions began, he was excluded from the team. Nevertheless, Maxim did not give up and continued to win a place, first in the youth team, then in the main team.

Serious starts for Maxim Vylegzhanin began in 2005 with performances at the World Cup. The skier, as they say, harnessed slowly. The first season finished in 67th place, the next one was even worse - 152nd in the overall standings. Over the next three seasons, Maxim gradually increased his pace. The best result in the World Cup was the 2009-2010 season and 8th place in the overall table of ranks. Then he put 2 silver medals and one bronze into his piggy bank.

The 2007 Universiade was more successful. In Turin, Italy, Maxim conquered the highest step of the podium and also received a bronze medal. The skier did not go to the Olympics, held in the same city.

The World Championships turned out to be more generous in awards. In 2009 in the Czech Republic and in 2011 in Norway, Vylegzhanin won 3 silver medals - in skiathlon and 50 km marathon race. In 2013, in the Italian Val di Fiemme, Maxim won bronze in the relay.

Maxim won his favorite skiathlon and the world championship in Finnish Falun in 2015. This time, Nikita Kryukov and Alexey Petukhov, who competed in the team sprint, supported him with silver. The main pool of awards was taken away by colleagues from Germany and Norway.

At the Vancouver Olympic Games, the skier achieved only 8th place in the marathon. But the home Olympics in Sochi gave the audience an enchanting finish in the 50 km race, when Russian skiers Maxim Vylegzhanin and Ilya Chernousov occupied the entire podium.

In addition, the athlete could receive bronze in skiathlon. But at the finish line the skier was cut off by a representative of the Norwegian team, Martin Sundby. Despite the fact that the Viking clearly violated the rules, the panel of judges did not heed the protest of the Russian team and limited themselves to only a warning.

But following the results of the team sprint competition, Vylegzhanin spoke out against filing a protest. This time, towards the end of the relay, a German skier fell, knocked over the Finn and hit Nikita Kryukov, who lost speed. Even in this situation, the Finnish team came to the finish line first. Germany lodged a protest. Maxim considered that the fall was an accident from which no one was safe. As a result, the Russians received a silver medal.

However, by the Olympic medalist’s own admission, he remembers the year of the Games not by medals, but by an event that happened in the family - the birth of his son.

In February 2016, at the Holmenkollen Marathon, Vylegzhanin won a bronze medal at a distance of 50 km and won the World Cup in Lahti. In addition to skiing, Maxim pays attention to other sports. Also in 2016, the skier received a silver award at the Russian Amateur Triathlon Championship.

At the end of 2016, the Russian won the 10 km race and the classic sprint at international competitions in Finland. Based on the results of the competition, the national team for the World Cup was formed.

At the same time, the International Olympic Committee announced the start of an investigation into anti-doping rule violations committed at the Sochi Olympics. The subsequent press release did not name the athletes under investigation.

However, the names of six athletes suspended by the International Ski Federation from international competitions very quickly appeared on the Internet. The IOC's claims, according to the Russian Ski Federation, consisted of mechanical damage to containers with doping samples. The name of Maxim Vylegzhanin was also on the list.

The Udmurt athlete twice appealed to the International Federation, and both times it was rejected. For this reason, Maxim missed the World Championships in Lahti. Subsequently, guided by the report of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the IOC completely imposed a lifelong disqualification on the skier and annulled the results of the Sochi Games, which automatically meant deprivation of awards.

Personal life

Maxim has a reliable rear. His wife Albina and son Artem provide comprehensive support. The skier’s wife is a well-known Izhevsk journalist, works as a news editor on the “My Udmurtia” TV channel, and has repeatedly reported on the famous athlete. At first, the contacts were working - interviews and nothing more. The wedding of famous people, which took place in 2012, turned out to be an expensive and spectacular event.

Albina took her husband’s last name six months later, explaining that it is difficult for a journalist who has already earned a name for himself to sign with a different last name. The girl surprised her husband - by the end of the World Championship she became Vylegzhanina. Son Artem was born in June 2014. The athlete admits that for the sake of his son he started a page on "Instagram" to post his first photos there. In addition, fans constantly asked to publish something from training or competitions.

Maxim collects figurines of skiers, but his main passion, hobby and work at the same time remains ski racing. In the athlete’s homeland, Izhevsk, all-Russian roller ski competitions are held for the prizes of Maxim Vylegzhanin.

Maxim Vylegzhanin now

In the pre-Olympic season, the Udmurt skier was included in the Russian national team.

In November 2017, 11 months after the announcement of the disqualification, Maxim competed at international competitions included in the FIS schedule. In an emotional post on Instagram, the skier said that the competition turned out to be spontaneous, he did not think about the results, the main thing was to put on his number, go out on the ski slopes and again feel the spirit of competition.

Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport considered the appeal of the Russian ski federation. The IOC decision to disqualify Vylegzhanin and 27 more of his colleagues, the medals were returned to the athletes.

Now the Federation and the athletes intend to take legal action to recover moral and material damage caused by the unfounded accusation of doping. In addition, previously suspended skiers are planned to participate in the World Cup and Continental Cup.