Valentin Balahnichyov: “I wish we remembered Brumel more often”

Olympic High Jump champion Valery Brumel has joined the Hall of Fame of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

In 1960, the Soviet athlete won silver at the Olympic Games in Rome and 4 years later he won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. From 1961 to 1963 Valery Brumel was named the best athlete in the world. Throughout his career, he managed to set 6 world records. The President of the All-Russia Athletic Federation Valentin Balahnichyov noted that the value of his input into the Russian athletics history could not be overestimated.

“I was very lucky in life, to train together with Valery Brumel – he was just a wonderful person. It is very difficult to remember about him only as about an athlete. He was characterized by an amazing charisma, boundless openness and incredible kindness. Not only the eyes of the Soviet fans were looking at him  – his talent was admired by people all over the whole world. He has a huge number of awards, which go beyond sport. Valery Brumel, for example, wrote a number of books, and play based on one of his books was staged. For several years he worked in our federation, visiting the regions, giving lectures, and all his, unfortunately, not very long life he was in sports. His wonderful son Victor  practices high jumping. I wish we remembered Valery Brumel, a talented Soviet athlete and a wonderful man, whose name will forever remain in the Russian athletics history. “