The Boris Shakhlin’s medal, displayed in the museum, is out of his 97 medals. Shakhlin is a seven-time champion of three Olympic Games, a multiple world champion, the absolute champion of Europe and the World. He earned this award at the USSR and USA the artistic gymnastics dual meet in 1961.
Boris Shakhlin was born on January 27, 1932, in the town of Ishim, Tyumen oblast. At the age of 12, he became an orphan. In 1944, he joined a gymnastics section, and in 1955, he graduated from the Kyiv Institute of Physical Culture.
“I don’t know when, probably before I was born, someone had built a bar from a pipe in our yard, and next to it, on two high pillars, a trapeze had been hung”, — Shakhlin recalled. — “And there never was one good evening when children would not gather near them and make up some type of a competition. By the age of 12, I had already learned to do some things on the horizontal bar, because I practiced almost every day. In addition, in the fall of 1944, I joined the beginners' group at the children”s sports school of the Ishim station. I had to start my sports career under the direction of Vasily Alekseevich Porfiriev, the Merited Master of Sports. He was very demanding. He mercilessly expelled negligent children from school”.
The exhibition games of the USSR and the USA national teams (literal translation of the American title — “Dual track and field competition of the USA and the USSR”) took place from 1958 to 1985 under the difficult conditions of the Cold War and under practically closed borders. The inscription USSR-USA 1961 SN can be seen on the reverse of the medal, along with the laurels. There is a profile of an athlete with a flag and a flower crown on the front side.
In 2002, another one was added to Boris Shakhlin’s numerous awards: the International Olympic Committee awarded him the Silver Olympic Order for special services to the Olympic movement.
“Sometimes people ask me which of the awards is the most valuable for me”, — Boris Shakhlin said. — “The answer is an ordinary merit certificate of the first post-war years. It says that it 'is awarded to coach Boris Anfiyanovich Shakhlin for the successful performance at the Sverdlovsk championship of the gymnastics team of the Polytechnic School trained by him'. That coach was 17 at the time, and regularly attended classes in the second year of the Sverdlovsk Technical School of Physical Education. <…> I fell in love with coaching and decided to graduate from the institute to become a highly qualified teacher”.
Boris Shakhlin was born on January 27, 1932, in the town of Ishim, Tyumen oblast. At the age of 12, he became an orphan. In 1944, he joined a gymnastics section, and in 1955, he graduated from the Kyiv Institute of Physical Culture.
“I don’t know when, probably before I was born, someone had built a bar from a pipe in our yard, and next to it, on two high pillars, a trapeze had been hung”, — Shakhlin recalled. — “And there never was one good evening when children would not gather near them and make up some type of a competition. By the age of 12, I had already learned to do some things on the horizontal bar, because I practiced almost every day. In addition, in the fall of 1944, I joined the beginners' group at the children”s sports school of the Ishim station. I had to start my sports career under the direction of Vasily Alekseevich Porfiriev, the Merited Master of Sports. He was very demanding. He mercilessly expelled negligent children from school”.
The exhibition games of the USSR and the USA national teams (literal translation of the American title — “Dual track and field competition of the USA and the USSR”) took place from 1958 to 1985 under the difficult conditions of the Cold War and under practically closed borders. The inscription USSR-USA 1961 SN can be seen on the reverse of the medal, along with the laurels. There is a profile of an athlete with a flag and a flower crown on the front side.
In 2002, another one was added to Boris Shakhlin’s numerous awards: the International Olympic Committee awarded him the Silver Olympic Order for special services to the Olympic movement.
“Sometimes people ask me which of the awards is the most valuable for me”, — Boris Shakhlin said. — “The answer is an ordinary merit certificate of the first post-war years. It says that it 'is awarded to coach Boris Anfiyanovich Shakhlin for the successful performance at the Sverdlovsk championship of the gymnastics team of the Polytechnic School trained by him'. That coach was 17 at the time, and regularly attended classes in the second year of the Sverdlovsk Technical School of Physical Education. <…> I fell in love with coaching and decided to graduate from the institute to become a highly qualified teacher”.
