Giant

The tragic story of Soviet basketball giant Uvais Akhtaev Posting in CHAT: Russia There were many great athletes in Soviet basketball. But there are special ones among them, those who, without exaggeration, can be called legends. One of them is Uvays Akhtaev, whom teammates and fans called Vasya the Chechen. He was a man of enormous height, 236 cm. The great coach Alexander Gomelsky highly valued Akhtaev and believed that the Soviet team lacked him to become world champions earlier. Uvays Akhtaev’s sports career was short-lived - only 10 years. He played for the Burevestnik team (Alma-Ata) from 1947 to 1957. Despite the fact that Vasya Chechen did not have any special achievements or titles, he was known and loved by the entire Soviet Union. This giant was truly useful to his team, repeatedly helping them out in difficult game situations. Akhtaev made an invaluable contribution to the popularization of basketball in Kazakhstan. After completing his career, the basketball player began working as a coach, preparing athletes for the men's and women's national teams of Checheno-Ingushetia. He could have played for many years and brought a lot of benefit to Soviet sports, but he could not change his principles and therefore remained “outside the game.” The son of deported people, Uvais Majidovich Akhtaev was born on December 26, 1930. in the village of Vashendaroy, Shatoi district, Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. When he was 13 years old, his family was deported to Kazakhstan, to Karaganda. In elementary school, Uwais was no different from his peers, but in adolescence he began to grow rapidly. At the age of 14, his height was about 2 meters and he did not stop there. The life of the deported Chechens and Ingush in a foreign country was difficult. Many were malnourished and even starved to death. Because of this, at the age of 14, Uwais began to steal. His criminal career did not last long - the police soon caught the teenager with stolen firewood. It turned out that fate itself sent police officers to Akhtaev, one of whom was an experienced athlete. He wondered how a child, although unusually tall, could carry such a huge pile of firewood. To carry it, an adult man of average build would have to make at least four trips! They decided not to punish the unusual teenager. He was taken to the sports department, where Uvais began to engage in athletics. Akhtaev quickly achieved success in sports. In 1946, he was even sent to Lviv for a sports festival, where a young athlete threw a discus. But soon Uwais left athletics and took up wrestling. And that was not all. He ran from one sport to another: from wrestling he moved to boxing, then he started shooting, and only then he discovered basketball. His first successes in basketball were noticed by coach Isaac Kopelevich, a promising young man of enormous stature. So in 1947, Akhtaev ended up in the Alma-Ata Burevestnik. It turned out that the young Chechen had talent. Uwais played just great and made passes all over the court. Experts said that no one had played like this in the Soviet Union before him. Akhtaev won a huge number of fans. They approached him on the street and did not allow him to sit quietly in the restaurant. It was impossible for the basketball player to escape attention, because he stood out in any crowd. With a height of 236 cm, he weighed, according to various sources, from 160 to 200 kg. But an impressive physique did not contribute to good health. Enormous growth is associated with many problems with the heart, joints and internal organs. Akhtaev began to feel this at a very young age. The main success in Uvais Akhtaev’s sports career can be considered the 1956 Spartakiad of the Peoples of the Soviet Union. The athlete played for the Kazakhstan national team, which was never among the favorites. But together with teammate Armenak Alachachyan, they performed a real miracle. In the preliminary round, the Kazakhstan team defeated the teams of Moscow, Leningrad and Ukraine. True, in the end they took only 5th place, but this was the first such result in the history of Kazakh basketball. At the end of his career, Akhtaev was offered to become a member of the USSR national team. But at the same time they set a condition that the athlete could not agree to. Politburo member Lavrentiy Beria said that the basketball player must change his name, surname and citizenship. Only in this case could he go as part of the national team to the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. In the Soviet Union, a person whose family was deported could only count on a career if he renounced his roots. Akhtaev replied: “If all this was obtained by betrayal, then I don’t need anything. I like my surname given by my parents and my nationality is from Allah Almighty. I won't change either one or the other. If the country needs me, just as I am, I am ready, sparing no effort and health, to reach sporting heights at any level...” The athlete did not go to the Olympic Games. He did not participate in the next one, in 1956, although it was the period of Khrushchev’s thaw. Coach Gomelsky later said that Akhtaev’s absence from the national team deprived the USSR of gold medals in basketball. In 1957, Uvais Akhtaev was forced to end his career due to sharply deteriorating health The athlete was diagnosed with diabetes. The athlete moved to Grozny and became the head coach of the men's and women's national teams of Checheno-Ingushetia. Thanks to him, the teams began to perform successfully and take prizes. Uvais Mazhidovich was training until 1973, until the disaster happened. He broke his leg and could no longer work. Akhtaev died on June 12, 1978. Before his death, he asked that his grave be simple and inconspicuous. He said that during his life he suffered from excessive attention to himself and did not want this to continue after his departure. Therefore, Akhtaev’s grave is kept secret and only relatives and close friends know about it. The athlete outlived his wife Tamara, but they had no children. The memory of Uvais Akhtaev lives on, and basketball tournaments are held in Chechnya dedicated to his memory. He wrote a book about him, “Giant of Basketball. The triumph and tragedy of Uvays Akhtaev" Said Bitsoev. In 2017, the Sports Palace named after him opened in Grozny. Source link Source link