Ivan Zaikin - strongman, wrestler and aviator

The orchestra plays music loudly. Under the exclamations of the audience on the circus arena goes strong man Ivan Zaikin. He is handsome and handsome. His muscles are playing under the skin. Having made a circle of honor, the athlete stops before a 25-pood anchor. The audience froze in anticipation. The circus clasped him with his hands, like mites, and threw him on his back. Having passed with an anchor circle, the athlete began to rotate this colossal load. The audience burst into applause and applause. This was one of the many performances of the famous circus wrestler and strong man Ivan Mikhailovich Zaikin. In this article you will be presented with his brief biography.

Childhood

Zaikin Ivan Mikhailovich was born in Simbirsk province in 1880. The boy's father was known on the Volga as a fistfighter. The childhood and youth of the future athlete were spent in poverty and misery. Ivan had to work from the age of 12. The boy in all imitated his father and wanted to become such a strong fighter.

First performance

Ivan's life changed when he got to work for the brothers Merkuliev. These millionaires had their own athletic arena. It was there that Ivan Zaikin began his wrestling career. For the first time, the young man performed at the amateur national championship, having won first place in weight. Later, he made his debut as a fighter in Tver.

Character and style

Despite the hard life, Ivan Zaikin did not become a tough, withdrawn person. Opponents noted his softness and openness in the arena. Powerful muscles, smooth movements, cheerful eyes and good-natured face. No unnecessary movements and fuss. Jerk, capture and throw occurred so quickly that the opponent did not even understand how he was on his shoulder blades.

Contractions with Poddubny

Ivan Zaikin was considered a disciple of Poddubny. The wrestlers who met with the latter tried in the future to avoid such "pleasure." Zaikin fought with Ivan Maksimovich as many as 15 times (from 1904 to 1916). Five fights ended in a draw, and ten - defeat of the hero of this article. Contemporaries noted that these were not ordinary battles, but real battles.

Athletic rooms

But the fight in the arena is not all that Ivan Zaikin was doing. The wrestler performed with athletic numbers. For example, he wore a 25-pood anchor on his back, raised a bar with ten spectators, a barrel (accommodated 40 buckets of water), bent sheet iron, etc. The most spectacular performance was the passage of a car with passengers on the boards lying on the athlete's chest. With these numbers, Ivan Mikhailovich toured Australia, America, Africa and Europe.

Celebrity

Zaikin was friends with many famous people: Kamensky, Alexei Tolstoy, Blok, Shalyapin, Gorky, Kuprin and even Rasputin. With the last athlete acquainted tsaritsynsky priest Iliodor. When Rasputin was wounded with a knife, Zaikin wrote him a letter, where he wished a speedy recovery and strengthening of physical and mental health.

Aviator

Once, while on tour in Odessa, Ivan watched the flight of an airplane in the sky. Since then, he had the desire to become an aviator. In those days Russian pilots could be counted on the fingers. They earned demonstrative performances. This is what Zaikin decided to do. His sponsors were merchants from Odessa, named Ptashnikovs.

After completing his studies in France in 1910, Ivan made a series of demonstration flights to Russian cities. He was attracted by risk and unusual impressions. It is likely that Zaikin would have made a career as an aeronaut if there had not been one case.

Farewell to Aviation

On the next demonstration flights, Ivan Mikhailovich rolled brave men to the delight of the public. Among them was the famous writer Kuprin AI Zaikin himself approached Alexander Ivanovich and proposed to conquer the sky. Taking off, Ivan Mikhailovich began to make a turn. Suddenly Kuprin saw his head at his knees. The writer did not feel fear, but noticed how their airplane was rushing down, straight to the three thousand crowd. At the last moment Zaikin managed to get out of the way. If an aircraft fell into a crowd, there would be many victims. Fortunately, the airplane managed to land, and all remained alive. After this, the unfortunate aviator no longer ascended into the sky, deciding to return to the arena.

Last years

From 1928 until his death Zaikin Ivan Mikhailovich lived in Chisinau. There he organized his own "Sports arena", which included professional wrestlers-athletes. Their speeches were spectacular and enlightening in nature. Agile, strong, superbly built heroes were good propagandists of a healthy lifestyle. In the middle of 1930, while performing the trick "The Living Bridge", Ivan Mikhailovich suffered a serious head and shoulder injury, but was able to recover later. In 1934, the athlete took part in a wrestling tournament in the city of Riga.

At the end of 1945 Ivan Zaikin, whose biography is presented in this article, was invited to Leningrad to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the national athletics. There he met with the famous arbiter and fighter Lebedev VI In 1948, Ivan Mikhailovich died on the 69th year of life. Buried Zaikin in Chisinau at the Vsesvyatsky cemetery. In the memory of descendants, he will remain a pioneer of aviation and a vivid representative of domestic athleticism.