Sergey Kapustin: sport achievements and biography

His whole short life was devoted to hockey. There are no people in Ukhta who would not have heard about Sergei Kapustin.

Childhood and youth

Sergei Alekseevich Kapustin was born on February 13, 1953. According to the memories of relatives, in the childhood years the athlete was weak and frail. No one even thought that this worldly champion would grow out of this painful kid.

Lydia Maksimovna, a hockey aunt, recalls that he spent all his free time with friends playing hockey on the grass. And with the beginning of attending school, he disappeared at the stadium "Neftyanik". Later, a small hockey player began to study at a youth sports school, where he felt the sweet taste of the first victories and the bitterness of defeats.

Such a bright prospective player has always attracted attention, and his coach, Anatoly Kovalevsky, asked his mentor, Boris Pavlovich Kulagin, to look at the young talent and take him to his team. So Sergei Kapustin was in 1971 in the "Wings of the Soviets."

"Winged" life

As a former neighbor of a hockey player remembers, he left his native house without even mentioning the eighteenth birthday. Kulagin treated Sergei as his own son. They were connected not only with sports, but with good human relations. More than once the hockey player stayed at the cottage with his coach. Kapustin immediately took a leadership position in the team and proved his professionalism in 1972 in Lake Placid. Two years later, he brilliantly played the game at the World Championships, where he scored ten goals during the game and won the first world gold award.

In the capital, the hockey player first rented a room, and afterwards received a spacious two-room apartment on Leningradsky Prospekt. Four years after the start of the game in the Wings of the Soviets, he took his parents to Moscow. In the same year, I married a girl named Tatyana, who gave birth to his son Sergei. Unfortunately, it was not possible for the hockey player to enjoy his father's role. At the age of four, the baby fell ill with pneumonia and died. For the father it was a huge tragedy, only a favorite thing helped to distract from a painful loss.

1976 was generous in victory. Sergei Kapustin in the "Wings" conducted a series of excellent games and won a victory over the "Chicago Black Hawks", "Pittsburgh Penguins" and "New York Islanders". These winning matches contributed to the athlete's entry into the Olympic team of the Soviet Union, in which, in the same year, 76, he took another gold in Innsbruck.

The era of CSKA

In 1977 he moved to CSKA. In this club already played legends of Soviet hockey - Helmut Balderis and Victor Zhluktov. It seemed to all that these three titans would create an alliance that would bring victory after victory, but everything turned out to be much more complicated. The problem was psychology. Each of these players was the leader in the previous team and was used to the fact that everyone else is playing for them. Now we had to rebuild our habits and learn how to play with one team.

Fortunately for everyone, hockey player Sergei Kapustin and Balderis were able to overcome their habits and with the help of the coach and teammates put the team's interests in the game above their own. As part of CSKA Kapustin Has won the title of champion of the USSR, Europe and the world, has won the Cup of the country. In 1980 he left the club and moved to Spartak.

"Spartacus": meeting with an old friend and sunset career

Sergei Kapustin claimed that every athlete, regardless of awards and titles, has a coach who is obliged to everyone. For him, such a man was Boris Kulagin. In the new team, the hockey player had to play in the company of Viktor Shalimov and Sergei Shepelev. This trio was the main competitor of CSKA Moscow for the first place in the championship of the Soviet Union. Soon they were included in the national team.

The influence of Kapustin on the team was so great that with only an expression of his face he changed the mood of all the players. He was credited with excellent leadership qualities, dedication, perseverance and total return to the game. He did not forgive mistakes neither to himself, nor to anyone else.

In the "Spartacus" Sergei Kapustin wins gold at the World Championships in Sweden in 1981 and is in the world team. At the same time he takes the Cup of Canada. At age 33, he decides to end his sports career and travels to Austria. There several years in the team of the top division he worked as a playing coach. Having rejected the offer of the Japanese to become a coach, he returns to Moscow. Here he finishes the highest coaching school and plays for a while in the team of veterans.

They say that good people do not stay long on the ground. In 1995, at the age of 42 years, the great hockey player Sergei Kapustin died. The cause of death is blood poisoning.

Prizes and titles

This is a unique athlete. His successes are impressive:

• 1974 - the best scorer in the world championship;
• 1976 - the title of the Olympic champion;
• 1979 - won the Challenge Cup;
• 7th champion of Europe and the world;
• 4th champion of the Soviet Union.

Over the course of his career he spent more than 500 matches, scored over 270 goals. Each sports club dreamed of having such a talented striker.

Kapustin Sergey - hockey player with a capital letter. His awards only confirm this.