Arnold Schwarzenegger is to blame for everything | The World of Sports

In my childhood, a friend lived next to me. Yes, I considered him my friend. His name was Oleg. Unlike our family, their family lived well. In those times, only wealthy people had cars (I'm talking about Kazakhstan), and they had one — a beautiful Opel Ascona.

We were peers, and when we started the first grade, his parents decided to enroll him in artistic gymnastics. My mom suggested that I join him, and their father could drive us in the beginning until we learned to take the bus. Mom talked to me, and I agreed.

Once the beginner group was formed, we started training. Oleg and I enjoyed doing gymnastics. About 7-8 months later, we participated in city competitions. I took third place — the only one from our group. The others lost. It inspired me, and I started training even harder. But one incident changed everything.

One day after training, we were walking to the bus stop. We had quickly learned to get to the sports school and back by ourselves. We were walking with Oleg, and suddenly I noticed a small concrete slab leaned against the wall. It was quite small, weighing about a hundred kilograms or slightly more. I approached it, pulled it towards me, and managed to lift it slightly off the wall, although the bottom part remained on the ground. I started to swing it and, shouting to Oleg:

— Look, I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger!

I dropped it on my foot. I fell with the slab pinning my foot to the knee. Oleg ran over and tried to remove the slab, but he couldn't. I cried out, began to cry. Oleg also shouted. Men ran to us and removed the slab.

I tried to get up but couldn't. I had to call an ambulance. At the hospital, they said I had a severe bruise but no fractures. My mom came for me, frightened. It turned out that when Oleg returned home, he immediately ran to my mom and said:

— A concrete slab crushed Alex! But don't worry, it's small!

Mom took me home. I was treated for about a month. But unfortunately, after I started to recover, I developed new health problems and had to undergo emergency surgery.

I missed gymnastics for about five months. When I returned, my group was already doing advanced elements. I tried to catch up but couldn't. The coach didn't seem to notice that I had fallen far behind. He didn't work with me individually, and I quit gymnastics.

However, gymnastics greatly helped me in the future when I started in judo. I mastered acrobatic elements, had good coordination of movements, and I was physically stronger than many boys my age thanks to these training sessions.

If you have a son and are thinking about which sport to choose for him, I recommend gymnastics. Just one year of training — and the child will be ready for any other sport. He will have a good foundation and advantages over others.

P.S. Several years later, Oleg and his family moved to another country, and I never saw him again.

The image was created by Victor Freitas and taken from pexels.com
https://www.pexels.com/@victorfreitas