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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

"To everything there is a time,"

17 November, 1998 - 00:00

Zinayida Mykytivna Panarina celebrated her seventy-fifth birthday on November
8. We will not find her name among Olympic champions, but her whole life
has been connected with the sports. And, finally, the Olympic slogan is
that playing is more important than winning."

The Day met with Panarina and asked her to answer a few questions.

"Would you please tell us how you entered sports and why was it actually
gymnastics which attracted your attention?"

"Now it is hard to remember the details of my childhood and the prewar
adolescence. But I still remember some things. I come from Siberia and
grew up as a strong and developed girl. I loved physical culture. I could
run, jump, and felt pretty solid on skis. Back then I started to go in
for gymnastics. After the war, I worked in a military radio plant and continued
training in the Dynamo sports society. It was amazing then. The war had
just ended. We had to rebuild the roads, villages, and cities completely."

"What was your way in sports like?"

"It was pretty unpretentious and ordinary. Studying, training, competition.
I achieved the rank of the Master of Sports pretty quickly and in 1946
I made the Ukrainian team. I was a member of it for six years and had marvelous
friends there, Olympic champions Mariya Horokhovska (she lives in Israel
now) and Nina Bocharova. The team was coached by an extraordinary man,
meritorious coach of Ukraine Oleksandr Myshakov. I participated in numerous
contests and won places on the awards stand. I also won medals. Though
they never play the anthem for me, but more than once won our team prizes
in USSR tournaments among voluntary sporting societies."

"What exactly did the big sports give you?"

"You remember what Pierre Coubertin said: "Ah, sports, you are the world!"
I think sports is a Weltanschauung. It is rich contact with other
players. Sports made it possible for to visit 27 countries. From 1960 to
1962 I worked in Vietnam in the Central Technical School of Physical Culture.
I met with Ho Chi Minh many times and he awarded me a Vietnamese order,
which is now in the Kyiv Sports Hall of Fame Museum.

"Now I am training a health group in the sports complex of Drahomanov
Pedagogical University. In short, sports is my life."

"Would you excuse a personal question? Is loneliness a problem,
especially at such a solid age?"

"No need to apologize. We are adults. Yes, it happened so, that after
a five year marriage, we fell out of love and had to divorce. In Vietnam
I met and fell in love with a Russian pilot. He was training Vietnamese
flyers there. We were planning to get married after returning home to USSR,
but unfortunately, he crashed and died. I pledged to never betray that
broken love. Since then I have lived alone. There are some relatives, but
life has separated us. I find salvation in my current public work."

"Tell us about it, please."

"I am Vice President of the Kyiv Sports Veterans Association and the
Chairwoman of Gymnastics Veterans Council of Ukraine. It is a laborious
task, but it keeps me from loneliness and brings me deep satisfaction.
I have concluded that to everything there is a time. We set new records
while we are young, teach others how to conquer new sports heights when
we are older, and when we are aged, we share our life experiences and rejoice,
as our students grow up. What else could one want?"

 

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