View source for Viktor Chukarin

{{Short description|Soviet gymnast (1921–1984)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2015}}
{{family name hatnote|Ivanovich|Chukarin|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Infobox gymnast
| name = Viktor Chukarin
| image = Viktor Chukarin.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| full_name = Viktor Ivanovich Chukarin
| altname =
| nickname =
| country = [[USSR]]
| formercountry =
| birth_date = {{birth_date|df=yes|1921|11|9}}
| birth_place = [[Krasnoarmeyskoye village|Krasnoarmeyskoye]], [[Donets Governorate]], [[Ukrainian SSR]]
| hometown =
| residence =
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1984|8|25|1921|11|9}}
| death_place = [[Lviv]], Ukrainian SSR, [[Soviet Union]]
| height =
| discipline = MAG
| level =
| natlteam =
| club = Iskra Lvov<br />Burevestnik Lvov<ref name=sr>{{cite Sports-Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ch/viktor-chukarin-1.html |title=Viktor Chukarin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417090543/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ch/viktor-chukarin-1.html |archive-date=2020-04-17}}</ref>
| gym =
| collegeteam =
| headcoach =
| assistcoach =
| formercoach =
| choreographer =
| music =
| eponymousskills =
| retired =
| medaltemplates = <!-- see [[Template:MedalRelatedTemplates]] -->
{{MedalCompetition|[[Olympic Games]]}}
{{MedalGold|[[1952 Summer Olympics|1952 Helsinki]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics|Team competition]]}}
{{MedalGold|[[1952 Summer Olympics|1952 Helsinki]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics|All-around]]}}
{{MedalGold|[[1952 Summer Olympics|1952 Helsinki]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics|Pommel horse]]}}
{{MedalGold|[[1952 Summer Olympics|1952 Helsinki]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics|Vault]]}}
{{MedalGold|[[1956 Summer Olympics|1956 Melbourne]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics|Team competition]]}}
{{MedalGold|[[1956 Summer Olympics|1956 Melbourne]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics|All-around]]}}
{{MedalGold|[[1956 Summer Olympics|1956 Melbourne]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics|Parallel bars]]}}
{{MedalSilver|[[1952 Summer Olympics|1952 Helsinki]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics|Rings]]}}
{{MedalSilver|[[1952 Summer Olympics|1952 Helsinki]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics|Parallel bars]]}}
{{MedalSilver|[[1956 Summer Olympics|1956 Melbourne]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics|Floor exercise]]}}
{{MedalBronze|[[1956 Summer Olympics|1956 Melbourne]]|[[Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics|Pommel horse]]}}
{{MedalCompetition | [[World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Championships]]}}
{{MedalGold|[[1954 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|1954 Rome]]|All-around}}
{{MedalGold|[[1954 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|1954 Rome]]|Team competition}}
{{MedalGold|[[1954 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|1954 Rome]]|Parallel bars}}
{{MedalBronze|[[1954 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|1954 Rome]]|Pommel horse}}
}}

'''Viktor Ivanovich Chukarin''' ({{langx|ru|Виктор Иванович Чукарин}}, {{langx|uk|Віктор Іванович Чукарін}}; 9 November 1921 – 25 August 1984) was a [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] gymnast who competed for the [[Soviet Union]]. He won eleven medals including seven gold medals at the [[1952 Summer Olympics|1952]] and [[1956 Summer Olympics]] (including the individual all-around title on both occasions) and was the [[World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|all-around world champion]] in 1954. He was the most successful athlete at the 1952 Summer Olympics.

==Biography==
Chukarin was born in Krasnoarmeyskoye village in [[Donets Governorate]]{{efn|[[Donetsk Oblast]] was not created until later (1938).}} (modern-day [[Novoazovsk Raion]] of the [[Donetsk Oblast]]) to a [[Don Cossack]] father Ivan Evlampievich Chukarin and a [[Pontic Greeks|Pontic Greek]] mother Hristina Klimentievna Lamizova.<ref>Andrei Uskensky. ''[http://2003.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2003/13n/n13n-s33.shtml Olympic Gold after a Camp Dust] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070804084530/http://2003.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2003/13n/n13n-s33.shtml |date=4 August 2007 }}'' // [[Novaya Gazeta]], February 20, 2003 (in Russian)</ref><ref name='dasaev'>Farid Dasaev. ''[http://bmsi.ru/doc/6f74db9f-2562-4cac-8f67-c4a31bca8ed5 Tragedy and Triumph of the Great Olympian]'' article at ''[[:ru:Физкультура и спорт (журнал)|Physical Culture and Sport]]'' No 1, January 1, 2012 {{ISSN|0130-5670}} (in Russian)</ref> In 1924 his family moved to [[Mariupol]] where he started training in gymnastics. Later Chukarin studied at the Institute of Physical Education in Kyiv.

In 1941 with the start of the [[Great Patriotic War]] he volunteered for the [[Red Army]]. He fought under the general [[Mikhail Kirponos]]. Chukarin was wounded in action, taken prisoner of war near [[Poltava]] ([[Battle of Kyiv (1941)|Kyiv Cauldron]]) and sent to a prisoner camp in [[Sandbostel]]. He then went through a chain of 17 prisoner camps and by the time when he was freed in 1945 weighed only 40&nbsp;kg. He was not accepted back to the sports institute in Kyiv, and studied in a [[Lviv Institute of Physical Culture|similar institution]] in Lviv.<ref name='dasaev' />

In 1946 he already competed in gymnastics at the Soviet national championships; next year he finished fifth, and in 1948 won a national title. He became the all-around Soviet champion in 1949 and repeated this achievement in 1950, 1951, 1953 and 1955.<ref name=aif>[http://www.aif.ru/sport/person/1340678 «Ахиллесова пята» Виктора Чукарина. Как узник Бухенвальда выиграл Олимпиаду]. [[Argumenty i Fakty]]. 18 September 2014</ref>

Soviet Union joined the Olympic Games in 1952 when Chukarin was 30. By then Chukarin gained much weight and was considered bulky for a gymnast. As a result, he had low scores on the floor, yet he won six medals, including the individual all-around by a margin of 0.7 points. He won five more Olympic medals at the [[1956 Summer Olympics]], including a silver on the floor.<ref name=aif/>

He led the Soviet team to the victory at the [[1954 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|1954 World Championships]], winning gold in the team all around and the individual all around.

In 1957 along with [[Larisa Latynina]], Chukarin was awarded the first ever [[Order of Lenin]] given to an athlete.<ref name=aif/><ref name="Khavin">{{cite book|title=All about Olympic Games.|author=Boris Khavin|publisher=[[Fizkultura i sport (publisher)|Fizkultura i sport]]|edition = 2nd|year=1979|location=Moscow|language=Russian|page=589}}</ref>

He recounted his sport career in the 1955 book entitled ''The Road to the Peaks (Put K Vershinam)''. In 1961, he coached [[Armenia]]n gymnastics team, and in 1963 became an assistant professor at the [[Lviv Institute of Physical Culture]].<ref name=sr/><ref name=aif/> He died in 1984 and was buried at the [[Lychakiv Cemetery]]. One of the streets in Lviv was named after him.

==See also==
* [[List of multiple Olympic gold medalists]]
* [[List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games]]
* [[List of multiple Summer Olympic medalists]]
* [[List of Olympic medal leaders in men's gymnastics]]

==Footnotes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Rysovanyy, Y. (1978). ''Sportsmen of the Ukraine in the Olympic Games'', Zdorovya.

==External links==
* {{FIG}} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070322111919/http://www.fig-gymnastics.com/events/athletes/bio.jsp?ID=1219 archive])
* {{IGHOF}}
* {{Olympics.com profile}}
* {{Olympedia}}
* [http://www.gymn-forum.net/bios/men/chukarin.html List of competitive results]
* [http://www.theolympicdatabase.nl/winner.php?lang=EN&wid=9889 The Olympic Database]

{{Footer Olympic Champions All-Around Men}}
{{Footer Olympic Champions Pommel Horse Men}}
{{Footer Olympic Champions Vault Men}}
{{Footer Olympic Champions Parallel Bars Men}}
{{Olympic champions artistic gymnastics Men TC|1952|1956}}
{{NavigationWorldChampionsArtisticGymnasticsMenTC|1954}}
{{Footer World Artistic Gymnastics All-Around Champions (Men)}}
{{NavigationWorldChampionsArtisticGymnasticsMen’sParallelBars}}
{{International Gymnastics Hall of Fame members}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chukarin, Viktor}}
[[Category:1921 births]]
[[Category:1984 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Donets Governorate]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II from Ukraine]]
[[Category:Soviet prisoners of war]]
[[Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Germany]]
[[Category:Soviet male artistic gymnasts]]
[[Category:Ukrainian male artistic gymnasts]]
[[Category:Soviet people of Greek descent]]
[[Category:Ukrainian people of Greek descent]]
[[Category:Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Olympic gymnasts for the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Olympic medalists in gymnastics]]
[[Category:Gymnasts at the 1952 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Gymnasts at the 1956 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:World champion gymnasts]]
[[Category:Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships]]
[[Category:Burevestnik (sports society) sportspeople]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Lviv State University of Physical Culture]]
[[Category:Burials at Lychakiv Cemetery]]
[[Category:Gymnasts from Donetsk Oblast]]
[[Category:20th-century Ukrainian sportsmen]]