1. The real name of Nikolai Alexandrovich Panin is Kolomenkin. The pseudonym Panin, a surname that is easier for foreign ears to perceive, was chosen by the athlete to perform at international competitions. Nikolai Kolomenkin was born on January 8, 1872 (December 27, 1871, old style) in the village of Khrenovoe, Voronezh province.
2. From early childhood, the future champion began training on homemade wooden skates with an iron runner. In 1882, Nikolai Alexandrovich moved with his mother to St. Petersburg, where he received a sports education. Having entered St. Petersburg University in 1893, he became a member of the Society for Promoting the Physical Development of Children and Youth, headed by Peter Lesgaft.
3. In 1901, Nikolai Panin applied to participate in the All-Russian championship in the “art of skating.” He successfully completed all the tasks, received a large gold medal and the title of the best figure skater in Russia. Two years later, the World Figure Skating Championships took place in St. Petersburg, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the city, where Panin took second place.
4. At the 1908 Olympic Games, Nikolai Panin accurately and accurately performed all the required figures, but he was awarded only second place. Panin’s main rival, world champion, Swede Ulrich Salchow (the jump invented by the athlete is named after him) threw a tantrum after each figure that Panin performed, and the judges were forced to warn the Russian athlete. Some sources claim that it was the judges who allowed Salkhov to get ahead of Panin. As a sign of protest against the unfair, in his opinion, judging, Nikolai Aleksandrovich withdrew from the competition without performing the free program.
The next day, the athletes drew special figures on the ice; Ulrich Salchow, realizing that it was impossible to beat Panin in this form, withdrew from the competition in advance. Panin presented the judges with such complex drawings of figures that the jury at first did not believe in the possibility of their execution. The amazed judges unanimously gave Panin first place, giving a record score in the history of compulsory figures (219 points out of 240 possible, that is, 91.3% of the maximum), which allowed the Russian athlete to receive an Olympic gold medal.
5. Four years later, Nikolai Panin participated in the Olympic Games in Stockholm, but this time as a pistol shooter. In individual competitions he took eighth place, and in team competitions he took fourth place. This was the first time a Russian athlete participated in the second Games, and in another sport at that.
6. After that Olympics, Panin switched to coaching, and later to teaching. From 1915 to 1917 he was the secretary of the Russian Olympic Committee. Panin wrote several textbooks. For fundamental scientific achievements and pedagogical activities, Panin was awarded the title of associate professor and the degree of candidate of pedagogical sciences. Among his students are champions of Russia and the USSR: Karl Ollo, Ksenia Caesar, Pyotr Chernyshev, Pyotr Orlov and the Gendelsman spouses.
7. Panin-Kolomenkin died in 1956 in Leningrad and was buried at the Serafimovskoye cemetery. During his long life, Nikolai Panin managed to become an Olympic champion, a five-time Russian champion (1901, 1902, 1903, 1905, 1907) in figure skating, a twelve-time Russian champion in pistol shooting (from 1906 to 1917), an 11-time champion of Russia in shooting from a combat revolver (from 1907 to 1917). For these achievements in 1940, Panin was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.
Few people believe, but the first Russian champion of the Summer Olympic Games was a figure skater. Nikolai Panin-Kolomenkin won the gold medal exactly 100 years ago at the London 1908 Games.
Six Russians went to the capital of England at their own risk. The adventure turned out to be a success: Nikolai Orlov and Alexey Petrov won silver medals in wrestling, and Panin won in figure skating. Then, for the first time, a purely non-summer sport was included in the program of the Games of the IV Olympics in London, and our skater delicately drew the so-called special figures on the ice. As was required then, Panin, even before the Olympics, sent the judges drawings of the figures that he was going to draw on the ice. They were so complex that many arbitrators did not believe that this was possible. But the seven-time world champion Swede Salchow believed and refused to participate in this competition.
The mini-team returned to Russia triumphantly. And this is where huge troubles began for Panin. His superiors quite seriously and quite officially accused him of violating the official code of conduct. According to the stupidest instructions, government officials were strictly forbidden to participate in public sports competitions. And financial inspector Nikolai Kolomenkin, who oversees the most important Tsarskoye Selo region near St. Petersburg, fooled his bosses for years, competing in tournaments under the pseudonym Panin. Five times he became the strongest figure skater in Russia, and he also shot very accurately, as evidenced by 23 championship titles in pistol shooting and 11 in combat revolver.
In London, let's face it, he won easily. The report of the Olympic Committee wrote: “Panin surpassed his rivals both in the complexity of the figures drawn on the ice and in the ease with which they were executed.” After Panin’s performance on the ice, according to contemporaries, there remained a whole series of impeccable drawings, executed with mathematical precision. And mathematics even has a lot to do with it: a native of the village of Khrenovoe, Bobrovsky district, Voronezh province, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kolomenkin brilliantly completed his studies at the department of natural sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. By the way, he was almost a polyglot: he was fluent in English, French and German, and spoke Swedish and Finnish.
But after his victory in London, the Olympic champion ended up with figure skating, stopped attending his favorite sports club, the Yacht Club, and did not perform on the ice. What could be done if the first Russian Olympian was threatened with being sent to distant Siberia. I had to give up.
But in 1910, he published the world's first textbook on figure skating, which he worked on for five years. It contains both theory and practice, and the book has turned into a kind of anthology. You will be surprised, but many coaches still use Panin’s manual to teach their students the basics of figure skating. The International Skating Union (ISU) recognized the book as an official textbook and awarded the author a gold medal. The man was truly ahead of his time. In 1914, Panin-Kolomenkin was a referee at the World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm.
And before that, we somehow know little about this, I visited the capital of Sweden in 1912 at the V Olympic Games. The Russian team completely failed there. But our hero won another medal, a silver one, in the team pistol shooting competition.
However, the October Revolution crept up unnoticed. And unlike many colleagues, financial inspector Panin-Kolomenkin accepted her. At least he didn’t run away from his Tsarskoe Selo, and took up closely what he liked - sports. He became a coach in both shooting and figure skating. And in 1928, the no longer young Panin-Kolomenkin, born in 1872, won pistol shooting at the First All-Union Spartakiad.
He then lived in Luga, but then moved to Leningrad and began scientific work in the field of sports - in 1938 he was already a candidate of sciences, an associate professor at a research institute. Stalin's purges bypassed Nikolai Alexandrovich. In 1940, he was even awarded the highest title in our sports hierarchy: he was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. But, note, not for achievements in figure skating, but specifically for shooting.
And the Second World War broke out - and Panin-Kolomenkin took up something completely unusual. And in adulthood, having retained excellent physical skills, he trained future fighters as an instructor, and one would like to write “saboteurs”, partisan detachments. He himself taught them bayonet fighting, ran many kilometers of cross-country skiing with the young ones and, of course, taught them shooting, especially leaning on the officer’s combat pistol. He even managed to write a detailed manual, which was distributed to all future national avengers. How they entrusted one of the former is unknown, a dark spot.
He lived a long and interesting life. He managed to do so much... Back in 1907, he personally made the figure skates that were later adopted as a model. It was he who first introduced sports categories in 1933. He has written many manuals on shooting - combat and sports. Conducted research and coaching work. Until his departure in January 1956, he worked as a teacher at the famous Lesgaft Institute of Physical Culture in Leningrad. His Olympic gold medal is kept in the Hermitage. They say that one of the happiest days was considered to be the one when in 1952 Nina Romashkova-Ponomareva won the first gold medal in the history of Soviet sports. And the second - in the history of Russian sports.
People in Russia have always loved ice skating. According to legend, Peter I himself enjoyed going out on the ice and even came up with a way to attach a skate to a boot. Skating rinks were built for residents of northern St. Petersburg, and ice skating was a favorite winter pastime for residents of the capital. Back in 1838, a special book, “Winter Fun and the Art of Figure Skating,” by gymnastics teacher G. de Pauli, was published; it described exercises for beginner figure skaters. In the 80s of the 19th century, the “St. Petersburg Society of Skating Fans” was created, whose members practiced at the Yusupov Garden skating rink. We can say that this society became the first figure skating school in Russia.
In 1880, the first international tournament even took place in St. Petersburg, the occasion of which was the 25th anniversary of the existence of the skating rink in the Yusupov Garden. The victory was then won by the St. Petersburg lawyer A.P. Lebedev.
Skating rink in Yusupov Garden
But a few years later, another skating enthusiast appeared on the St. Petersburg ice, who had no equal - Nikolai Aleksandrovich Panin - Kolomenkin. The athlete's real name is Kolomenkin, he was born in 1871 in the Voronezh region, at the age of 14 he ended up in St. Petersburg, graduated from high school here, then from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, worked in the St. Petersburg State Chamber, and devoted all his free time to sports. In 1897, under the pseudonym “Panin,” he won the championship of the “St. Petersburg Circle of Sports Lovers” in figure skating, and a few years later he won other victories - he became the champion of Russia five times, and was a prize-winner of the World and European Championships in figure skating.
The loudest victory was the victory of Nikolai Panin - Kolomenkin at the IV Olympic Games in London in 1908. At the beginning of the 20th century, only the Summer Olympic Games were held, but figure skating was included in the program of the London Olympics for the first time. At this time, the most famous figure skater in Europe was considered the multiple world champion Swede Ulrich Salchow, and he was the main contender for victory in London. In addition to the “school” and free skating, the skaters’ program included performing special figures, the drawings of which were drawn by the participants on paper in advance and given to the judges. After approval of these figures by the panel of judges, the skater had to, without changing anything, “draw” these figures on the ice. The figures proposed by Panin - Kolomenkin amazed everyone with their complexity, and the judges watched with particular passion for the correctness of their execution. But there was nothing to complain about - the Russian skater brilliantly completed the stated program.
The judges unanimously awarded Panin - Kolomenkin first place. This was the first Olympic gold medal in the history of Russian sports. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the athlete himself was already 36 years old at that time - by today’s standards, this is already a completely “non-championship” age.
After his victory at the Olympics, Panin-Kolomenkin trained young figure skaters, worked in the Russian Olympic Committee, but he himself did not give up sports: he became the Russian champion in pistol shooting 12 times.
The first Russian Olympic champion lived a long life. In the 30s, he headed the school of figure skating masters at the Leningrad Institute of Physical Culture. Lesgaft, wrote several works on the theory and history of figure skating, and during the Great Patriotic War he was an instructor in training fighters of partisan detachments. After the end of the war, the master continued to work at the Institute of Physical Culture, training Russian figure skaters. N.A. Panin - Kolomenkin died in 1956.
A wonderful figure skater, the first Russian Olympic champion, is still an authority for athletes today: the Figure Skating Academy was recently created in St. Petersburg, which was named after N. A. Panin - Kolomenkin.
Text prepared by Galina Dregulas
1908
First Russian champion
1908
Four cities put forward their candidacies to organize the IV Olympic Games - Berlin, London, Milan and Rome. But by the time of the session of the International Olympic Committee, at which the issue of the capital of the 1908 Olympics was to be decided, there were three contenders left: the German Olympic Committee was unable to secure the support of its government and was forced to withdraw the candidacy of Berlin. The IOC chose the capital of Italy by secret ballot.
However, in 1906, the Italians refused to host the Games, citing difficulties with the construction of sports facilities. London agreed to host the Games. In a relatively short time, the 70,000-seat White City Stadium with a cinder track and a cement track for cycling competitions, a swimming pool, and a hall for wrestling competitions were built.
Despite the fact that the Franco-British Exhibition was held in the suburbs of London in 1908, the concerns of the leaders of the International Olympic Committee that the Olympic Games would again turn into a secondary event were in vain. The games were held at a high level and surpassed all previous ones in every respect.
A record 2,034 athletes took part, including 36 women, from 22 countries. In terms of the number of athletes, they surpassed all three previous Olympic Games combined. Great Britain was represented by 710 athletes - the largest number entered by one country in the entire history of the modern Olympic Games. For the first time, the Russian team arrived at the Games, consisting of 5 athletes: Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin, Nikolay Orlov, Andrey Petrov, Evgeny Zamotin and Grigory Demin.
Compared to the previous Games, the competition program was significantly expanded, which included 20 sports: boxing, freestyle and classic wrestling, cycling, water polo, motorboat competitions, gymnastics, rowing, jeu de paume, athletics, lacrosse , sailing, swimming, diving, polo, rugby, rackets, shotgun and skeet shooting, football, field hockey. Women competed in archery and tennis. For the first time, the program included a winter sport - figure skating for men and women.
For the first time, during the opening parade, the teams marched under the flags of their countries and each team wore different costumes. In previous opening parades of the Games, if they were held, participants walked in sports uniforms.
It should be noted that the IV Olympiad showed, in comparison with the previous ones, a significantly increased skill of the athletes and higher competition. The champions included representatives from 14 countries, which is significantly more than at any previous Olympics. Many outstanding athletes achieved exceptionally high results for those years. Thus, 35-year-old American jumper Ray Every added two more to the six gold medals won at the previous two Olympics - in the standing high and long jumps. And if we count the two gold medals he won in 1906 at the Games held in Greece and recognized as “unofficial” by the International Olympic Committee, then the number of gold medals of Ray Every reaches 10, which is the highest figure for the Olympic Games.
Other athletes from the US team performed no less successfully: Melvin Sheppard - three gold medals - in the 800 m run with a score of 1.52.8 - a world record, in the 1500 m run with a score of 4.03.7 - an Olympic record, and in the relay race . Francis Irons won the long jump with a time of 7m 48cm. Forrest Smithson was first in the 110m hurdles with a time of 15.0s. Charles Bacon won the 400m hurdles in 55.0s. John Flanagan set a record in the hammer throw with a result of 51 m 92 cm.
Athletes from other countries also performed successfully. Swedish athlete Erik Lemming won the javelin throw in both freestyle and Greek styles. At the same time, throwing the javelin in the Greek style, he set a new world and Olympic record - 54 m 92 cm. Englishman Timothy Ahearn was first in the triple jump with a result of 14 m 92 cm. If in athletics competitions the US athletes had an advantage, winning 15 of 27 gold medals were won, then in other sports athletes from other countries excelled. For example, in boxing, in all 5 weight categories, British athletes were ahead, who also turned out to be the owners of 5 of the 6 medals awarded in cycling, all gold medals in rowing, sailing, and tennis.
The first real football tournament was held in London. 8 teams submitted applications, but due to political differences, two applications were withdrawn, and 6 teams from 5 countries took part in the tournament. The scores recorded in the meetings of football teams are of interest: Great Britain-Sweden - 12:1; Denmark-France II - 9:0; In the semi-finals, the Danish team beat the French team with a record score for Olympic competitions - 17:1. The teams from Great Britain and Denmark met in the final. The British won with a score of 2:0.
Among the winners in competitions in other sports were athletes from Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Russia, Belgium, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Norway, South Africa, Australasia - Australia and New Zealand competed as one team.
The debut of Russian athletes should be considered successful: 3 out of 5 who participated in the Games returned home with awards. Classic style wrestlers Nikolai Orlov and Andrey Petrov were awarded silver medals. A real sensation was the performance of Nikolai Panin-Kolomenkin in figure skating competitions, who became the first Russian Olympic champion.
The official report on the Games noted: “Panin was far ahead of his rivals both in the difficulty of the figures and in the beauty and ease of their execution.” N. Panin-Kolomenkin entered the history of sports not only as the first Russian champion of the Olympic Games, he was also a five-time champion of Russia, a prize-winner of the 1903 World and 1904 and 1908 European Championships in figure skating, brilliantly played tennis, football, was a first-class yachtsman and rower, won the Russian championship 12 times in shooting with a sports pistol and 11 times with a combat pistol.
At the age of 56, he became the winner of the 1928 All-Union Spartakiad in pistol shooting. For many years N. Panin-Kolomenkin was engaged in scientific and pedagogical work, wrote several books, defended a dissertation, and in 1940 received the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. He died in 1956 at the age of 84.
The most dramatic event of the Games of the IV Olympiad was the marathon competition. The first to appear on the stadium track was the Italian athlete Dorando Pietri, who was almost unconscious. His movements were vague, he had poor control of his body and was not oriented in the situation. Instead of turning left, he turned right. Then, realizing the mistake, he changed direction. He fell 70 m from the finish line. Then, with great effort, he stood up, took a few hesitant steps, and fell again. So, rising and falling again, the Italian slowly moved towards the finish line. When only 20 meters remained before the finish, American athlete John Hayes appeared at the stadium. A few meters before the finish, Pietri fell again and lost consciousness. Two people ran up to him - a judge and a journalist (chroniclers of the time say that it was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - the “father” of Sherlock Holmes). They bent over the Italian, patted him on the cheeks, trying to bring him to his senses, lifted him, put him on his feet and brought him to the finish line. Dorando Pietri crossed it victorious and... defeated.
After intense discussion, the panel of judges disqualified the athlete for providing him with outside assistance. The Italian athlete did not receive an Olympic award, but during the celebration of the winners he was invited to the podium and one of the members of the royal family presented him with a gold cup similar to the one that was awarded to the winner for his outstanding sporting achievement. On this day and on this occasion, from the pulpit of St. Peter's Cathedral, the bishop pronounced the following words: “At the Olympics, the main thing is not victory, but participation.” This saying is erroneously attributed to Pierre de Coubertin.
After the end of the London Olympics, tables with the results of the unofficial team competition appeared in the press for the first time, which later became widespread, despite the opposition of the International Olympic Committee. First place in the unofficial team competition was taken by the Great Britain team, which won 147 medals - 57 gold, 50 silver and 40 bronze; 303.5 points. In second place were US athletes with 47 medals - 23 gold, 12 silver, 12 bronze; 103.3 points. In third place are Swedish athletes with 25 medals - 8 gold, 6 silver, 11 bronze; 46.3 points.
Venue - London, UK Date - April 27 - October 31, 1908 Number of participating countries - 22 Number of sports - 21 Number of participants - 2034 (men - 1998, women - 36) Website information used:
olympiad.h1.ru
"Encyclopedia of Sports" - esport.com.ua
from the official IOC website www.olympic.org,
from the website of the NOC of Russia www.olympic.ru
books:
"From Olympia to Moscow" by Valery Steinbach,
"Sensations and scandals of the sports age" by Boris Bazunov,
"A Brief Biographical Dictionary: Athletes" by the publishing house "RIPOL CLASSIC";
"History of the Olympic Games. Medals, badges, posters." Treskin, Steinbach
newspapers:
"SPORT-EXPRESS"
Photo of the IOC official website
Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin – (real name Kolomenkin) is the first and only Olympic champion in the history of the Russian Empire. He was born on January 8 (1), 1872 (the year is not exact, there are also options 1873 and 1874) in the village of Khrenovoe, Bobrovsky district, Voronezh province. In any case, he indicates this exact place in his autobiography. Although, for example, Voronezh local historian Vladimir Eletskikh, citing the Leningrad State Historical Archive, claims that the future Olympic champion was born in the village of Nikolskoye, Bobrovsky district, which is located 8 kilometers from Khrenovoy, and that the newborn was allegedly baptized in the church of this village.
Nikolai’s father was the merchant of the 2nd guild Alexander Kolomenkin, co-owner of the Khrenovsky stud farm, and his mother was the daughter of Colonel Evgenia Smirnovskaya. When Kolya turned seven, the family moved to Voronezh. In the summer, the boy often went to his relatives in Khrenovoe, where he rode horses, including the famous Oryol horses. He was introduced to a rider who taught the capable boy the complex art of taming horses.
In winter, Nikolai enjoyed visiting public skating rinks in Voronezh, where he spent hours watching the skating virtuosos. The main gathering place for townspeople was the City Garden, where on holidays and weekends one could enjoy skating to orchestral music.
At first, instead of normal skates, Kolya had homemade devices - metal runners wrapped around wood. At that time, Voronezh residents did not have decent equipment, so all-metal skates were considered the ultimate dream.
The boy's mother, seeing with what passion he skated even in the gutters, helped his hobby. She was worried that her son was skating on pitiful skates, and bought him branded ones. In a Moscow store she managed to purchase magnificent skates with copper soles and nickel-plated runners. Most importantly, these miracle skates were not removable - few people in Voronezh had such.
Kolya had an older sister, Lena, whom he loved very much. She also often skated in the park, and when she saw the branded skates, she fell in love with them. By a strong-willed decision, her brother gave her the right skate. I rode on the left myself, pushing off with my right foot. This helped him master skating on his left skate so masterfully that in the future he performed all the most difficult tricks on it, since his left leg was much stronger and more dexterous than his right. A year later, my sister was also given skates, and Kolya could skate fully again.
At the age of 13, still very young, Nikolai moved to live and study in St. Petersburg. While studying at the gymnasium, he begins to regularly train on one of the ponds in the Yusupov Garden. At that time, Yusupov Garden became a favorite place for skating. Foreigners often came there with demonstration performances. Gymnasium student Nikolai Kolomenkin only dreamed of getting there - he needed a recommendation from a member of the St. Petersburg Society of Skating Amateurs (SPb OLBK).
In the meantime, there was no access to the elite club, the young man visited other skating rinks, where he polished his meager skills - he could often be seen, for example, on Grechesky Avenue. He circled on ice that was not of the best quality, even when leaves were frozen into it and it was not completely smooth, or when the ice, due to excessive fragility, crumbled under his skates. One of the simple tricks that the young man knew then was a figure eight on two legs.
When Nikolai changed schools, he found out that in winter a large skating rink was being built in the courtyard of the new educational institution. It was at that time that he decided to do something new - not just ride, but also perform complex techniques. This is how he first became seriously interested in figure skating. In the capital, it developed quickly, largely thanks to the fruitful work of the same St. Petersburg OLBK.
It was at the gymnasium skating rink that Nikolai began to master complex techniques, for which he bought new skates with a large curvature of the blade at a pawnshop. It was difficult to ride them, but exciting. He wanted to learn everything new - for example, learn to slide on the outer edge of a skate. At first Nikolai was afraid of breaking, so he tied towels to his hips and only after that he mastered a new type of sliding, which involved a strong tilt. But all the fears of falling were in vain; he learned this trick easily and almost never fell, so there was no need for towels.
From 1893 to 1897, Kolomenkin received higher education at St. Petersburg University, studying natural sciences at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. After studying, he worked in the financial department at the St. Petersburg Treasury Chamber.
In 1890, Kolomenkin had the opportunity to personally see the best figure skaters on the planet. The first unofficial world figure skating championship took place in the Yusupov Garden. All the strongest foreign masters have gathered in the capital of the Russian Empire! The best representatives of different skating schools took part in it: Karl Kaiser (Germany), Walter Dienstl (Austria), John Catani (Finland), Ivar Hult (Sweden), Rudolf Yulievich Sundgren (Swede, who lived in St. Petersburg), Louis Rubenstein (Canadian, champion North America). And the best in this motley company was the St. Petersburg employee of the Vladikavkaz Railway, Alexey Lebedev, who won in all three disciplines: school figures, free skating and special figures. He was a tall, stately man with a wedge beard, who amazed the judges with his highly accurate execution of the most complex technical elements. Since then, this wonderful master has stopped competing in international tournaments, concentrating on coaching. Later he was called “the grandfather of Russian figure skaters.”
During his studies, Nikolai developed in various sports. One can only guess how his passion for athletics, lawn tennis (“tennis on the lawn”, the modern name is lawn tennis), fencing, football, shooting, cycling and sailing influenced his skills. But he put a piece of his soul into each of these types - and his body became stronger, more resilient, more flexible, more agile, and his coordination of movements improved. He cultivated patience, attention, and concentration. And his understanding of all these disciplines was so deep that he even acted as a coach. So you shouldn’t be surprised why in the future he created many scientific works devoted to sports.
While cycling, Nikolai met Sergei Krupsky, who performed brilliantly in competitions. But one day, by a fatal accident, Krupsky was seriously injured in a race, and his parents found out about his passion for sports. In those days, society considered athletes to be second-class citizens. Sports were treated as empty entertainment, unworthy of high-born gentlemen, who should invest all their strength in more worthy pursuits, for example, in the civil service. Krupsky was forced to retire from cycling, leaving his friend-skater (and at the same time coach) the pseudonym Panin.
“In those days, many representatives of even the intelligent classes of society, including a number of my university comrades, treated sports very disapprovingly and even with ridicule,” Nikolai explained in his autobiography. “That’s why I decided to hide my last name under a pseudonym, which was then in great fashion among athletes. When my time came to perform in the sports arena, Seryozha Krupsky advised me to inherit his pseudonym “Panin” as he was very lucky: after all, he had not lost a single bicycle race with it. I agreed, and an unknown Panin appeared on the posters announcing the competition. My pseudonym soon became famous and subsequently remained with me for the rest of my life, and was also officially attached to my surname.”
Nikolai Kolomenkin's debut at international figure skating competitions took place in 1897, at the same competitions he takes the pseudonym Panin, which accompanied him throughout his career. In the same year, his teaching career began; he organized a youth figure skating school.
In 1899, Nikolai graduated from the university with a gold medal, having already won the title of champion of the “St. Petersburg Circle of Sports Lovers” in figure skating. And, as was customary in those days, he immediately entered the service in order to justify the hopes of his relatives. He was given the position of assistant inspector, and then he became a tax inspector in the financial department for the salary collection department of the Tsarskoye Selo district.
In this job, Nikolai had to hide the fact that he was competing in serious competitions. But it was no longer possible to quit the sport - he loved it so much that he couldn’t imagine himself without competition. In addition, he had the very mentor he had always dreamed of - the unofficial world champion Alexey Lebedev. With him he created a creative duet and entered the era of the first greatest figure skaters in the world.
In 1901, in Helsingfors, in a competition for the title of “Best Skater in Art,” Nikolai Panin won a gold medal and the title of best figure skater in Russia. Two years later, at the World Figure Skating Championships, Panin climbed to the second step of the podium. At the European Championships in 1904 he came third.
In 1908 Nikolai Panin represented the Russian Empire at the IV Olympic Games in London. These were the first Summer Games in history to feature figure skating competitions. Moreover, for the first time, figure skaters competed on an artificial ice rink (the Winter Olympic Games began to be held in 1924). The main contender for gold in this discipline was considered to be the multiple champion of the world and other major international competitions. At the Olympic Games, figure skaters competed in several disciplines, the key for Panin was the discipline where athletes performed figures that they submitted to the judges on paper in advance. Panin’s drawing amazed not only the judges, but also the competition participants. Salchow and several other skaters refused to further participate in the competition. At the same time, few believed that the 36-year-old athlete from Russia would be able to perform these most difficult elements on ice. But Panin-Kolomenkin performed so brilliantly that the judges without hesitation gave him first place.
After the Games in London Panin worked at the Russian Olympic Committee, was engaged in coaching and teaching activities. His students were the champions of Russia and the Soviet Union: K. Olla, P. Chernyshev, P. Orlov, E. Alekseeva and others. In parallel with his coaching work, Kolomenkin is actively involved in sports. He was a 23-time Russian champion and winner of the 1928 All-Union Spartakiad in shooting. He was involved in athletics, rowing, tennis, and cycling.
Kolomenkin not only became the first Olympic champion from Tsarist Russia, but also author of the first theoretical work in the Empire, “Figure Skating”(1909). For this work, he was twice awarded the gold medal “For an outstanding scientific essay on figure skating in the field of sports.”
In 1935, thanks to the active work of Panin-Kolomenkin, at the Higher Sports School at the Institute of Physical Culture. A.P. Lesgaft opened a figure skating department.
During the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Panin was an instructor in training fighters of partisan detachments. After the war, he continued to work at the Institute of Physical Culture. A.P. Lesgaft. For fundamental scientific achievements and pedagogical activities he was awarded awarded the title of associate professor and the degree of candidate of pedagogical sciences. Panin-Kolomenkin died in 1956 in Leningrad.
In June 2008, in honor of the 100th anniversary of Russia's first victory at the Olympic Games, a monument to Nikolai Kolomenkin was erected in Voronezh. The world's first Figure Skating Academy, named after the legendary athlete, was created in St. Petersburg.