It is with great sadness that I report here the sudden and completely unexpected death, on 5th October, of our friend Vladimir Zaglada. I send my love and condolences to his daughter, Olesya. My thoughts are with the whole family.
Vladimir was born in Lvov, Ukraine, in November 1944. His father was a progressive lawyer of great courage who was known to defend those who challenged the Soviet authorities. Vladimir trained as a sports acrobat under the developing Soviet sports system, working in the same club as Olympic champion Viktor Chukarin. After moving to Moscow, he became a leading coach of women's gymnastics, supporting the development of high level acrobatics. He worked particularly closely with the up and coming young gymnasts of the early 1980s - you can see him at work in the video 'You in Gymnastics'. At the national training centre, Lake Krugloye, he worked with Filatova, Mostepanova, Yurchenko, Arzhannikova, Mukhina and more.
Around the mid 1980s Vladimir moved away from Krugloye and went to work at the Dynamo Club in Moscow. He collaborated with leading coaches such as Elvira Saadi and Vladimir Aksenov, and is remembered fondly by his gymnasts, including Marina Goriounova, who was one of three gymnasts starring in the 1987 documentary 'Will You Come to the Ball'. He often spoke of choreographer Yelena Kapitonova, with whom he authored two books on women's gymnastics.
Vladimir's influence stretched far and wide through the friendship links he made at competitions and on training clinics. In particular he fostered a strong link with the UK gymnastics community by offering training at his beloved Dynamo club in Moscow. When the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991 and funding for sports dropped off the cliff edge, Vladimir did all he could to help Dynamo grow and prosper. He promoted professional displays of the former Soviet gymnasts around Europe. But nothing could slow the gradual defunding of sports, and the quality of life in 1990s Russia forced many coaches to look for work elsewhere in the world. Vladimir came to Britain, where he worked for British Gymnastics, writing a development plan* for the male gymnasts which senior British coaches and gymnasts to this day credit as being a foundation of the success that the country has experienced over past decades.
Vladimir disseminated his energy, enthusiasm and skill in person, in the gym, and beyond through his writing. His semi-autobiographical history of Russian gymnastics 'Journey from East to West' records much of his involvement with Soviet and British gymnastics. There are, sadly, too few books like this from those close to the heart of the Soviet gymnastics system. You should read it if you want to try to understand how that system was driven, and what it felt like from the inside. He also contributed to this blog with his own writing, and by supporting my writing. He facilitated interviews with great Soviet coaches and gymnasts, and spent hours on the phone to me, explaining the mysteries of Soviet gymnastics life.
In his later years, Vladimir moved to the USA, to Georgia, where he coached generations of young gymnasts. He is remembered there with great affection, as well as through the continuing interest in gymnastics that still flourishes in that part of the world. Vladimir loved writing for children, and his 2012 volume 'Gymmy the Owl And His Friends' is full of the charm, gentle humour and talent for communication that instilled his life and work.
As time moves quickly on, we are losing many of the characters and geniuses who fuelled the Soviet gymnastics machine, and who supported the international development of gymnastics for over seventy years, from 1952 to the 2020s. Today, in 2024, gymnastics looks very different and has lost much of its spectacle, intrigue and beauty without the cultural influence of Russia and legacy of the former Soviet Union. It is sad that military conflict has had to interfere with co-relations and a cultural form that meant so much to so many.
Vladimir died with his whole family close by, in Dusseldorf, West Germany, as he awaited his 80th birthday. There is too much for me to say. He will be greatly missed.
A few reflections on Zaglada's Journey from East to West
Maria Filatova: Russian Sparrow Made in the USSR
Dynamo Moscow : Is there a future?
Gymnastics in Post-Soviet Russia
*World Class Performance Programme for British Gymnastics.