Galina Prozumenshikova was the first Olympic champion of soviet sport who got that high title in Japan when she was just 15.

It is difficult to believe that she nearly drowned at the age of 4 at the Black Sea banks! Her father was a diver and he could save her. She had been having the blue funk because of the water for a long time and she was afraid to come to the sea. Time is a healer and once she and her friends went to the aquatic sports station. So she got the guts to jump into the water and she was swimming trying her best to get to the dans. She wanted to prove to herself that she had no fear. But she didn’t know that Elena Alekseenko was watching her. That was a trainer in the swimming school who knew Galina`s story. She invited her to the swimming section and became her first teacher.

How did she teach the rookies? Very simple! She used the “the fishing tackle”: the appliance with the wide belt for the swimmers and it was tied up with the rope and the long pole – “fishing tackle”. It helped Galina to learn the breaststroke. At the age of 12 she began to show good results at the level of the senior degree. Her phenomenal career started and she was invited to the national team when she won the competition.
So Galya dreamed to take part in the competition in Japan in 1964. But it turned out that she had the appendix crises before the start of the competition. Everybody told that she should go to the hospital. So that was difficult time for the girl, but she said that she wouldn’t come back from the Olympic Games without the 1st prize. She was believed and she was included to the USSR team again.
She was surprised by the unusual swimming pool in Tokyo. She pledged the word that she wouldn’t lose the fight in such a beautiful pool. Before the start she had slept well and could do a great job of keeping her cool. There were 26 participants from 15 countries, but Galya was the first! And she set a record too!

After her completions Galina worked as a trainer but it was difficult to live because she earned little and sometimes her family had to survive. So that’s the truth that life is a struggle.