Olympic Champion Nikolai Andrianov

Nikolai Andrianov has gone down in Olympic history as one of the all-time great gymnasts, but it was a long and rocky road for him. Things didn't start out with the best of circumstances for young Nikolai Andrianov. When he was only 11 years old, his father deserted the family. Life for the family — Nicolai, his mother, and three sisters — was difficult, to say the least.

Nikolai reacted to his father's desertion and the subsequent lack of income by becoming a "bad" boy or a "wild child." He picked fights. He skipped school. His teachers considered him incorrigible. To say that things were not going well is an understatement.

Then one day a friend of Nikolai's, Zhenya Skurlov, talked young Nikolai into going to a gymnastics class with him. Nikolai was a natural and the teacher, Nikolai Tolkachev, agreed to coach him.

It was apparent to Tolkachev that Nikolai needed a strong masculine influence in his life, and so Tolkachev took Andrianov to live with him. After only five years of instruction, Nikolai Andrianov made his debut as a gymnast at the Junior Spartakiade in Yerevan, USSR. A year later, Andrianov earned an alternate spot on the 1970 Worlds team.

Nikolai continued to hone his craft and continued to collect medal after medal. Finally, his big chance came at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada. He collected seven Olympic medals — four gold medals, two silver medals, and one bronze medal. He was also awarded Best All Around.

Nikolai Andrianov retired from competing in 1980 and took over as head of the Vladimir gymnastics school, replacing his coach Nikolai Tolkachev. Later, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nikolai Andrianov relocated to Japan, where he now coaches Japanese gymnasts.