Kravchenko, Andrey Sergeevich

Andrey Kravchenko was born and spent his childhood in the military town of Myshanka in the Gomel region . His father is a serviceman, champion of the USSR in military all-around ^[2] ; mother, Elena Viktorovna, who also had a sports past, worked in the library of the military unit. Andrew in his school years was fond of athletics and volleyball ^[3] .

In 1999, at the regional pioneer quadathlon competitions, he met with the coaches of the Gomel school of the Olympic reserve. The guy’s sporting prospects were not obvious - at that time Kravchenko, in his own words, “was small, 167 centimeters, thin” ^[4] , but largely thanks to his mother’s perseverance, he was nevertheless called by coach Mikhail Konoplev for training camps in Golden Sands near Gomel , where for the first time in my life I took up a spear . After these training camps, the mentor of the Gomel sports school Ivan Petrovich Gordienko accepted Kravchenko into his group ^{[4] [5]} .

Kravchenko’s first major achievement was the silver medal of the 2003 Junior World Cup in Sherbrooke . In the same year, due to a conflict with Ivan Gordienko, Kravchenko went to Finland and trained for two years with Pavel Hämäläinen, the father of the famous Belarusian decathlete Eduard Hämäläinen . Under the supervision of this specialist, he became the winner of the youth world and European championships, however, according to Kravchenko, the harsh methods of working with Hämäläinen Sr. made him return to Gordienko ^[4] .

On May 26–27, 2007, at a traditional decathlon supertournament in Austria's Goetzis, Kravchenko won a gold medal, setting a personal record of 8617 points. New personal achievements were shown to them immediately in six forms included in the decathlon program ^[6] , and the total amount of points became the third result in the world according to the season results ^[7] . In July 2007, Kravchenko became the European Youth Champion in Debrecen , gaining a record for youth championships in the decathlon - 8492, 253 points ahead of silver medalist Pascal Berenbruch from Germany. The first adult world championship in Kravchenko’s career, held in Osaka , brought failure - in the very first form, running 100 meters, he made a false start and was disqualified.

In 2008, at the World Winter Championships in Valencia, he took 2nd place with a personal record in the heptathlon - 6234 points, losing only to American Brian Clay (6371) ^[8] . At the Olympic Games in Beijing, due to poor technical results, Kravchenko lagged far behind Brian Clay, but won silver in a heated rivalry with Russian Alexander Pogorelov and Cuban Leonel Suarez . Before the final appearance of the program - running 1,500 m - the Belarusian athlete was ahead of his pursuers by only 13 points. On the last lap of the “one and a half” Kravchenko, who had fled far behind Suarez from the start, found the strength to accelerate sharply and narrowed the gap from the Cuban, and he stepped forward just before the finish, showing time 4.27.47. In the final table, Kravchenko was ahead of Suarez by 24 points - 8551 against 8527 ^[9] .

In 2010, he won a bronze medal at the Summer European Championships in Barcelona , but this competition could end in an unpleasant way. In the first attempt in the sector for pole vaulting, Kravchenko broke the pole, but he waited for help from the Lithuanian athlete Darius Draudvila , who gave him his shell ^[10] .

In 2011, in the Paris Hall of the “ Bercy Arena ”, despite a severe leg injury a week before leaving for the competition, Andrey Kravchenko confidently won the first gold medal of the European Winter Championship in his career, setting a new national and personal record in the heptathlon - 6282 points ^{[ 5]} . In 2011-2012, he trained under the leadership of Russian Vladimir Kudryavtsev ^[3] . Since September 2012, she has been training with the Gomel trainer, director of the institution “Gomel Regional Center of the Olympic Track and Field Athletics”, candidate of pedagogical sciences, master of sports of the USSR in all-around Igor Leonidovich Sivodedov.

The injury and surgery on the right Achilles tendon, which Andrei Kravchenko did at the Finnish clinic at his own expense ^[11] , did not allow him to speak at the Olympic Games in London . Returning to performances after a long break, the Belarusian athlete in May 2013 won the international tournament in Florence with the best result of the season in the world - 8390 ^[12] , and in June - the winner of the World Challenge tournament in Kladno with a personal record in shot put ^[13] . At the World Championships in Moscow, Kravchenko, unsuccessfully speaking in running disciplines, took 12th place.

In March 2014, Andrei Kravchenko won a silver medal for the winter world championship for the second time in his career. At the Ergo Arena , he surpassed his own national heptathlon record - 6303 points. In August of the same year in Zurich he won the European Championships and did not reach just one point until his personal record was repeated. In high jump, Kravchenko showed the best result in the history of European championships among decathletes (2.22). During the performance of the eighth form, pole vaulting, he felt pain in the left Achilles tendon, but this did not prevent him from winning the next view, javelin throw, and become the leader of the competition with great advantage ^[14] .

Due to the injury received at the European Championship, in January, June and September 2015 he underwent operations in the area of ​​the left Achilles tendon and did not participate in competitions in the pre-Olympic season. The fourth operation, which took place in June 2016, made it impossible for him to participate in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro ^{[15] [16]} .

• Honored Master of Sports of the Republic of Belarus (September 8, 2008) - for achieving high sports results at the XXIX Summer Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing (China), a great personal contribution to the development of physical culture and sports ^[17] .

At the Beijing Olympics, the interest of photojournalists was attracted by the legs of Andrei Kravchenko. On both legs of the athlete one could see tattoos depicting pictographs of all the disciplines included in the decathlon program: five species taking place on the first day of the decathlon competition, on the left foot, and five others on the right ^{[18] [19]} .

• Andrey Kravchenko in the IAAF database
• Andrey Sergeevich Kravchenko - Olympic statistics on Sports-Reference.com