Gruzintseva, Nina Alexandrovna

Nina Gruzintseva was born on April 7, 1934 in Leningrad , but she moved to Veliky Novgorod as a child. In the post-war years, she participated in the restoration of the ruined city, already while studying in the seventh grade, she entered the sawmill, where she worked in three shifts. She began to actively engage in rowing at the age of fifteen, she was trained under the guidance of the honored coach Olga Ilyina , with whom she first performed together in the same boat. She was a member of the Novgorod team of the Spartak voluntary sports society.

She achieved her first serious success in 1955, when she won a gold medal in the standings of double kayaks at a distance of 500 meters at the adult all-Union championship, and also received a gold award at the V World Youth and Student Festival in Warsaw. A year later, she again became a national champion, having won the 4 × 500 m relay. A year later she got into the main team of the Soviet rowing team and visited the European Championship in Ghent in Belgium, from where she brought the gold medal of honor, won among the deuces in the half-kilometer race. In 1958, at the World Cup, paired with Maria Shubina, she defeated all rivals five hundred meters, thus earning the title of world champion. For this achievement, according to the results of the season, she was awarded the honorary title “ Honored Master of Sports of the USSR ”.

In 1959, Gruzintseva’s crews were twice the best in the national championship, among the doubles at 500 meters and in the relay, while at the European championship in Duisburg, Germany, she won silver with a double. The following season, added to the track record gold among fours at half a kilometer and defended the champion title in deuces. At the championship of the Soviet Union in 1961, she won first places among pair kayaks at five hundred meters and again in the relay, and later represented the country at the European Championships in Poznan, Poland, where she was one of the winners in all three women's disciplines, and in the K-2,500 m programs and K-4 500 m climbed the top step of the podium, becoming the three-time European champion.

At the USSR championships of 1962, 1963 and 1964, Nina Gruzintseva was invariably the winner among the doubles in the half-kilometer heats, in addition, in 1962 and 1963 she also won with the four, and in 1963 and 1964 she achieved victory in the relay relay of singles. Thanks to a series of successful performances, she was awarded the right to defend the country's honor at the Tokyo Summer Olympics - together with her titled partner Antonina Seredina, she fought for medals at a distance of 500 meters, successfully went to the final stage of the competition, was close to the prize positions, but ultimately finished only fourth, losing leadership to the German, American and Romanian crews.

After the Tokyo Olympics, Gruzintseva remained in the main team of the Soviet national team and continued to take part in major international regattas. In 1965, 1967 and 1968, she became the champion of the all-Union championship in half a kilometer among four-seater kayaks. In the late 1960s, she decided to end her athlete’s career and switched to coaching. She worked as a kayaking and canoeing trainer at the Novgorod Specialized Children and Youth School of the Olympic Reserve. Now lives in Veliky Novgorod, is an honorary citizen of the city ^[2] .

• Nina Gruzintseva - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Nina Gruzintseva - medals at major international competitions
• Gruzintseva Nina Aleksandrovna (unavailable link from 06/14/2016 [1146 days]) - a brief biographical information on the Yandex.Dictionaries website
• List of USSR kayaking and canoeing champions (unavailable link from 06/14/2016 [1146 days])
• Lists of kayaking and canoeing champions and prize winners (1936-2007 )