Hockey has lost its voice: commentator Sergei Gimaev has passed away. Voice of Hockey. Sergey Gimaev died Sergey Gimaev Nailyevich why he died
: legendary center forward Vladimir Petrov has died. On Saturday, domestic hockey was left without another famous person - at the age of 62, the honored coach of Russia and popular commentator Sergei Gimaev passed away.
The tragedy happened in Tula during a veterans' match. Silver medalist of the 1980 Olympics and two-time world hockey champion Alexander Golikov told the details of the death of Sergei Gimaev.
“During the match he felt unwell, went to the first aid station, and was given an injection there. Everything seemed to be fine with him, but then the unexpected happened. Doctors said that the blood clot came off,” Golikov told TASS.
Gimaev began his career in Ufa hockey, but Gimaev the hockey player received all his titles in CSKA, for which he began playing in the 1976/77 season. As a member of the capital's club, he repeatedly became the national champion and winner of the USSR Cup, and also raised the trophy over his head for winning the European Champions Cup. At this time, he was included in the lists of the best defenders in the country. After the 1985/86 season, Gimaev ended his career at CSKA.
Since the 2000s, he began working as an expert at hockey matches. Each of his reports became a highlight of the broadcast - any fan recognized Gimaev’s voice.
Olympic champion and Stanley Cup winner Valery Kamensky admitted that it is very difficult for him to talk about the death of the great commentator. “It’s hard to come to terms with this. You could write a book about him. Gimaev is a big part of our sport. It was always interesting to listen to him,” Kamensky told RT.
According to him, Gimaev had a tough character and “always stood his ground.” “There are very few such people. He had a tough army character. Gimaev always stood his ground. I express my condolences to family and friends. This is a difficult loss for hockey. He loved his job, he loved hockey,” Kamensky said.
Three-time Olympic champion Vitaly Davydov emphasized that domestic sport has suffered a colossal loss. “I don’t know the details, except that a team of veterans went to the game in Tula. Soviet and Russian sports have lost an excellent athlete, a good commentator. I think that the fans who listened to his reports noted the fairness of his judgments. He was still young, 62 years old is not yet old,” said Davydov.
Another renowned hockey veteran and three-time world champion, Vyacheslav Anisin, shared with RT that he was shocked by the news of Gimaev’s death, because both of them went out on the ice together during training a few days ago.
“We just recently skated with him, played two days ago, trained. We go through a commission every time. We wouldn't be allowed to go on the ice if we had health problems, but he didn't complain. I would like to express my condolences to the family. Vladimir Petrov left not long ago. “Something has fallen on the hockey legends,” Anisin said.
“He did a lot, and could have done even more.”
Olympic champion Alexander Pashkov remembered Gimaev this way: “He was a very good player, I knew him for many years. He himself is from Ufa, he started his hockey career there. After the time came to join the army, he was drafted to CSKA, and he managed to gain a foothold there. There were outstanding players there, and it was difficult to get into the squad, but he managed to do it, which spoke about his abilities, desire and hard work. He played for CSKA for a long time and won many titles.”
The veteran also spoke about Gimaev’s activities after completing his sports career. “After finishing playing, he began working as a coach at the CSKA hockey school, and then became its director. He worked at the school for many years, during which time the school produced a galaxy of outstanding hockey players and players of the USSR national team, and this is his merit as a coach and leader. Subsequently, he became a commentator and expert, analyzing matches of the domestic championship, world championships and Olympic Games,” Pashkov shared in an interview with RT.
He emphasized that Gimaev could give even more to hockey. “He did all this at a high level, and great popularity came to him among hockey fans and specialists. He did a lot, and could have done even more, but death stopped his activities, which were very necessary for our hockey. The memory remains and respect remains for the man who gave his life to hockey,” added the Olympic champion.
“They listened to Gimaev more than others”
Gimaev’s contribution was also noted by the President of the Russian Hockey Federation (RHF), Vladislav Tretyak. “An extraordinary person. This is a great loss. Just recently we lost the legendary Vladimir Petrov, today another professional in his field. A sad day for us,” Tretyak is quoted as saying by “Championship.”
Tretyak emphasized that Gimaev clearly defined the course of hockey, sometimes criticized, talked about unpleasant moments, but he always loved his job and wanted this sport to move forward in our country. “Recently, Sergei has really become the voice of our hockey. He was a leading specialist who was listened to even more than others,” Tretyak added.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko also expressed condolences. “This is a big loss for all of us. Gimaev did everything to support hockey in the regions and went in the right direction. I want to express my condolences to his family and friends, his fans. Always when athletes, great people leave, it is very sad and causes bitterness,” TASS quotes Mutko as saying.
“He always smiled and encouraged me in my work.”
The former head coach of the Russian national hockey team, Vladimir Plyushchev, was also shocked by the news. “This is a big surprise for me. Gimaev and I have known each other for a very long time, we are the same age and began to compete during the USSR youth championship, when he played for Salavat Yulaev, and I played for CSKA. A man in hockey all his life, he was the director of the CSKA Youth Sports School, then he became a commentator, that is, he continued to practically be in hockey always and everywhere. Whenever this happens, it is difficult to understand and realize that this can happen. I would like to offer my condolences to Sergei’s family and friends. It is always shocking news when a fairly healthy and outwardly powerful and beautiful person passes away. This, of course, is very scary,” said Plyushchev.
Gimaev also influenced coaches who worked in the KHL. “I don’t know him that well, just two years ago we started to meet often. No matter how much I talked to him, he always smiled and encouraged me in my work. “He always exuded positivity,” Andrei Razin, head coach of the KHL club “Yugra,” admitted to RT.
The news reached the other side of the Atlantic. Washington captain Alexander Ovechkin paid tribute to Gimaev.
At the age of 62, the famous Soviet and Russian hockey player and coach Sergei Nailyevich Gimaev died.
On March 18, during a veterans' match in Tula, the Honored Hockey Coach of Russia, multiple champion of the USSR, Sergei Gimaev, died at the age of 63.
This was announced by Olympic champion Ilya Byakin.
According to him, Gimaev did not finish the match and left the game for the locker room. “He felt bad, everything happened quickly. According to the presumable version, a blood clot came off. It’s a shame, it’s just terrible,” Byakin said. He added that the athlete’s body will be transported to Moscow.
Sergey Nailievich Gimaev born January 1, 1955 in Pruzhany (Brest region, Belarusian SSR).
Father - Nail Zyamgutdinovich Gimaev - was born in the village of Kakrybashevo, Tuymazinsky district of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. By profession, he is a military pilot and took part in the Great Patriotic War. After the war, he served in Ukraine, where he met his wife. Soon the young family moved to Poland, where the air regiment was stationed, and a daughter was born there. Afterwards - to Belarus, where Sergei was born.
Then the family lived in Kamchatka until 1961, before the reduction of aviation. After my father’s demobilization, we moved to Ufa.
Sergei grew up as a sporty child and played many sports. But most of all he was fascinated by ice hockey, which he began playing at the age of 11. He trained at the Salavat Yulaev HC school and went from the youth team to the adult team. At the same time, he studied at the evening department of the Ufa State Aviation Institute.
After some time, he was drafted into the ranks of the Soviet Army. He served in the Orenburg region, where he spent a month. Then he was transferred to the SKA club (Kuibyshev), where he spent 2 years with Yuri Moiseev. After successfully performing at the Armed Forces tournament, the club received a telegram from CSKA demanding that the player be sent to Moscow.
In the 1976/77 season he began playing for the Moscow Army team. He ended his career after the 1985/86 season at SKA Leningrad.
In total, he played 305 matches in the USSR championships and scored 45 goals.
After finishing his playing career, he graduated from the Moscow State Regional Pedagogical Institute in Moscow, worked as a children's coach and director of the CSKA hockey sports school for 14 years, and played in the veteran team “Legends of Hockey of the USSR.”
In addition, since 1986, he worked as a coach with the country's youth teams born in 1972 and 1973. With the team born in 1978, helping Vladimir Shadrin, he became the European champion. Moreover, 9 of his students played in that national team.
Since the 2000s, he has been an expert and hockey commentator on the VGTRK television channels - “Russia-1”, “Russia-2” and “Sport-1”.
Until the end of his days he worked as a coach.
He died suddenly on March 18, 2017 in Tula, during a veterans’ match from a heart attack.
Was married. He had two children - a son and a daughter. Son - Sergei (02/16/1984), hockey player, defender of HC Vityaz. My daughter was involved in figure skating.
Achievements of Sergei Gimaev:
USSR Champion: 1978-1985;
Winner of the USSR Cup: 1977, 1979;
Multiple winner of the European Champions Cup;
Among the best defenders of the USSR championships: 1979 (list of 36 best), 1982, 1983 (list of 34 best);
Awarded the Order of Honor (2003);
Honored Trainer of Russia.
Today, thousands of Muscovites bid farewell to the hockey commentator and expert beloved by millions. On this sad day, Life decided to publish Sergei Nailievich’s last interview, in which he talked about his unusual car with hockey airbrushing. All that was left was the audio recording, to shoot a video, alas, we didn’t have time...
Sergei Gimaev died on March 18 in Tula. This energetic and life-loving man, hockey maestro and guru of television journalism. More than six thousand people came to say goodbye to Gimaev at the CSKA Ice Palace today. Sergei Nailievich was buried at the Novoluzhinskoe cemetery in Khimki under the Russian anthem and gunshots from the honor guard company... But just on these days, a video shoot of Gimaev for Life was supposed to take place. The TV commentator wanted not only to tell, but also to show his miracle car with portraits of ice battle legends painted on it. A photo of a BMW X5 with hockey graffiti back in January caused an unprecedented stir among fans. But Gimaev kept postponing filming due to being busy with TV...
“Hello,” Gimaev simply greeted the Life journalist over the phone. And, of course, he told the story of the transformation of his car.
In short, the graffiti is dedicated to the 1972 USSR-Canada Super Series,” the TV commentator continued. - The emblem of that Super Series is depicted on the hood. On the sides: on one side, Phil Esposito, who is looking at Vladislav Tretyak, on the other, Valery Kharlamov and Bobby Clarke.
- Why exactly them?
In general, it all started with a photograph of Kharlamov. Then they decided that Clark would be next to him. If you don't remember, I'll tell you. It was this Canadian who broke Kharlamov’s leg in the Moscow part of the series. Valery had previously made a splash in Canada. It was then that he was injured in Moscow.
- How did you get the idea to put such images on cars?
My friends have a salon where they do airbrushing. One day I told them: “Let’s do something cool on my X5, but only hockey.” At first I thought of depicting a boxer dog in a hockey helmet with an adhesive plaster on his face. They told me: “Nailich, this is not respectable for you.” Then they showed me a photograph of Kharlamov and offered to paint his portrait. Made by artist Evgeniy Gritsai. He is the best airbrush in the country. If possible, please mention his last name... That’s what he told me: “Sergei Nailich, we will do everything for you.” Then we found photographs of Tretyak and Esposito, who then scored the most goals against our team. And most importantly, nothing was invented. The car features exact copies of photographs from that Super Series. They even decided not to paint the car in any colors. Everything is exactly black and white, just like in those photographs. They even made the lights black...
- When did the artists work?
It was 2010. I was leaving for the Olympics in Vancouver and left the car in the showroom. These wonderful guys completely removed all the paint, airbrushed it, then varnished it. I was just happy to see the result! When he first appeared on the track in this form, drivers turned around. I was so proud! I looked around, and they waved at me and said: “Cool!”
The only negative is that you need to wash it often. It becomes a little dusty, and the drawings are no longer so noticeable. As soon as I get behind the wheel of this car, I try to thoroughly wash and polish it.
- So you don’t drive it often?
No, rarely. Mostly I go to another one. But I’ll take this one, wash it, and you’ll take whatever photos and videos you want,” Gimaev promised.
Sergei Gimaev is an eight-time champion of the USSR with CSKA, a multiple winner of the European Champions Cup. After finishing his playing career, he worked for many years as a children's coach at an army school. Then sports TV became his vocation - vivid reports and live broadcasts from the studio performed by Gimaev became “classics” of Russian hockey. It is simply impossible to imagine the World Championships and the Gagarin Cup without his voice.
May you rest in peace, Sergei Nailievich.
The terrible news came during the second period of the Lokomotiv - CSKA match. It is quite possible that if Sergei Nailievich had not gone to Tula for the veterans’ game, he could have worked in the studio. And talk about hockey the way only he could. He was inseparable from his favorite game. And he passed away during the match...
A graduate of Ufa hockey, in 1976 he ended up in CSKA, in a team where stars of the first magnitude shone - Boris Mikhailov, Vladimir Petrov, Valery Kharlamov, Vladislav Tretiak. The young defender did not get lost in this company; together with the best club in the country, he began to win medals of the highest dignity one after another.
After finishing his career, he found himself in coaching. In CSKA, which became his hometown, in the USSR youth team. Team born in 1978, led by Vladimir Shadrin And Sergei Gimaev, became the European champion, Gimaev received the title of Honored Trainer of the country.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, another talent of Sergei Nailievich has been discovered. An excellent memory, an innate ability to express his thoughts clearly and clearly, all this very quickly made Gimaev one of the best television commentators and hockey experts in the country. This season, as always, he appeared almost every day in the studio of various TV channels, commentating on matches of the KHL regular season and playoffs.
For several years, Sergei Gimaev constantly took to the ice in the team of veterans “USSR Hockey Legends”. He played his last match there today.
The Continental Hockey League expresses its deepest condolences to the family and friends Sergei Nailievich Gimaev.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, KHL President:
- The sudden death of Sergei Gimaev was a real shock for all of us. Undoubtedly, Sergei Nailievich was one of the most respected and recognizable people in our hockey. Thanks to his highest professionalism and subtle understanding of hockey, he, like no one else in recent years, has contributed to the popularization of his favorite game, in which he lived and completed such a bright and eventful life. I am sure that millions of fans throughout Russia will remember him with gratitude and will very soon feel the irreplaceability of this loss.
The Eastern Conference semi-final match between Ak Bars and Avangard on March 19 will begin with a minute of silence in memory of Sergei Gimaev.
The loss of Gimaev is a loss not only of all Russian hockey, but also of domestic sports as a whole. This was a man from a sports family. A professional with a capital P and a hard worker to the core. It’s no joke, but even at 62, Gimaev continued to commentate on matches and personally take to the ice in veterans’ tournaments. Yes, how he played! Young people will be jealous.
A well-known former CSKA defender, the eight-time USSR champion devoted his entire life to hockey. Gimaev began playing for the army team in the 1976/77 season. He ended his career after the 1985/86 season with the SKA team, so in the Northern capital Gimaev is also well known and remembered. In total, the hockey player played 305 matches in the USSR championships and scored 45 goals. It’s no wonder that based on the results of his sporting achievements, Gimaev received the title of Honored Master of Sports. By the way, as a boy, he trained for a long time at the Salavat Yulaev school, going from the youth team to the adult team. Gimaev treated Ufa with special warmth. His opinion was listened to. He was respected.
Sergei Nailievich was known not only as a hockey player, but also as a coach. He loved to tinker with young players. He could shout, but he always did it with kindness and good intentions. A man who loved work also demanded work from others.
Gimaev became known to the general public from his work in the commentary department. His reports from hockey matches have become classics of the genre. Voice of Hockey! Many compared Gimaev with Vladimir Maslachenko, who was similarly adored in football. Sergei Nailievich never poured “water,” as they say in the journalistic community. Didn't work just for show. His opinions were always bright, and his criticism was sensible. The best hockey expert in the country. This is how the majority called the deceased.
Some clubs or leaders often took offense at Gimaev when he spoke the truth. Yes, a specialist could go through some command thoroughly. But completely to the point. Gimaev's opinion was extremely authoritative. It's no joke, but even the head coach of the Russian national team listened to him Oleg Znarok. After some matches, Oleg Valerievich could personally approach Gimaev and listen to his opinion regarding the game. Consult, ask for help.
Photo: Vladimir Bezzubov, photo.khl.ru
The master often admitted that he himself was a vulnerable person and was easily offended. Sergei Nailievich really took the words to heart. He almost never refused an interview with the journalistic fraternity, knowing full well that he shared the same bread with them. But he remembered and read every word he said. Because I understood that everyone would read it.
How many people play hockey at 63? Someone at that age prefers to lie on the couch and watch the game on TV. Gimaev, in turn, constantly remained faithful to his favorite game. He died there, at hockey. At the combat post. A veterans' match took place in Tula, in which Gimaev himself took part. He later left the game for the locker room without finishing the match. I felt unwell, I felt bad. Sergei Nailyevich never regained consciousness.
There are only positive memories left about Sergei Nailievich. We worked together, interacted on the team. He was a man who gave himself completely to his work. We even played together, and everywhere Sergei Nailievich showed his best side. This is a big loss for hockey. He did a lot of work on television, commentated on matches, and helped in every possible way. It's a shame that such a person is no longer with us. It’s night in Korea now, and we plan for the Russian Olympic team to come out tomorrow wearing mourning bands and hold a minute of silence. We will discuss this with our Korean colleagues in the morning. I’m sure they won’t mind,” the first vice-president of the FHR expressed his words of condolences. Roman Rotenberg.
Photo: Vladimir Bezzubov, photo.khl.ru
The clubs also express their condolences. Andrei Nazarov called with a request and expressed his deepest condolences on behalf of the entire Neftekhimik. Words of support were given to relatives and friends at Sibir, Dynamo Moscow, and CSKA. Everywhere. No one remained indifferent to this man with a capital M.
Just recently, domestic and world hockey suffered a huge loss, saying goodbye to the two-time Olympic champion Vladimir Petrov. Gimaev did not win Olympic gold, but his memory will also live forever. May you rest in peace, Sergei Nailievich.
“Championship” joins in condolences and expresses words of support to the relatives of the deceased.
