Viktor Fyodorovich Markin (; born 23 February 1957 in the village of Oktyabrsky,

Ust-Tarksky District Ust-Tarksky District (russian: Усть-Та́ркский райо́н) is an administrative and municipalLaw #200-OZ district (raion), one of the thirty in Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia. It is located in the west of the oblast. The area of the distr ...

Novosibirsk Oblast Novosibirsk Oblast (russian: Новосиби́рская о́бласть, ''Novosibirskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in southwestern Siberia. Its administrative and economic center is the city of Novosibirsk ...

) is a former

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

athlete, winner of two gold medals at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

. After graduating from a secondary school he went to

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...

, where he entered the Faculty of

Pediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

of the Institute of Medicine. Markin started athletics only at age 19 in the athletics section by the institute, coached by Aleksandr Bukhasheyev. He remained quite unknown until the Moscow

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. On 27 April 1980, in

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

, Markin ran a new personal best in the one lap event of 46.96 seconds. In early July Markin ran 45.34 at the

Central Lenin Stadium Luzhniki Stadium ( rus, стадион «Лужники», p=stədʲɪˈon lʊʐnʲɪˈkʲi, ''Stadion Luzhniki'') is the national stadium of Russia, located in its capital city, Moscow. The full name of the stadium is Grand Sports Arena of the ...

. In the Olympic final on July 30, Markin was only fifth at the halfway mark and as the final straight opened he was still three metres behind the leader

Frank Schaffer Frank Schaffer (born 23 October 1958 in Stalinstadt (today Eisenhüttenstadt), Bezirk Frankfurt) is an East German retired athlete who specialised in the 400 metres. He won the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 1980 Summer Olympics ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. But with a very strong finish Markin won with a European record and world season best 44.60 (still the Russian national record over 400 m). Markin captured his second

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

in the 4 × 400 m

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

when, as an anchor, he outran the winner of the

400 metre hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once ar ...

, East German Volker Beck. After a break from sports to complete his studies in

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

, Markin returned at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

in 1982, where he won two bronze medals (400 m and 4 × 400 m relay). At the inaugural

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Markin, the only Soviet competing in the individual 400 metres (as the rest were concentrating on the relay), was knocked out of the final in an extremely close

photo finish A photo finish occurs in a sporting race when multiple competitors cross the finishing line at nearly the same time. As the naked eye may not be able to determine which of the competitors crossed the line first, a photo or video taken at the finis ...

by eventual bronze medalist

Sunder Nix Sunder Lamont Nix (born December 2, 1961, in Birmingham, Alabama) was a 1984 Summer Olympics gold medalist in the men's 4x400 meter relay for the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United St ...

of the United States. However, he finished on a high note as in the last event of the Championships, the 4 × 400 m relay, the Soviets won an unexpected gold.

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

already lost their winning chances on the first leg as

Erwin Skamrahl Erwin Richard Skamrahl (born 8 March 1958) is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the 200 and 400 metres. Biography At the 1982 European Championships he finished fourth in the 200 metres, won a bronze medal in the 4 x 10 ...

(who had broken Markin's European record just three weeks earlier) gave up more than ten meters to Sergey Lovachov; the other main favorites, United States, hung with the Soviets for two and a half legs until Willie Smith tumbled and fell, leaving Markin an easy job to anchor home a USSR victory. Markin decided to retire after hearing the Soviet decision to boycott the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Markin, Viktor 1957 births Living people Sportspeople from Novosibirsk Oblast Novosibirsk State Medical University alumni Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Russian male sprinters Soviet male sprinters Olympic athletes for the Soviet Union Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) FISU World University Games gold medalists for the Soviet Union World Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 1981 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1983 Summer Universiade Friendship Games medalists in athletics Soviet Athletics Championships winners