Stories of happy Russian sports families: Kostomarov, Domnina, Dementieva, Afinogenov

Valentin and Lydia Ivanov

Legendary Russian football player, midfielder and captain of the USSR national team, who devoted his entire life to the Moscow Torpedo, Olympic champion of Melbourne Valentin Kozmich Ivanov and two-time Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics (Melbourne-56 and Rome-60), coach, judge and wonderful commentator Lydia Gavrilovna Kalinina met at the pre-Olympic training camp in Tashkent before the Australian Olympics.

“We sat on the benches, I was with the gymnast girls, and in front of us were the football players. My friend suddenly says: “Let me introduce you to one of the guys. Valya! For some reason, she turned to Valya, and not to anyone else, but to Valya. And later we had so many coincidences that whether you like it or not, you have to believe: love alone is not enough, there must be fate.

… I immediately told him: “I can’t stand betrayal.” And Valya did not betray. He might like some girl, sometimes this happened in my presence. But nothing more. After matches he always returned home. There was no doubt about it. It took him exactly as long as it took to get from the stadium to the door of our apartment. He couldn’t do it any other way,” Lidia Gavrilovna recalled in an interview with Soviet Sport in 2014.

The wedding of the Olympic champions took place in 1959. And they then lived without parting for 52 years. They had two children – the famous football referee Valentin Ivanov and a daughter, Bolshoi Theater ballet soloist Olga Ivanova (Starikova).

In 2008, the spouses Lydia and Valentin Ivanov became laureates of the National Sports Award “Glory” for 2007 in the “Legend” category.

Valentin Kozmich passed away on November 8, 2011. Lidia Gavrilovna carefully preserves the memory of her beloved husband. She wrote an autobiographical book “The Ivanovs. The story of a famous sports family, told by Olympic champion Lydia Ivanova.” To the best of his ability, he takes part in the life of Valentin Kozmich’s native football club “Torpedo”.

Oksana Domnina and Roman Kostomarov

The life stories of figure skaters, world champion Oksana and Olympic champion Roman had everything you could imagine. Films and books will probably be made about this married couple, because they deserve it.

Surprisingly, Roman and Oksana were not able to immediately understand that they were made for each other. In 2004, Kostomarov, who performed together with Tatyana Navka, married figure skater Yulia Lautova, and Domnina was friends with them. And she was even a witness at that wedding. That marriage lasted three years, but eventually broke up. And since 2007, Roman and Oksana began to live together. In 2011, their daughter Nastya was born, and everything seemed to be fine. However, in December 2013, Domnina decided to live separately, starting to date Vladimir Yaglych, a partner in the TV show “Ice Age”. Motivating that Roman never proposed to her.

Fortunately, in February 2014, everything became the same, and in April of the same year, Roman and Oksana officially legalized their relationship. In 2016, their second child, son Ilya, was born.

Since then, the couple have been happy. Feel free to talk about it to the whole world, including on your social networks.

But fate had an even more terrible test in store for them.

On January 10, 2023, Roman was hospitalized. On January 10, Kostomarov was hospitalized with pneumonia in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Kommunarka in extremely serious condition. He ultimately spent 175 days in this hospital. Due to complications, he had to have both legs and hands partially amputated. And all this time Oksana was next to him, trying as best she could to support her loved one.

A lot has been written in detail about what happened to them this year. Roman himself said this about his wife in October 2023: “She supported me in the hospital from the very first day, she was allowed there. She is supported by her love and the words “Believe in yourself” and “We will walk this path together.”

Elena Dementieva and Maxim Afinogenov

Olympic champion, representative of the “Golden Era of Russian Tennis,” as Shamil Tarpishchev, president of the tennis federation and captain of the Russian national team rightly believes, Elena Demenyeva met her future husband, world champion, hockey player Maxim Afinogentov in 2004. Moreover, it was Maxim who initiated the acquaintance. Who, even before their first meeting, followed Elena’s brilliant career.

The first meeting took place in the most romantic period – late spring – early summer, and in one of the most romantic cities in the world – Paris. Where at that time the famous tennis tournament from the Grand Slam series took place – Roland Garros.

As the spouses themselves recall, the first pancake came out lumpy: Elena flatly refused to meet Maxim, as she was completely focused on the competition. By the way, she won it, as did the US Open in the same year. 2004 was generally the peak of Dementieva’s career.

But Afinogentov did not give up, he went to all of Elena’s matches in Paris. And after the end of the tournament, the relationship between the two young people gradually began to develop better and better.

Since then they have not separated. In 2007, Afinogentov proposed to Dementieva, and they got married in 2011. After Elena announced her retirement.

In 2014, the couple had a daughter, Veronica, and two years later, a son, Sergei.

Maxim completed his sports career as a figure skater in 2020. And began to devote all his attention to his family. Including helping his son master the secrets of the hockey craft.

“It can be especially difficult in everyday life, especially when it comes to family life, where you need to make compromises and take care of others. I am still working on myself – in this sense, it is much more difficult for me than for my husband, the matter is in our sports. Maxim is used to working in a team, but in tennis everything is different, every man for himself. The main character trait of Maxim that still amazes me is his indifference. There is no need to ask him or hint him, Max is always ready to help in any matter. Such people are rare. As a rule, in our world no one cares about anyone. Perhaps it was this quality that captivated me in him. But if we talk about selfishness, with the birth of children it is gone – you do not belong to yourself, but you live for them and for them,” Elena Dementyeva shared in one of her interviews with SE the secret of a happy married life.