News release

In summer 2008, Russian televiewers will be enjoying the documentary Our Sportsmen at Olympic games. One episode of the film was shot at the Ilizarov Center in Kurgan.

In summer 2008, the Russian televiewers will be enjoying the documentary Our Sportsmen at Olympic games. It will show the brightest moments from the history of the Olympic games and tell us about the outstanding Russian sportsmen and their life stories. The desire to overcome, their selflessness, strong will and characters are the features that brought them to victory. One of the characters of the film is a legendary athlete, the 1964 Olympic champion and world record holder (1961-1971) in high jump Valeri Brumel.

In 1965 he got a severe injury to his right tibia but the treatment failed at several Moscow hospitals until he applied to the unknown at those times Kurgan surgeon Gavriil Ilizarov.

He spent 5 months in the hospital with the Ilizarov fixator on and the result was spectacular: the leg bones united and the discrepancy in length of the legs disappeared. He could walk without using crutches and returned to training and high jumping. Valeri Brumel often visited Kurgan. The friendship of the great athlete and his savior, the great surgeon, lasted for his whole life.

There are a lot of exhibits at the museum of the Ilizarov Center that are associated with the great sportsman: photos, video films, letters of Valeri to doctor Ilizarov, as well as numerous published articles from the magazines and newspapers, and the books that tell us how the champion conquered the peaks of sport and his disease.

The group of journalists from the production center LEAN-M (Moscow) spent 3 days at the Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center. The visit was aimed at shooting the episode from V. Brumel life when he had to struggle with severe physical trauma and to overcome it, and his sports deeds after the recovery at the Ilizarov clinic.

In 2003 Brumel passed away, his last record of 2.28 m held in 1963 has been improved only by 17 cm since then.

The Moscow representative of the Daily Express visited the Ilizarov clinic with this group and will tell the readers of Foggy Albion about the developments of the Russian surgeons.