The terrible news spread all over the world. On September 7, 2011, in Yaroslavl, the Yak-42 crashed on takeoff in a collision with a radio beacon, making a charter flight to Minsk with the main team of the Lokomotiv hockey team on board. Killed 26 young men, the youngest turned 18, and the oldest - 38.
Hurry to do good
And only then did everyone find out that Ivan Leonidovich Tkachenko, the team captain, transferred a total of about 10,000,000 rubles to children in need of expensive treatment anonymously. And just a day before take-off, he sent another transfer of 500,000 rubles to Diana Ibragimova, a 16-year-old girl who needed a bone marrow transplant. His family did not know about this, relatives did not know. Only two were in the know - a friend and an employee of the ice arena. And both were connected by a word, they could not, they had no right to tell anyone.
Their eight people are children, whom Ivan helped, six owe his life. Probably, the desire to help those who need it so much was in his blood.
He died at 31.
Maybe he felt something? According to his father, he never talked with him for so long as the last time.
What was he like - Tkachenko Ivan Leonidovich? Biography
He was the second son in a friendly working family. Father dreamed of a daughter. Vanya appeared. November 9, 1979. Loved to listen to fairy tales. He loved Gaydarovsky's “Malchish-Kibalchish”, and with tears in his eyes and pouting lips he reacted to the insults inflicted by Plohish. From the age of four, he already read it himself.
The first steps of the future champion
It was the idea of ​​a father - a three-year-old baby - to put on ice on skates, runners attached to felt boots. He got up and rode easily. At five he skated real skates. We can say that it was with them that his sports career began. And it became clear that he was a hockey player from God.
He was not a fighter, but he did not allow to offend either himself or the kids. If anyone attacked, the boy fiercely defended himself. And he was patient. However, no one succeeded in lifting him up for a long time with impunity. He did not bend and did not concede, he gave back.
He was quickly credited with the leaders of the courtyard team, for justice and for goals scored. And he proved that he was the best when his team won at the Golden Puck regional competitions, scoring 43 goals, of which 37 were Vanin.
At the age of six he was admitted to the hockey section of the Torpedo. The little boy had to get up every day at five in the morning, 20 minutes in the cold and wind, wait for the bus and go to training to the other end of the city, and from there to school, where he had been taken ahead of schedule, at the age of six. And he did not complain, never and no matter what.
It was at six years old, according to the recollections of her mother, that Vanya held a charity event, the first in his life. Careless mother's phrase that they are now rich because she received the prize, took literally. He took the money from his wallet and distributed it to the children in the yard, to the last penny. Mom, of course, wanted to severely punish, but my father forbade. And now mom is sure that is why her son helped sick children so that no one would recognize.
When there is a goal
Perhaps this was an incredible success for the future athlete, but in secondary school No. 9 of Yaroslavl it was decided to collect the boys who were keen on hockey in one class. So, in 1990, Ivan was enrolled in 5 “C” - a sports class with a special schedule that allows you to catch a second lesson from training with A. Podmetalin (first coach). By the way, today this school is named after Ivan Tkachenko.
Then the young hockey player got real skates, his father got somewhere in Canada. And there was no hindrance that the athlete had not yet grown to such a size and looked in them as in boots-walkers. When the coach in May 1992, after being fired, forced to return to his native Saratov, called Ivan and Maxim Bychkov and Renat Yubin with him, the guy agreed without hesitation, and defended his decision to his parents. The boys living in the hostel had to cook, wash, and clean themselves. The guys soon returned home. Vanya stayed. He stubbornly walked toward the intended goal.
This difficult way
Like many of his hockey friends, this path was not easy. He had to play for the Spartak and Torpedo farm clubs, try himself in the big league in the Tver THK, the Volga Motor, and play for Neftekhimik.
He was deceived with the first contract. Many years later, the parents found out what it was like for their son when three people in a team were given food in such small quantities as one serving of the first and two of the second. And they didn’t learn from his son, from his friends. Many left the sport, could not stand it. He continued to play.
At 16, he plays for Spartak in Canada, the first time abroad. He played so that it was to him that Vladimir Krikunov presented the main prize - the statuette won there.
It was in his career the silver of the world championship of 2002, when he played for the Russian team.
His team
It has long been noted that as soon as Ivan Leonidovich Tkachenko appeared, Lokomotiv became champions. And Ivan himself with his native team twice became the champion of Russia - in 2002 and 2003, in 2003 - the silver medalist of the Continental Cup, won silver and bronze. The 2011/2012 season would be tenth.
Ivan Leonidovich Tkachenko was thinking about ending his career. He made plans. And I was sure that everything that you undertake should be done well. He was so worried that he might be bankrupt outside of the hockey that had become his life.
So he was a man!
Everyone speaks of him as a very kind and attentive person. He didn’t leave a single message unanswered, he remembered the birthdays of loved ones and always congratulated everyone. He knew how to easily communicate with every person, and it didn’t matter if he was a high rank or friend with life problems.
In the team, he enjoyed well-deserved respect, the fans loved him. On ice, he was a real fighter, laid out to the last. And every hockey player in his team was sure that their captain would do everything possible and impossible for success. And Lokomotiv was really his native team. No other club has managed to lure him. He signed his contracts with the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv.
Because here everyone in fact knows what team hockey is. Everyone in fact knows that only hard work made them masters.
Native family
Was Tkachenko Ivan Leonidovich married? His wife is Marina, they have known each other since childhood. Her younger brother, from an early age, was his friend, with whom they played hockey together and did their homework. At the end of school, when Ivan began to play professionally, he and Marina began to live together in a rented room. Later, the club rented an apartment for him, and already in 2005 their first daughter Sasha was born, and after her three years later, Varya. Shortly before the last flight, he found out that they would have a son. He did not have to see him. The boy was born after the disaster, his name is Nikolai, as his father wanted. And Marina remained his only woman.
So he was - Ivan Leonidovich Tkachenko - a hockey player, captain of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, Honored Master of Sports of Russia, a wonderful person. He loved to listen to Depeche mode and U2, he loved fast driving and traveling. He was awarded a posthumous medal of honor “Order of the palm” and the medal “Hurry to do good”.
In memory of their son, parents plan to build a children's hockey school, an ice palace for 100 people, where the main task will be to train future hockey stars. That was the idea of ​​their son. First of all, he wanted to distract the boys from the street, and last but not least, to educate future champions.