His entire short life was devoted to hockey. There are no people in Ukhta who would not hear about Sergei Kapustin.
Childhood and youth
Sergey Alekseevich Kapustin was born on February 13, 1953. According to the recollections of relatives, in childhood, the athlete was weak and frail. No one could even think that a world champion would grow out of this sickly kid.
Lidia Maksimovna, the hockey player’s aunt, recalls that he spent all his free time with friends, playing field hockey. And with the beginning of school attendance, he disappeared at the Neftyanik stadium. Later, the little hockey player began to study at the youth sports school, where he felt the sweet taste of the first victories and the bitterness of defeat.
Such a bright promising player always attracted attention, and his coach, Anatoly Kovalevsky, asked his mentor, Boris Pavlovich Kulagin, to look at the young talent and take him to his team. So Sergey Kapustin got in “Wings of the Soviets” in 1971.
"Winged" life
As the former neighbor of the hockey player recalls, he left his home without even celebrating his eighteenth birthday. Kulagin treated Sergei as his own son. They were connected not only by sports, but also by good human relations. More than once, a hockey player was visiting his coach at the dacha. Kapustin immediately took a leadership position in the team and proved his professionalism in 1972 at Lake Placid. Two years later, he brilliantly played the game at the World Cup, where he scored ten goals during the game and won the first world gold award.
In the capital, the hockey player initially rented a room, and then received a spacious two-room apartment on Leningradsky Prospekt. Four years after the start of the game in Wings of the Soviets, he took his parents to Moscow. In the same year he married a girl named Tatyana, who gave birth to his son Sergei. Unfortunately, the hockey player could not enjoy the role of his father. At the age of four, the baby fell ill with pneumonia and died. For the father it was a huge tragedy, only his beloved business helped to escape from the painful loss.
1976 was generous with victory. Sergey Kapustin, as part of Wings, played a series of excellent games and defeated the Chicago Black Hawks, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders. These winning matches contributed to the athlete getting into the Olympic team of the Soviet Union, in which, in the same 76th year, he took another gold in Innsbruck.
The era of CSKA
In 1977, he transferred to CSKA. In this club legends of Soviet hockey already played - Helmut Balderis and Victor Zhluktov. It seemed to everyone that these three titans would create an alliance that would bring victory after victory, but everything turned out to be much more complicated. The problem was psychology. Each of these players was a leader in the previous team and was used to the fact that everyone else was playing for them. Now it was necessary to rebuild their habits and learn to play as one team.
Fortunately for everyone, hockey player Sergei Kapustin and Balderis were able to overcome their habits and, with the help of a coach and teammates, put the team’s interests above their own in the game. As part of CSKA Kapustin received the title of champion of the USSR, Europe and the world, won the Cup of the country. In 1980 he left the club and transferred to Spartak.
Spartak: meeting with an old friend and sunset career
Sergei Kapustin argued that every athlete, regardless of awards and ranks, has a coach, to whom he owes everything. For him, Boris Kulagin was such a person. In the new team, the hockey player had to play in the company of Victor Shalimov and Sergey Shepelev. This trio was the main competitor of CSKA for first place in the championship of the Soviet Union. Soon they were included in the national team.
Kapustin’s influence on the team was so great that with just a look on his face he changed the mood of all the players. He was credited with excellent leadership qualities, determination, perseverance and full dedication to the game. He did not forgive mistakes either to himself or to anyone else.
As part of Spartak, Sergey Kapustin wins gold at the world championships in Sweden in 1981 and enters the world team. At the same time takes the Canada Cup. At the age of 33, he decides to end his sports career and leaves for Austria. There for several years in the team of the top division worked as a playing coach. Rejecting the offer of the Japanese to become a coach, he returns to Moscow. Here she finishes high school coaching and for some time plays in a team of veterans.
They say that good people do not linger on the earth for a long time. In 1995, at the age of 42, the great hockey player Sergey Kapustin died. The cause of death is blood poisoning.
Prizes and titles
This is a unique athlete. His successes are impressive:
- 1974 - top scorer in the world championship;
- 1976 - the title of Olympic champion;
- 1979 - won the Challenge Cup;
- 7th champion of Europe and the world;
- 4th champion of the Soviet Union.
Over the course of his career, he has spent more than 500 matches, scored over 270 goals. Each sports club dreamed of having such a talented striker.
Kapustin Sergey - a hockey player with a capital letter. His rewards only confirm this.