Valery Muratov

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Competitor for Soviet Union
Olympic medal record
Men's speed skating
Bronze	Sapporo 1972	500 m
Silver	Innsbruck 1976	500 m
Bronze	Innsbruck 1976	1,000 m

Valery Alekseyevich Muratov (Russian: Вале́рий Алексе́евич Мура́тов) (born May 1, 1946 in Kolomna^[1]) is a former ice speed skater from the USSR, who represented his native country in three consecutive Winter Olympics, starting in 1968 in Grenoble, France. He trained in Kolomna at Burevestnik and later at the Armed Forces sports society.^[2]

Muratov began speed skating in 1962 and became a member of the USSR National Team in 1966. ^[1] Muratov won the first unofficial World Sprint Championships in 1970, and was runner-up in the first official World Sprint Championships in 1972. The next year he won the World Sprint Title. He never captured any Olympic title, but he got a bronze medal in 1972 and both silver and bronze in the 1976 Winter Olympics. He was five times national sprint champion. In 1970 he set a new 500 m world record three times, but he never got to keep for more than a few weeks.

He started a successful career as coach for the Soviet Union (and later Russian) speed skating team, guiding World Sprint Champions Sergey Khlebnikov and Igor Zhelezovsky.

In 1972 Muratov was awarded the Medal For Labour Heroism.^[1]

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c (1973) Panorama of the 1972 Sports Year (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport, p. 50.
^ Boris Khavin (1979). All about Olympic Games., 2nd ed. (in Russian), Moscow: Fizkultura i sport, p. 424.