Vasily Tikhonov, the son of the famous hockey coach, could hardly have ignored this sport. And so it happened - he became the successor of the sporting dynasty, which to date has already spanned three generations.
Biography
Vasily Tikhonov was born in May 1958 in Moscow. His father was still playing for Dynamo Moscow. After four years, he switched to coaching. Therefore, it is no wonder that Vasily Tikhonov was practically born "with a club in his hands." Throughout his childhood, he was next to his father on the hockey rinks. The father probably hoped that his son would become more successful on the ice arena than himself.
But Vasily here again repeated the fate of his father. His career as a defender was short-lived. But he has always been in demand as a coach.
In 1968, when Vasya was ten years old, the family changed their place of residence and left for Latvia. This was directly related to hockey - his father was offered the post of coach of Riga "Dynamo". Then the team was in the second league. Viktor Tikhonov was able to bring the players to the leading positions in the USSR championships.
Meanwhile, the status of the father did not affect his son in any way and the debut adult team for Vasiliy was "Latvijas berzs" from the second division. In a couple of years they will reach the first league, but by that time Vasily will decide to end his playing career. He realized that he would not achieve special heights as a player, so he decided to try his coaching luck. It was 1977, when he was only 29 years old.
Coaching work
Again I had to start working from the very bottom. Vasily Tikhonov got a job in a Riga sports school, worked with teenagers. Over time, viewers began to notice that Tikhonov's pupils show beautiful hockey and rise in the standings. This was also appreciated by the sports leadership - in 1985 Vasily Tikhonov was entrusted with the junior team of Dynamo from Riga. Here the mentor worked for five seasons.
Then the "dashing 90s" happened in Russia, which also affected sports. In a situation of chaos and uncertainty, Vasily Viktorovich receives an offer from the Finns. And in 1990 Tikhonov left for the city of Pori to train the youth "Esset". The progress of the youth team was obvious, and in a year Tikhonov will go to work with the main team of this club.
Soon the professionalism of the Russian coach was appreciated in America. In 1993 V. Tikhonov accepted an offer to take the post of the second coach from the NHL club "San Jose Sharks".
Then there will be several more foreign teams, among them the American Kansas City Blades, the Finnish Lucco, the Swiss Langnau.
By the way, during his life in Finland, Vasily learned the language according to his own system. This is despite the fact that the Finnish language is considered quite difficult. For this, he even at first lived in Finland alone, without a family - so as not to hear Russian speech at all and quickly integrate into the language environment.
Return to Russia
Vasily Tikhonov returned to his homeland in 2002, when his father invited him to work in pairs. At that time, Viktor Tikhonov was coaching CSKA hockey players from Moscow.
Subsequently, Vasily Viktorovich will take over the administrative part of the work and will hold the post of vice president. He worked with the army team until 2010.
He tried to establish independent work in the Russian clubs Avangard (2010-2011) and Ak Bars (2011). But in 2012 he returned to CSKA, already as an advisor to the manager. A year later, he will again be part of the coaching staff, but then a fateful event will occur that cut short his life.
In August 2013, a tragic event occurred, as a result of which Vasily Tikhonov died at the age of 55. He was at home (on Novy Arbat Street) and tried to cut off part of the protective mesh that covered the facade of the residential building. According to neighbors, he often said that robbers could easily get into the apartment through it. Unable to resist, Tikhonov fell out of the fourth floor window. His body was found on the asphalt near the house, next to him was a knife, with which he tried to cut the net.
A family
Vasily Tikhonov was married, his wife's name was Tatiana. The couple had two children - daughter Tatyana and son Victor.
Both children also linked their lives with hockey.
Tatiana Tikhonova in childhood and adolescence played for various clubs in Sweden and Finland. Later she took up coaching work, but not in Russia. Her dream is to lead the team of her players to the gold of the Olympic Games. According to Tatyana, it is practically impossible to do this in Russia, so she works abroad. In honor of her father, Tatyana organized Tikhonov Training Camp - a summer hockey camp that immediately began to enjoy immense popularity.
Viktor Tikhonov is the full namesake of his famous grandfather. Currently playing as a striker for HC SKA (St. Petersburg). As part of the Russian team, he became the world champion in 2014. He already has a son, Leo, and a daughter, Sophia-Victoria.
Vasily Tikhonov collected weapons and was especially fond of French copies. Ancient weapons date back to 1840 or the period of the First World War. There are Russian pistols and revolvers, German and Belgian, and many others. Tikhonov was very proud of his collection and could talk about it for a long time.
