Liliya Shobukhova's Story (2024)

Liliya Shobukhova could write one heck of a book. She's made two Olympic 5,000m finals, set an indoor world record for 3,000m and run 14:23 for 5,000m, making her the fourth fastest in history. Two years ago, after 22 years in the sport and her best seemingly behind her, she made an unexpected shift to the marathon and reinvigorated her career by becoming one of the world's best in the event. With one short year until London 2012 and what will likely be her last shot at Olympic gold, Shobukhova has made her intentions clear.

Last October, one month before her 33rd birthday, Shobukhova claimed the biggest win of her career at the Chicago Marathon. Her time of 2:20:25 made her the 10th fastest in history. By winning Chicago after triumphing at the London Marathon in April, she also clenched the World Marathon Majors title, with its $500,000 prize. She'll defend her London title this April, with a bold target on her back for all the world to see.

But that's not what's got me reading. Of course she's got a story. Everybody does. And nobody gets this fast without a good one. Shobukhova, though, she's special. Even among the world's top athletes, she's got a page-turner.

Shobukhova was born in a small town in Russia in 1977. A child of the Cold War and an adolescent during the fall of communism, Shobukhova's formative years were set against a backdrop of breadlines.

"Empty stores, parents didn't get their salaries for several months," she recalls. "Our parents jumped out of their skin, if only to provide food for me and my other two sisters." A global superpower no more, the quickly crumbling USSR clung to the one area in which it could still succeed: athletics. The USSR simply dominated Olympic competition at the time. They were the most successful nation in the history of international sports competition, and their methods left nothing to chance.

Sports were a national obsession. Physical education was considered an essential part of every young Soviet's life. Athletic competition not only provided a world stage from which to display Soviet virility, but the athletic ideas of hard work and loyalty mirrored communism's principles. The party seized the opportunity and instituted a system of universal sports schools to span the country. Olympic development schools were fed by smaller, local sports schools, and every school was highly organized, uniform and completely deferential to the central governing nucleus.

Shobukhova entered the Soviet sports system at age 9. "My coaches were convinced that the right way to make a champion is to raise him or her since childhood," she says. "This section was more about finding a potential and the right character for real professional sport among the kids. They took us hiking, backpacking, put us in different situations to get the experience. They checked not only how we run, but get along as a team, even the way we pick up berries in the forest, thus experienced our patience and composure, and quietly made corrections."

From those classes Shobukhova was identified as a potential talent and enrolled in one of the many state-funded Children's Sports Schools of Olympic Reserve. From then on she lived the life of an athlete. She trained twice a day alongside the country's other rising stars, with every resource she might need to grow up into a world-beater. And she didn't disappoint.

Between then and now were a lot of miles, a husband, a daughter, and the aforementioned stellar races. And those two decades of training logs read like a coach's dream: a slow and gradual progression, a testament to patience and work over time in developing a long-distance runner. "[My] best times have come close to my 30s because all those years I was building that foundation," Shobukhova says, "which includes many years of training, mileage, endurance, speed, minimum injuries."

And, of course, all those miles were run against the fall of communism, the crumble of the Soviet Union and the subsequent decade of economic depression. "I wouldn't complain about those times," says Shobukhova. "These difficulties have tempered, made us stronger, developed a character, and set the principle of life: Never give up under any circ*mstances."

Shobukhova's not giving up and has made no secret of her intention to compete in the 2012 Olympic marathon. And in the meantime? "What do you think?" she asks. "Isn't it a good idea to come back to defend my 2010 titles?" I don't know, but I'll be reading.