Pyotr Bolotnikov

Who is Pyotr Bolotnikov?

Pyotr Grigoryevich Bolotnikov is a former Soviet athlete, one of the world's best stayers of the early 1960s, winner of 10,000 m at the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Born in Zinovkino, Krasnoslobodsky District, Mordovian ASSR, Bolotnikov started athletics only at age twenty, when he joined the Soviet Army. He trained at VSS Spartak, coached by Grigory Nikiforov.

Bolotnikov won his first national championship title in 10,000 m in 1957, when he surprisingly beat the great Vladimir Kuts in a finishing straight by 0.2 seconds. He became the double Soviet champion in 5,000 m and 10,000 m from 1958 to 1962. He also won the national 10,000 m title in 1964 and national cross country title in 1958. In 1959 he became the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR

Bolotnikov participated already at the 1956 Summer Olympics, but without any success. At the Rome Olympics in 1960, Bolotnikov controlled the 10,000 m race from the start to end, beating the main favourites Hans Grodotzki from East Germany and Murray Halberg from New Zealand by five seconds. On 5 October that year, in Kiev, Bolotnikov lowered the 10,000 m world record by almost twelve seconds to 28:18.8.