Biography
In the middle of the twentieth century, the Soviet sport was marked with a period of heyday thanks to the talented athletes from all republics. Among them and the legend of the Soviet basketball Modestas Paulauskas - Master of Sports, Olympic champion, two-time world champion, winner of four gold medals of European Championships. The purpose of this basketball player is as an example of modern athletes coaches from Russia and CIS countries.Childhood and youth
Modestas Feliksovich Powlauskas was born in the city of Cinting (Lithuanian Republic, USSR) on March 19, 1945. About the parents of the future basketball player Felix and One Paulauskas nothing is known. Modestas (in the family of the boy was called the fashion) became the fourth child. Modestas himself recalls that parents with two older sons and daughter have evacuated to the village to the village and grandfather along the mother.
On the eve of Victory in March 1945, Paulauskas family returned to the hometown of Klaipeda on the Baltic Sea coast. Felix and One with children were driving through the unparent town of Cinting, where fashion and fashion was born. In the passport of the athlete, the place of birth is specified, and he himself considers Klaiped himself with a small birthplace.
Energetic and Initiative Modestas tried himself in all sports, but basketball came to him. Another child he did not let go of the ball, and when the father installed a wire ring on a cramped kitchenette, imitating a basketball basket, a boy was delighted at all. All went to the basket: balls, toys, shoes.
However, a small model was to take an example from whom, because the brother of the boy Edmundas played for the national team of basketball and since 1957 began to systematically take training and younger brother.
After graduating from school, the young man already knew that he would dedicate the lives of sports, but still entered the Polytechnic Institute in Kaunas, since he avoided the call on the ranks of the Armed Forces.
Basketball
Modestas was almost 14 years old when he first got on serious sports competitions, where he received the title of the best player and an invitation to the Lithuanian National Basketball team. Already becoming an adult successful athlete, Paulauskas with warmth recalled its first coach of Vlasa Knashius. The team, where the 17-year-old Modestas played, won the national championship in part and thanks to the talent and guy skills. For the excellent game, Modestas received the title of the best player.
Among the successful basketball clubs in Lithuania, Zalgiris was leading. In 1962, a coach was replaced in the team, this post took Vitautas Bimba. It was the new coach who led to the team of Young Powlauskas. Given that Zalgiris was the only Lithuanian club in the USSR Championship, and Modestas rather quickly appreciated the coach, and the staff of the team as an indispensable player, the fame of promising and talented basketball player quickly spread throughout the union. In the narrow circles, Zalgiris began to informally call the Powulauskas club. Although the club did not lead in the Championships of the Soviet Union, but the guys were adequately played in the Higher League and twice occupied the third place in the championship.
At Modestas playing Zalgiris, the coaches of the USSR national team drew attention. So Paulauskas began playing international tournaments, defending the honor of the Soviet Union. As part of the team, the young man was prepared for the Olympics, but was removed. Modestas decided that all his victories was still ahead and began active preparation for the European Junior Championship, where the team with Paulauskas took the first place.
After the striker Yuri Korniev left the team, the head coach suggested that I was prompted to play in defense, try my hand at attack. So the basketball player took the position of light forward.
In 1965, Paulauskas as part of the national team went to the European Championship, where Alexander Gomelsky took a bet on Lithuanian and was wrong - the team home returned with gold medals, and Modestas also received the title of the best player. And after the victory of the national team on the world championship of the Lithuanian Basketball player awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports.
Already four years later, Paulauskas occupied the captain of the USSR national team, which spent five years. And after the third place busy in 1969 on the continental championship of Modestas, together with Sergey Belov, entered the national team of the basketball, that is, it was recognized as the best basketball player in the world.
In total, in the sports biography of Modestas Paulauskas Seven gold medals, three bronze and state awards - the Order "Hall Sign".
From 34 years old athlete began the coaching career. At first, he prepared the junior team team from Angola to the International Competitions, then returned to the already native Lithuanian "Zalgiris" in the post of coach. In the early 2000s, Modestas Feliksovich opened his own sports center in Lithuania, and then moved to Russia to work with gifted children in the Kaliningrad region. Thanks to his contribution to the development of Russian sports, Lithuanian was awarded the medal "For merits to the Kaliningrad Region".
Personal life
The athlete never said about his family life, and now there is little about her known. Modestas's wife is called Yenina Powlauskas, in marriage the couple had two sons - Modestas and Nerius.Modestas Paulauskas now
Considering the age of an athlete, it has not yet been necessary to play the model for a long time, and the coaching career does not attract close attention to the public, because his personality was in the shadows. So far, in 2017, the film "Movement Up" did not come to Russian televisers.
The film director Anton Megherdicheva tells the audience about the events at the Olympics in the summer of 1972. The plot is based on the historical match between the USSR national teams and the United States, and the scenario is written on the materials of the autobiographical book of another basketball player - Sergey Belov.
The role of Modestas in the film was performed by actor James Tratas. James comes from Lithuania, like his character. Static and attractive spending externally remotely reminds Modestas to a photo of a young basketball player. In Kinolent, the director showed a bright anti-Soviet mood of Paulauskas and even his desire to emigrate, but the athlete himself emphasizes that these facts do not at all correspond to reality - it has always been warmly related to Russia, still working as a basketball coach with children and young people in the Kaliningrad region, although And lives in Lithuania.
But at the same time, Modestas Feliksovich emphasizes that the film is referred to the genre of artistic, not documentaries, and therefore it is meaningless to be inaccuracies. The athlete was pleased with the work of Anton Megherdichev, like most residents of Lithuania.
Awards and achievements
- 1965 - Gold Medal of the European Championship
- 1967 - Gold Medal of the World Cup
- 1967 - Gold Medal of the European Championship
- 1968 - Bronze Medal of the Olympic Games
- 1969 - Gold Medal of the European Championship
- 1970 - Bronze Medal of the World Cup
- 1971 - Gold Medal of the European Championship
- 1972 - Gold Medal of the Olympic Games
- 1973 - Bronze Medal of the European Championship
- 1974 - Gold Medal of the World Cup