Childhood and youth
Ekaterina was born in Chelyabinsk in the year of the Moscow Olympics. The father abandoned the mother as soon as he learned about the pregnancy, and the family initially wanted to indicate a different middle name on the birth certificate. Aunt Lyubov Borisovna, who worked in the volleyball section of Chelyabmetrostroy and became the first coach of the future sports star, helped raise the girl.
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As a child, Ekaterina Gamova and her mother
Katya managed to play not only volleyball, but also basketball and handball. When the time came to make a final decision, Gamova chose the Metar volleyball sports school. At 14, she joined a professional team whose players were 10 years older, and 2 years later she held in her hands the first serious award - the Russian Cup.
The athlete has 2 diplomas of higher education - from the Ural Academy of Physical Culture and the Russian State Social University.
Career
After graduating from school, the young athlete entered the Ural Academy of Physical Education, and soon she was invited to the famous “Uralochka”, one of the best volleyball teams in the country, which was supervised by the famous coach of the Russian national team Nikolai Karpol.
As part of the team, Katya has repeatedly become a prize-winner of major domestic and international competitions and won the Russian Championship three times. In 2004, Gamova moved from Uralochka to Dynamo Moscow and again became the champion of the Russian Federation for three years in a row. After that, she spent a year in Fenerbahce Istanbul, and then joined Dynamo Kazan. As part of it, the athlete won five Russian championships and was awarded the prestigious Lyudmila Buldakova volleyball prize three times.
Legendary volleyball player Ekaterina Gamova. Best moments In 2013, Ekaterina became a torchbearer at the opening of the World Universiade in Kazan, and in 2014 she was recognized as the best player in the Champions League. During her sports career, Gamova participated in the Olympic Games four times: in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012). Her performances at the 2000 and 2004 games brought her silver medals, although at the Sydney games Ekaterina was not included in the team's starting lineup.
At the qualifying championship in Tokyo, 2012
In May 2021, the athlete unexpectedly announced that she was ending her sports career and could not take part in the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil. A long-standing leg injury appeared, which prevented Catherine from performing at full strength.
Ekaterina Gamova performed at number 11
Her farewell match took place on October 1, 2021 in Kazan. Spectators held signs reading “Catherine the Great” and “Game Over” (Gamowa), and her game jersey with the legendary number 11 was raised into the stadium arches. At the same time, the grand opening of the “Gamova School” took place in Kazan, where future players of the Russian national team will train.
Personal life
For a long time, Catherine preferred to hide facts from her personal life from prying eyes. It is known that she met with a native of Yekaterinburg, Alexei. At that time, the athlete played for the Turkish Fenerbahce. Returning to her homeland, she tried to revive the relationship, but the feelings faded away completely.
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Ekaterina Gamova and her husband Mikhail Mukasey
On the set of a commercial, Gamova met her husband Mikhail Mukasey, producer and owner of the RENTACAM company. This is the youngest son of the famous couple - director Svetlana Druzhinina and regular cameraman of films about midshipmen Anatoly Mukasey. The husband’s parents are volleyball fans (in their youth they headed the VGIK teams) and are delighted with their daughter-in-law, and his children from a previous marriage, Lisa and Maxim, consider Katya a “cool stepmother.”
The athlete’s entourage assumed that an alliance with a “filmmaker” would automatically transfer her to the category of actresses. But the volleyball player said that she is not interested in a cinematic career, nor in politics, but does not see herself as a housewife.
Family of Ekaterina Gamova
The girl doesn’t know her father—he left the family before her daughter was born. The girl was raised by her mother, who passed away early.
Catherine in her youth
Her aunt played a big role in Gamova’s development as an athlete; she brought her niece to her first training session and then followed her progress.
Performances of the Russian national team
Performances on behalf of the country began in 1999. Youth tournaments were held on a tight schedule. Immediately after the match we went to the airport to catch a flight to another city, where in the morning there would be another game. During international tours, Ekaterina Gamova acquired the nickname “Game over” due to the consonance of her surname when pronounced with an English accent. She justified her nickname, bringing more and more points to her country, leaving her opponents no chance to win. Her club mates called her "Gam". For them, the shorter the nickname, the better. Sometimes seconds decide the fate of a rally. You have to save time in every way. This was a necessary measure.
Despite the difficult schedule and constant workload, the team won the European tournament that same year and received a chance to participate in the 2000 Olympic Games.
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For Ekaterina, the period of her professional heyday began. The Russian woman received honorable knowledge, promoting her homeland to victory over every opponent with her tough blocks and powerful blows. She was recognized as the most productive player at the World Winners Cup, the main tournament in Europe.
Brilliant series of games in Turkey
The next milestone in his life’s journey was the game in the Turkish Fenerbahce. With the arrival of the Russian athlete, he began a chain of 39 matches without defeat, winning the championship both in the Turkish Cup and in competitions throughout the country.
As for more recent awards, the thirty-year-old athlete was awarded the MVP prize at the World Championships, the title of best athlete of the year. Three prestigious sports publications immediately recognized the title. The next year, Ekaterina Gamova was declared the best player in the cup and competitions in her homeland.
Achievements with clubs
- 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2008 – Silver medalist of the Russian championships.
- 2001-2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011-2015 – Russian Champion.
- 1996-2015 – 4-time final winner, 5-time finalist, and 2-time bronze medalist of the Russian Cup.
- 1998/1999 – 3rd place in the fight for the CEV Cup.
- 2005/2006 – silver in the Top Teams Cup.
- 2013/2014 - Winner, 2002/2003-2011/2012 - twice bronze medalist and four times finalist of the Champions League.
- 2014 – Winner of the Club World Championship.
As part of the Dynamo team
Children of Ekaterina Gamova
In the fall of 2021, the athlete’s fans were happy to learn about the addition to the family - Ekaterina Gamova gave birth to a child, a real hero weighing more than 4 kg. She dreams of a boy following in her footsteps and becoming a volleyball player.
Ekaterina with her husband Mikhail
This event made the grandparents of Ekaterina Gamova’s child, Svetlana Druzhinina and Anatoly Mukasey, happy. It is known that they are in excellent relations with their son and his wife and try to support them in every possible way. Gamova’s husband has two older children from previous marriages, and Katya also communicates well with them when they visit their father.
About the “divorce” with Karpol
Gamova's departure from Uralochka, where she played for 6 years, to Dynamo Moscow was accompanied by a scandal. The club refused to let its main star go, and then the volleyball player filed a lawsuit.
— The first thoughts about leaving Uralochka appeared at the moment when they began to force us to rewrite contracts. We were registered as individual entrepreneurs. Thank you, there were knowledgeable people who suggested: if we sign these agreements, we will never be able to break them in our lives. The employer gains complete power over you...
A little later, I found out that two Uralochka players were already independently exploring options on how to leave the club - Tanya Gorshkova and Natalya Safronova . After that, Nastya Belikova also decided to work in a similar direction. To begin with, we made a fundamental decision for ourselves - in any case, we would not re-sign these contracts.
This came as a surprise to Karpol. He gave us the appropriate papers to sign in Japan when we were at the national team's location. I remember I went into the coach’s room and burst into tears... Naturally, I didn’t sign anything. He, of course, was a little dumbfounded by this whole situation and became agitated. What did it look like from his side? A player enters the room, sees a contract on the table and begins to cry bitterly...
Article on the topic
Coach Nikolai Karpol: “We have to delve into the worldview of young people so as not to find ourselves on the sidelines”
After this incident, we were left alone with these contracts for some time. But it was already clear that it was necessary to find people who could help us. Because Karpol has power, he rules the federation. And we are essentially alone. They are defenseless and not particularly needed by anyone.
... Karpol had a long conversation with me, but I didn’t tell him anything about my desire to leave Uralochka. And he tried to “put pressure on the psyche.” Basically - in good faith. He told me that they raised me in “Uralochka” and invested a lot of effort, time and money into this preparation. He said that everything would be fine with me, that the contract amount would be significantly increased. I listened, nodded, but I myself understood that there was no turning back. The legal machine was running, bridges were burned. And the next day I simply came to the club office and wrote a letter of resignation of my own free will...
...Then, of course, there were plenty of all sorts of unpleasant moments. For example, when I came to Uralochka to pick up my work book, they both scared me and painted me not the most rosy prospects. In the end, they said something like this: “We’ll give you your work book only in exchange for the keys to the apartment.” The point is that one of the clauses of the contract stated: “Gamova has been a tenant of the apartment for three years, and then this property becomes her property.” And these three years had not yet expired at the time of the conflict. Velikanov threatened, promised that he would throw my mother’s things out into the street... My mother was great, she was not taken aback, she said: “Please, go ahead, come, throw it away. I’ll immediately call all the newspapers and TV channels to ask them to come too. And they showed the whole country how Uralochka treats the Honored Master of Sports.”
Gamova parted ways with Karpol through the courts. Photo: RIA Novosti/Pavel Lisitsyn
“A volleyball player’s nightmare – when you play volleyball in a dream”
“Now we’re rooting for our girls.” Who is their main rival?
— Our main ones are the whole group.
— Did you watch the opening of the Olympics?
— I watched the opening.
— There commentators recalled your great, but offensive silver at the Olympics with Karpol. Do you dream about defeats? Or victories?
- No, I don’t. I don't dream of victory or defeat. I don’t dream about volleyball at all, thank God, because it’s a volleyball player’s nightmare – when you play volleyball in a dream.
“Foreign coaches are normal practice”
— Who chose the composition? Head coach? Did he consult with you?
- Not with me. I have nothing to do with the national team, and I think it’s unlikely that the coach consults with anyone who should take him or not, but only with his assistants who work within the team, because after all, the responsibility is for those who go , and the result lies with the coach.
— How do you explain that both our teams are headed by foreigners? Women – Italian, men – Finn.
- So this is normal practice in the world of big sports. This is completely normal and you don’t need to explain anything to anyone. People work, do their job.
— Do they know Russian?
— Men's national team coach Tuomas Sammelvuo knows, as far as I understand. And the coach of the women's team, Sergio Busato, knows a lot worse, but tries to speak Russian.
— By the way, our football team is now looking for a coach. Maybe we should hire a foreigner again, what do you think?
— It’s difficult for me to judge. I don't know much about football.
“We’re probably doing a good job.”
— Katya, on July 23 the Olympic Games, postponed for a year, will open in Tokyo, and today you will have to take the rap for all your team sports. We mean in the comments. After all, volleyball is the only sport that qualified for the Olympics in all disciplines, and all the others suffered losses. Our football players, basketball players, field hockey players did not make it to Tokyo at all. In addition, it is the volleyball player Maxim Mikhailov who carries the flag of our entire Olympic team?
- Yes, he is a standard bearer.
— Are you ready for an Olympics where Katya Gamova will have to be responsible for the whole of Russia?
- Why should I?
- Well, that's how we appointed you.
- I think that those who are now preparing and have already left for Tokyo will be responsible to everyone for the result, so I wish the guys only good luck, patience, health, remember that their loved ones, relatives and fans remain here in Russia, They will watch and root for them with interest and worry.
— Why exactly do volleyball players continue to hold their own? How do you do this?
- Well, I don’t know why only we can do this. This means we are doing a good job, which means we are doing everything right. Other sports probably need to ask themselves and change something, since the results give such...
did only our women make it to the Olympics in other sports, such as handball, water polo, and rugby Where are the men?
— Women, as always, are the stronger sex. How can we explain this? It's difficult for me to answer. Maybe this is a pattern that has been developing for centuries, or maybe just by chance.
Volleyball player Maxim Mikhailov will be the standard bearer of the Russian team at the 2020 Games. Photo: TASS
Ekaterina currently
Now Gamova lives in the suburbs with her husband and child; her house has not only a gym, but also a music room. In Ekaterina Gamova’s family, everyone loves animals, so they also have pets - cats and a dog.
With my husband and his parents
Gamova turns 40 this year. She left coaching and is engaged in protecting the rights of athletes, is a member of the international commission of the Volleyball Federation, and also takes part in meetings of the International Olympic Committee.
The girl admits that this activity allows her to feel in her place and do everything possible for the development of domestic sports.
Photo from Instagram of Ekaterina Gamova
On Ekaterina Gamova’s Instagram there are many photographs with friends and family, as well as thoughts on a variety of topics, which she shares with numerous subscribers.
