2023-06-29 05:15:57
The body of a 20-year-old girl might not stand the infernal stress and hunger.
Irina Fomenkova / Photo: © Personal archive of Irina Fomenkova
People who are 100% dedicated to their work usually go to professional sports. In order to withstand a strict regimen, heavy physical exertion and psychological pressure, an athlete needs the highest internal motivation. However, it is extremely important that this motivation does not go to the other extreme – fanaticism.
A young athlete from Tambov failed to withstand the golden mean at one time. Irina Fomenkova was so carried away by the pursuit of a brilliant figure that she brought her body to terrible exhaustion.
The girl tragically died at just 20 years old.
“Couldn’t eat for weeks”
Ira has never been a sports child. According to her mother, in childhood, the future bodybuilder was fond of something completely different: she read a lot, learned languages, and generally loved school. Psychologists considered her a child prodigy. The girl independently mastered several foreign languages, graduated from the eleventh grade as an external student, brilliantly passed her exams and entered one of the strongest technical universities in the country – MEPhI.
Having moved from her native Tambov to Moscow, Fomenkova settled in a university hostel. The girl studied well and quickly managed to get a job in a collection agency. The young specialist quickly achieved the position of a senior analyst and soon began to earn a solid 115 thousand rubles a month.
Irina Fomenkova (right) / Photo: © Personal archive of Irina Fomenkova
In a word, for a student, Ira lived more than well. However, her personal life did not go well at all. A close friend of the deceased said that the athlete might not find a young man for herself, explaining this by being overweight: Fomenkova weighed regarding 80 kg. Once a guy with whom Irina was just starting a relationship left her for a more slender girl – this was a fatal blow for Fomenkova.
“After that, she began to lose weight. I was on strict diets. I might eat nothing for weeks. She had fainting spells. As a result, she lost weight up to 60 kg. Was looking great. But then she wanted to lose weight further. And the diets started once more. To get in shape, I suggested that she run, but she decided to go to fitness, – quotes the words of her friend Irina “MK”.
“Trained day and night”
In 2013, sport appeared in Irina’s life. Having dropped almost 20 kg on her own, the girl decided to go further and began to swing. She worked with incredible perseverance and soon became interested in bodybuilding. Already with the first coach, according to the recollections of her friend Fomenkova, she began to “prick hormones”, and with the transition to another specialist, she began to take on completely exorbitant loads. At the same time, the athlete never underwent a medical examination.
Ira spent hours in the gym, ate 8-10 times a day and increasingly used special pills. A neighbor of the athlete heard how she moaned at night from convulsions, but still continued to abuse the body. Bodybuilding eventually began to replace everything for Fomenkova: the girl first transferred from daytime to evening training, spent her entire salary on sports nutrition and training, and then quit her job.
Sport has become a new goal in Irina’s life, but the girl chose the path to it as unhealthy as possible. In the winter of 2015, Fomenkova met German Yukhanov, a European bodybuilding champion and president of the Tambov Region Bodybuilding Federation. The specialist allowed the athlete to join the federation, and the girl’s dream came true: she was able to participate in professional competitions.
German Yukhanov and Irina Fomenkova / Photo: © Personal archive of Irina Fomenkova
Yukhanov immediately warned the new ward that she might not win anything in the first season, and recommended spending at least a year on preparation. But Irina already saw herself on a pedestal. The athlete began a nightmarish weight race, wanting to take the prize by all means.
– Ira was limited in the intake of carbohydrates and sugar-containing products, and she trained day and night. Already at the first competitions, she fainted from hunger before going on stage. Her nose was bleeding, she performed with tampons in her nose, – said the mother of the athlete.
“Pain is temporary, triumph is eternal”
All this time, the girl kept a diary on social networks, sharing her achievements. Irina treated her hobby with humor, but her notes often looked creepy: “Bodybuilding of the brain”, “Pain is temporary, triumph is eternal”, “Die, but do it”. The girl published the last post on April 28, 2015.
— My first competitive season is over. I collected all the most unfortunate places – 2, 4, 11. I saw what to work on. I squeezed out what I might for 3 months. There are tasks for the new season and a new uniform,” Fomenkova wrote.
The first competitive season was the last for the athlete. On April 29, Irina woke up with a temperature of 40 degrees, but forced herself to go to work. The next day the situation did not change. The doctor was called to the girl: the doctor gave Fomenkova an injection, but two hours later she became ill once more. Resuscitation did not manage to save her. Cause of death: acute heart failure and cardiomyopathy, which developed once morest the background of physical overload.
Irina Fomenkova (right) / Photo: © Personal archive of Irina Fomenkova
The death of her daughter hit the mother of the athlete hard. Svetlana Fomenkova blamed German Yukhanov for the death of the girl, but the coach explained: she herself made her choice. The authorities also refused to start a criminal case: there is no corpus delicti. And in the All-Russian Federation of Bodybuilding, responsibility for the tragedy was completely assigned to Irina’s mother: they say, she did not keep track of the child. The girl was buried in her native Tambov: almost 500 people came to the funeral of a young bodybuilder.
She was told not to rush. She ignored. Ira really was a kind, sympathetic person, but her character was iron and heavy. If she decided something, she might not be broken. If some coach had taken it seriously, perhaps the tragedy would not have happened. But everyone has their own life, – the first coach of Irina summed up the story.
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