All Eyes Are on Her : Egorova’s Tiny Village Had to Buy a Television to Watch Her Win Olympic Marathon

Valentina Egorova’s arduous summer began well before the Olympic Games in July, before she ran through heat and humidity and raced up a mountain to win a gold medal.

It began in March, when the Russian marathoner was selected to represent the Commonwealth of Independent States after finishing fourth in the 1992 Los Angeles Marathon. Egorova’s excitement at making her Olympic team was tempered with the knowledge that no one in her huge extended family would be able to watch her compete in Barcelona: There were no televisions in her tiny village of Iziderkino.

The citizens of the town were stumped. None of them would be able to travel to Barcelona to watch Egorova, the local heroine. Few in the village had even ventured to Cheboksari, the nearest city. How would they procure a television, such an expensive luxury? And, they worried, who among them would know how the machine was operated?

The mayor of Iziderkino pondered this problem, turning it around in his head many ways to find the answer. Most of the people in the village worked on a collective farm, he thought, so why not solve the problem together?

At last the mayor announced to the townsfolk his decision. In Iziderkino there were 500 houses, in each house there was an average of three people. Every house, the mayor decreed, would set aside a small amount of money. Egorova’s family--her mother and father, four sisters and one brother--would each be asked to give.

In this way, the mayor explained, Iziderkino would buy its television set.

Within weeks, an ancient, massive, black and white console television set, circa 1960, was wheeled into the home of Egorova’s parents. Many citizens stood in the entrance to the home, hands on hips, and stared at the blank screen. Another problem: Where to put such a large piece of furniture?

That problem was solved, collectively. The old television was set up on the threshold of Egorova’s parents’ house, facing out, positioned in such a way that the entire village could sit in front of the house and watch the Olympic marathon.

Telling the story Friday to a reporter at a Boston Marathon news conference, Egorova grew misty-eyed. She said she could feel the support of her farming village when she ran the marathon at Barcelona.

“The people watched the television and prayed for me,” she said, laughing with tears in her eyes.

Egorova is one of the favorites in Monday’s 97th Boston Marathon, but she was not picked to win at Barcelona. The 29-year-old surprised many not merely by winning, but in the manner that she did. The weather during the race was brutal: 86 degrees and 55% humidity. Many of the favorites were beaten back by the heat and were conserving their energy for the race’s last two miles, which wound up a steep hill to the top of Montjuic and the Olympic stadium.

It is rare enough for runners to battle for the lead in the last mile of a marathon. But for two marathoners to race up a hill with a mile to go, that’s amazing.

But Egorova did it, trading the lead with Yuko Arimori of Japan while they drew closer to the stadium. Finally Arimori dropped back and Egorova entered the stadium tunnel in the lead. Race workers and Olympic volunteers applauded the tiny runner as she ran through the darkened passage. When Egorova emerged from the tunnel and ran onto the track into the packed Olympic stadium, a roar went up.

Also in Iziderkino. Accustomed to a long day of hard work and an early bedtime, the farmers stayed up past midnight to see their heroine presented with an Olympic gold medal, the first by a Russian in the marathon. They stood at attention in the doorway to Egorova’s parents’ house when, for the first time at an Olympic Games, the Russian anthem was played and the Russian flag was raised.

According to Egorova, the vodka flowed freely that night in Iziderkino, with everyone toasting everyone else and the mayor, worse for the drink, finally toasting the television set.

The gold medalist’s true test of stamina came after she returned home, laden with gifts for her family, her husband and her 6-year-old son. It seemed that each family in the 500 homes expected Egorova to visit them, drink sweet tea with them, eat sweets, drink vodka, produce the medal and tell about life outside Iziderkino.

“For two months I had no time for myself or my family,” Egorova said through an interpreter. “There were many parties. People knew me and wanted to shake my hand. They were very proud. The mayor brought me to the city hall and I stood in a great hall and spoke to the people.

“Before the Olympics I trained two times a day. I worked so hard. After the Olympics, I only had time to train one time a day. I got out of shape. All the time was parties. I was very tired.”

Egorova’s is an unlikely ascension to stardom. She began running late, at 18, when a coach spotted her and asked her to run a race--three kilometers. Egorova ran the race in thin shoes with cotton soles. “Such shoes . . . you don’t have them in America,” she said.

She worked her way up through the old Soviet system slowly, a pace that she now credits with keeping her injury-free. She met and married her husband, a coach of young runners.

Asked if her husband was also her coach, Egorova leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial tone: “He would like to, but he has not the ability.”

Their son, Rouslan, has joined the ranks of his mother’s admirers. “He tells the other children, ‘My mother is a champion,’ ” she said.

As Egorova improved, she began to travel. Her longest trip was to last year’s L.A. Marathon, which the CIS had designated as its women’s Olympic trial. She was fourth, in 2 hours 29 minutes 41 seconds, but made the team as the third CIS finisher. She brought a toy truck home to Rouslan, who had complained of missing his mother--the only woman in the village who left so often.

“It is not good for the child to be away from the mother so long,” she said. “But I think he misses me more than I miss him. It is his age.”

One Russian who did not compete at the trials was Olga Markova, who instead chose to run at Boston last year. Markova gambled that if she ran a fast time, she was sure to be selected to the team, even though she did not run in Los Angeles.

Markova’s gamble didn’t pay off. She won Boston in 2:23:43, the fastest time in the world. But she was left off the team and watched the Games on television from St. Petersburg, just as Egorova’s family had done.

Markova and Egorova represent a new wave of marathoners from Russia, an area not well developed in the event. But Egorova says those days are over and that her country is ready to take the world lead.

“I am sure that Russia can bring many runners to the world sport in the difficult distance, the marathon,” she said. “Russian women are used to suffering.”