Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

Page 78

Let Everest Beckons
right leg was stretched further by a few inches. Good news indeed ! The 26 year old Soviet athlete then started not only walking normally but resumed his high-jump training with a confident resolve to return to competitive encounters. And yet his adversaries would not give in. Now they started saying that even if he walks runs or plays basket-ball a bit, highjumping for him was next to impossible.
In November 1968, Brumel was assured by Dr. Ilizarow that the bone of his injured right leg would never break again at least, in the place where he had originally developed fractures in Brumel breaking his own record the road accident. A. month later, in December, Brumel possibly the only person in the world then - who nourished a strong hope for his comeback to the high-jump event, held his first workout. Successive practice sessions followed thereafter. He never bothered about what others said about his resolve to come back to the arena. No one, he thought, could prevent him from staging the impending return to the sport.
Initially when he started walking again he used to limp. Then he would push or thrust himself either on the ground or on snow for one kilometer or so. He also started lifting dumbbells weighing 10 kg. Gradually he started regaining strength and confidence either by running or by swimming or by doing various kinds of physical exercises.