Italian Sailing Coach Mankin Praises Lake Garda as Top Training Site
“The Italian national sailing team finds its ideal training ground on Lake Garda.” This is the belief of national team coach Valentin Mankin, during the European Yngling Championship in Riva, the new women’s Olympic class that will compete in Athens.
Mankin, a former Olympic athlete, won three gold medals and one silver medal representing the USSR; a multi-award-winning helmsman in the Finn, Star, and Tempest classes in the past, when he fought his battles on race courses around the world.
This taciturn Ukrainian was born in Kyiv on the banks of the Dnieper River and was one of the greatest helmsmen in the world. “To succeed, passion and humility are required,” he says, “everything must be done with utmost care, starting with the tasks that at first glance seem secondary, like cleaning and preparing the boat and sails.”
He emphasizes the importance of starting modestly, as sailing is a difficult, highly technical sport; perseverance and patience are necessary, as only then can one learn the secrets.” At the 1968 Olympics, Mankin secured gold in the Finn class in Acapulco.
In 1969, he moved to the Tempest class, with which he won gold three years later in Kiel at the Munich 1972 Olympics. Four years later, still racing in the Tempest, he won silver in Montreal.
He then transitioned from the Tempest class to the Star and climbed to the top of the podium at the Moscow Games in 1980, again ahead of Austrian Raudaschl and Giorgio Gorla.
The boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics prevented him from adding more Olympic medals to his collection. Mankin arrived in Italy in 1990, driven by the need to find adequate care for his nephew.
Since then, he has been working with the Italian Olympic team: “Politics ruin sports, and that’s also why I stopped my competitive career.”
However, in Italy, I felt comfortable, and so my family and I chose to stay. Here on Lake Garda, you are very fortunate; it’s the best place in the world to practice sailing.
For this reason, last summer we decided to refine the Italian Olympic team’s training in Malcesine in preparation for the Sydney Games.”
Activities and life in Italy
After winning numerous medals, Mankin decided to move to Italy for health reasons and continued working in the sailing world. His presence has enriched the local sporting environment, and his international experience is a testament to a long-standing tradition of sailing excellence.
