Talk:Galina Mitrokhina (rowing)

Rower confusion

There appears to be some confusion between Galina Vecherkovskaya (born 1926) and Galina Mitrokhina (rowing) (born 1940).

I read the following in the Berliner Zeitung about the single sculls at the 1963 European champs (translation by me):

Since the English rower Chuter (second in 1962 in Grünau) had poor form, the way to victory was clear for Galina Konstantinowa (USSR), who in the previous year came third under her maiden name Samorodowa on the Langer See.

I therefore conclude the following:

• Mitrokhina's maiden name was Samorodova, and Konstantinova was her first married name (I'll swap this around accordingly); she was later called Mitrokhina
• The 1962 European Rowing Championships single sculls bronze medal ("Galina Samorodowa") thus belongs to Mitrokhina

The double sculls results are as yet unclear to me; the source shows gold medals for:

• 1961 European Rowing Championships: "Galina Weserkowskaja-Samorodowa"
• 1962 European Rowing Championships: "Galina Samorodowa"

At present, those medals show in the profile of Galina Vecherkovskaya. I shall see whether some contemporary media reports can confirm that this is correct. Materialscientist, I see you wrote both articles. The Google Books (E. A. Shkolnikov, 2003) link in the Mitrokhina article doesn't work for me (NZ has more restrictions than other countries); maybe you could have a look what it says there. Schwede66 02:39, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

Ok, I've had a look at East German media reporting for 1961 and 1962. In the double sculls, Valentina Kalegina was paired with the following:

• 1961: "Samorodowa" or "Galina Samarodova"
• 1962: "Wetscherowskaia" "Wetscherkowskaja" "Galina Wetscherkowskaja"

So, if Galina Mitrokhina had her maiden name Samorodova until 1962, I conclude that the 1961 gold in the double belongs to her rather than Vecherkovskaya. For the 1962 season, Samorodova changed to single sculls and Kalegina teamed up with Vecherkovskaya, who by then was 37 years old. By the way, one of the 1962 sources isn't about the European champs, but the Soviet National champs, so if anybody has access to results list for the Soviet nationals, that may shed further light on this. But all of this is disputed by a rather lengthy article (in Russian) published for Vecherkovskaya's 85th birthday, where it says that she did come home from the 1961 European champs with a gold medal. Ghuron, maybe you could help given that you speak Russian (I don't). Schwede66 18:29, 14 January 2018 (UTC)