Valery Vladimirovich Rozov (December 26, 1964, Gorky — November 11, 2017, Nepal) was a Soviet and Russian mountaineer, BASE jumper, and skysurfer, and an Honored Master of Sport of Russia in parachuting. A native of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), he was one of the best-known Russian extreme athletes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the author of a number of world records and first ascents and descents.
Education and the start of his career
Rozov graduated from the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology in 1988, from the Faculty of Microdevices and Technical Cybernetics.[1] He took up mountaineering in 1982, just after enrolling at the institute. As part of the Seven Summits project in the mid-1990s, he climbed several of the world's key peaks, including Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, and Aconcagua.[2] In 1990 he was awarded the title of Master of Sport of the USSR in mountaineering, and he later became Russian mountaineering champion in 2002 and 2004.
Alongside mountaineering, Rozov mastered parachuting. In the 1990s, when BASE jumping was almost unknown in Russia, he was one of the first to begin jumping from fixed objects.[2] One of his early attempts nearly proved fatal: while climbing an antenna in France to "close" the letter A in the acronym BASE, Rozov received an electric shock, spent two months in a hospital in Marseille, underwent skin grafts, and lost two toes.[2]
Achievements and records
International recognition came to Rozov in 1998, when he won the X-Games skysurfing competition.[2] This was followed by victories at the world parachuting championships (1999, 2003), the European Championship, and the World Cup (both in 2002).[2]
Rozov became the first person to make a parachute jump into the crater of an active volcano, and also the first to make a BASE jump from the highest peak in Africa, the Kibo volcano.[2] He set a world record for the altitude of a BASE jump — 7,700 meters from Cho Oyu — and made the world's first wingsuit jump from Everest.[2] His records also include group acrobatics with 400 participants and a group wingsuit flight with 100 participants.[2]
In 2002–2003, Rozov was the author and host of the television program "My Crazy Friends" on the TVS channel. In 2019 his book "One-Way Ticket: Stories About Love for Life, People, and One's Work" was published posthumously.[1]
Death
On November 11, 2017, Rozov died during a wingsuit jump from the summit of Ama Dablam (8,091 m) in the Nepalese Himalayas.[2] He is buried at the Zelenograd Cemetery in Zelenograd (Moscow).
Connection to Nizhny Novgorod
Rozov was born on December 26, 1964, in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod).[1] His subsequent sports career was connected mainly with Moscow.
Links
- Wikidata (Q3553745 — an entry in the free knowledge base)
Sources
- unicat.nlb.by
- sport-strana.ru — Rozov Valery Vladimirovich — Sport-strana.ru