On May 23, the Olympic champion, three-time world champion, five-time USSR champion with CSKA Anatoly Ionov would have turned 82.
Anatoly Semyonovich Ionov was born in 1939 in Elektrostal near Moscow, where he began to play hockey. In 1956 he made his debut for the local team of craftsmen, after which in 1957 he moved to Wings of the Soviets. In 1959 he returned to Elektrostal, where he spent four more seasons.
In 1963, Anatoly Ionov moved to CSKA. As part of the army, Anatoly Semyonovich became the USSR champion five times and the USSR Cup four times. In total, in the USSR championships, he held 298 meetings, having distinguished himself 139 times.
Together with the USSR national team, Ionov won Olympic gold at the 1968 Games in Grenoble and became a three-time world and European champion. At the Olympics and world championships, he played 14 matches, in which he scored 5 goals.
In 1970, Anatoly Ionov returned to his native Elektrostal, where he worked as the head coach of Kristall, the head of the team and coach in the Electrostalsky sports school.
In 2014, Anatoly Semyonovich was inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame.
On May 12, 2019, Anatoly Ionov passed away. He was buried in the city of Elektrostal at the New Cemetery.
