From boxing world champion to mayor of Kiev

Reorientention of professional sportsmen through the example of the Klitschko brothers

Being a professional sportsman is a not common lifestyle. Your body is your work instrument and you can not use it indefinitely. For most sports, athletes have to retire between 35 and 45 and it can be even before if get injured. According to the popularity of the sport and the level in which the athlete is playing, the salary can be really different. Some players can not leave the rest of their life without finding a reorientation after their retirement. But most of the best sportsmen, even if they are really well payed, do not want to just lay on their couch for the rest of their life. In most cases they keep working in the same sporting environment, either as coaches, like Zinedine Zidane or Steve Kerr, or working in medias as consultant, like Shaquille O’neal or Samir Nasri. If they are worldwide known they can also use their name to create consumption products like Michael Jordan did. But there are also rare case of sportsmen reorienting in really different professions. The brothers Klitschko are one of the best example of this kind of reorientation.

Vitali and Wladimir were born in Ukraine during the 70s, sons of a Soviet Air Force major general. Their father started teaching them how to fight to defend themselves from other kids. Even if school was the most important thing for the Klitschko’s family, boxing took a big place in the brother’s childhood. Vitali, being the older brother, had to take care of his brother really early and all the time, given that their parents were working a lot. In addition to their innate impressive silhouette, their father taught them severity and discipline. Starting in life with these tools, they could have been great in barely every sport, but their education and mindset directed them to fighting sports. They started kick boxing training even if it was not legal in USSR at this time.

The main difference between the two brothers is that Vitali was a born boxer and Wladimir became one. They were used to say that they were special boxers, even if there was only one of the two brothers in the ring they were two fighters against the opponent. Vitali, already known as “Dr Ironfist”, began his professional heavy-weight career in 1996 after an amateur’s record of 195 wins, 15 losses and 80 knockouts. He won his first 24 professional fights by either early knockouts or technical knockouts. He become world champion in 1999 by knocking out his opponent in the second round of his 25th fight. His brother, Wladimir “Dr Steelhammer” Klitschko, followed him and won two world titles almost in the same time lapse. Vitali won an other title before retiring in 2005 because of injuries. He made his comeback in 2007 and recovered his title on his first fight. From this time, the Klitshko brothers lead the heavyweight division until 2013, before Vitali definitely retires at the age of 42.

Each of the brothers have a PhD, that is why they are called Dr Ironfist and DrSteelhammer, they can also speak at least 4 different languages. The Klitschko brothers have always been really concerned about their country and Ukrainian citizens. When Wladimir decided to focus on teaching and working on his NGO after his retirement from boxing, Vitali become a deputy in 2012 to fight injustice and corruption. Then he won the Kiev mayoral elections in 2014. His professional boxing career help him to stay calm in every situation. In a country where people care a lot about strong men, he is really respected because of his silhouette and boxing records. That helped him a lot to be respected by most of Kiev citizens. Vitali Klitschko is now really implicated in the defense of Kiev since the war against Russia as started.

The Klitschko brothers didn’t choose the easiest lifestyle but their choices can be an inspiration. Actually especially for teenagers who are stressing about their adult life, the problem of finding a job for their whole life. Vitali and Wladimir showed us that you can have many different lives even with nothing in common. So their life and their chooses can be seen as an example for all sportsmen but also for all people in general.

Joaquim Renaud