September 12th:

Last September 6th, Coach Sergei was laid to rest in the Russian city of Yaroslavl. Volleyball athletes and dignitaries mourned with Sergei’s family and loved ones.

Sergey Shlyapnikov, founder of Yaroslavl’s Yaroslavich volleyball club, has these words:

“Sergey was a true leader, who knew how to make the players follow him and greatly influenced the development of our club. Being a coach is a very heavy burden. And living through every defeat like a disaster is in the nature of every good coach. I think he couldn’t cope with this pressure. It was too much. We’ve lost a good trainer, a good player and a good friend. May he rest in peace.”

Words from Valentin Zhukov, President of the Russian Volleyball Federation:

“We will organize a tournament in Sergei’s memory. It will be a big children’s tournament under the auspices of the federation. Sergei will be remembered by his full commitment to his activities, that may be had bad influence on his health. He was worrying a lot all the time.”

His body was buried at the Leontievskoe Cemetery in the city of Yaroslavl.

RIP Coach Sergei.

August 30th:

The FIVB President, Jizhong Wei, has released this statement:

“This is a very sad day for volleyball. On behalf of the volleyball family I pass on our sympathies and best wishes to the Ovchinnikov family and to the players and officials at the Russia Volleyball Federation and Dynamo Moscow club.”

USA Volleyball’s CEO, Doug Beal:

“We offers our sympathies to the Russian federation, and are saddened by this unexpected tragedy.”

On the other hand, Russian star Lioubov Sokolova has declined to comment on the death of Coach Ovchinnikov saying that “It’s not the time to talk.”

We’re waiting what Gamova will say about this tragedy.

More about Coach Sergey per FIVB:

“Ovchinnikov began his coaching career in 1998 when he entered the coaching staff of Yaroslavl club “Neftyanik”. On October 21, 2011 Ovchinnikov was appointed as acting coach of the Russia women’s national team. In December he was confirmed as coach.

Under his leadership, the Russian team qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games in London at the World Olympic Qualification tournament in Japan in May this year.”

August 29th:

Definitely NOT the news we want to hear and share…

He was supposed to train with his club team, Dynamo Moscow, but instead…

Head coach of the Russian women’s national team, Sergey Ovchinnikov, was found dead in his hotel room in Croatia a few hours ago. According to Croatia’s 24sata news website, Sergey missed breakfast which prompted the club’s employees to check on him and found him hanging.

Suicide is the unofficial cause of death.

“This is so stupid. He was my friend, my colleague. No one said a bad word about him. Yes, there was a blunder at the Olympics, well, to hell with it. I don’t know why he couldn’t cope with it.” according to his predecessor, coach Vladimir Kuzyutkin.

The former coach of the women’s team also added a lackluster performance from the 2012 Olympics could have triggered the 43 year old to take his own life.

Coach of the men’s team and Olympic Champion, Vladimir Alekno, has also released a statement which supports Kuzyutkin’s claim:

“He took the Olympics very personally. I saw what he was going through and how upset he was after the defeat. He didn’t talk much. Even after victories he was always thinking about something and smoked a lot.”

From embassy press secretary Boris Pavlov:

“The information we have is from Russian sources only. Croatian colleagues haven’t reached out for us yet. So the circumstances of the incident aren’t clear to us yet.”

The official cause of death will be announced shortly.

Coach Ovchinnikov will be buried in the Russian city of Yaroslavl, where his wife and two children live.

No words could describe the sadness we feel on this tragedy.

We send our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

This is very, very SAD.

(images: FIVB/ source: rt.com)