Portrait of professional boxer Marina Sakharov, who is sponsored by LifeQode.
About the path of the daughter of world-famous musicians to professional boxing.
Marina Sakharov’s mother played the violin in the orchestra, her father the clarinet as an internationally sought-after soloist, whose career took him to the world’s major cities and famous venues such as the Sydney Opera House: “The family always traveled with him. I received correspondence lessons and usually played with the children of consulate and embassy staff.
My parents would have been only too happy to encourage me to pursue a career in music.” However, the Frenchwoman actually chose ballet at the age of five because she dreamed of becoming a professional dancer: “Unfortunately, I developed hip problems at the age of ten and had to give up dancing.”
This is how the current sportswoman switched to the piano: “My parents’ example has helped me a lot in everything I’ve ever tackled in my life. Both of them were always setting themselves new goals and then working to achieve them.” This shaped the young Marina and awakened her determination to always be the best. “I had top piano teachers and became correspondingly good. I could only pursue my horse hobby on the side because nothing was allowed to happen to my hands,” she remembers. “That’s why I couldn’t protect my brother when he got into trouble at school. After my parents separated, I was faced with the question of whether to become a professional pianist when I was 16”
Belief in your own strengths
The now 34-year-old decided against it, including working as a piano teacher: “It was either professional or not at all. Not at all, because I had stage fright back then.” Back then, the teenager only knew boxing from television, when her father watched fights and she watched alongside him: “I was electrified every time and decided to become a boxer when I was 16. My mother gave me a pair of boxing gloves and after signing up at a boxing gym, I wanted to take part in fights. Several trainers confirmed that I had potential, but I still had a long way to go to become a featherweight boxer.”
Along the way, Marina Sakharov learned that it takes both body and mind to become a winner. She was never afraid of the fights or the pain associated with the punches. There was only the fear of herself, which she overcame by starting to take care of her mental level as well. While she lost more often in the beginning, today her belief in her own strengths helps her through every fight: “I put everything negative aside and surrounded myself with positive people. I want to pass on what I’ve learned in the course of my career to other people later on.”
She has already gained her first experience as a mental coach: “Unfortunately, some people have virtually no discipline.” She also expects her own 100 percent focus from others: “Coaching can be a lot of fun if people are fully focused. A lot of the inner strength that I pass on is based on the fact that nothing was ever handed to me on a silver platter on my journey as a boxer.”
At least three hours of training a day
At 19, she lost her father and gave up her law degree, which she had just started at her parents’ request: “Five days a week in an office, a normal life at all – I didn’t want that for myself.” So it’s no surprise that the self-made athlete manages herself: “It’s not others who decide for me, it’s me.” The French boxer’s role models are Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson. Both were modest people who became champions in the ring and, like Mike Tyson, Marina Sakharov has a soft spot for animals: “When I run through the vines during training in Alsace, my dogs are with me. When I’m in my self-built ring in the cellar, I’m inspired by the cheerful chirping of my birds.”
Of course, training for at least three hours a day places high demands on the quality of food: “I pay attention to what my body needs, but I don’t overdo it. Vitamins are important, but the occasional pizza or beer won’t do any harm. Here, too, it’s all about the right balance.” Logically, the diet is adjusted, especially in the days before the fight. This was also the case before her last fight against Beke Bas from Lemgo at the Agon Sportpark in Berlin Charlottenburg, which resulted from the featherweight boxer joining the German Boxing Association.
On September 24, 2021, Marina Sakharov lost to the German with 54:60 points. That doesn’t change the fact that you can be a champion in the ring as a woman: “This time it was my opponent, next time it will be me again whose arm is raised by the referee.” In the course of her life, the Strasbourg native has already given far too much to be able to stand in the ring for such a defeat to take the fun out of her sport. And so the beauty will soon be enchanting the ring again with her elegance as the Beast.
Marina Sakharov is considered atypical for boxing, but this may also be due to the clichés that characterize the image of this sport. On the one hand, there is her passion for the piano and her soft spot for animals and, on the other, the fighter in the ring who knows how to dish it out when it counts. What doesn’t seem to go together at first glance is much closer at second glance. Playing the piano and boxing both offer the opportunity to express oneself and animals can’t be unfair. Following a fixed score and improvising at the next moment suits the boxing ring as well as the grand piano.
