Did You Know: First Soviet Cosmonauts Were Avid Skiers. Two Of Them Had To Use Skiing Skills In Dire Emergency
... The first Soviet cosmonauts were men of iron health, selected among hundreds upon hundreds of young airforce pilots. And, as a part of their space launch training, they had to ski. A lot. In part because the guy in charge of their training, the guy who was ultimately deciding who gets to go into space and who stays on Earth, general Nikolai Kamanin, was the most avid skier himself. [caption id="attachment_14103" align="alignnone" width="786"] Lt.-General Nikolai Kamanin and his most famous " employee", Earth's first spaceman Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin was very decent skier on his own right - although he preferred water skiing [/caption] Kamanin was a famed Arctic aviator in his youth - that's where he developed affection for cross country skiing. That interest in the snow sport/recreation remained…