Source-verifiedEditor reviewedCorrections welcome
If you’re searching for “The Flying Elephant: Memoirs of an Olympic Champion,” here’s the honest answer up front: we could not verify that this book exists. It doesn’t appear in Open Library, and it isn’t listed in the published bibliography for Aleksandr Savin — the Soviet volleyball star it’s supposedly about.
But here’s what is real, and it’s better than the book blurb. Savin is a genuine Olympic champion. He really was nicknamed “Elephant” by his Soviet teammates — that part checks out. And his actual record is extraordinary: Olympic gold, two world titles, six European championships, and thirteen Soviet league titles. Below is his verified story, plus an honest look at what a Soviet Olympic champion was actually worth.
Editor’s note — Adam Reed
I want to explain exactly what happened when I fact-checked this one, because the result surprised me. Articles about this “memoir” describe its chapters and themes in detail — childhood, training, Olympic pressure, retirement — but not one of them gives a publisher, a publication year, an ISBN, or a single quoted line from the book. That’s the pattern you see when nobody has actually read it. So I checked properly: Open Library returned zero results for the title, and the reference list on Savin’s Russian-language encyclopedia entry cites two real books about him — the Big Olympic Encyclopedia (2006) and a Volleyball Encyclopedia (2016, ISBN 978-5-906131-79-9) — but no memoir by him. What I did find was the likely origin of the phrase: his real team nickname was «Слон», Russian for “Elephant.” So rather than invent a book summary, this page gives you the documented athlete. If the memoir turns up with a real ISBN, we’ll update this page and say so.
About “The Flying Elephant: Memoirs of an Olympic Champion”
Let’s deal with the book question directly, because that’s probably why you’re here.
Searches for this title lead to articles that describe the memoir at length — its early chapters, its lessons on mental toughness, its reflections on coaching. Read a few and you’ll notice something odd. None of them names a publisher. None gives a year or an ISBN. None quotes a single sentence from inside the book. They describe what a sports memoir would generally contain, which is exactly what you’d write if you had never opened one.
So we checked the databases. Open Library returns zero results for the exact title. Savin’s detailed Russian encyclopedia entry — which does list published literature about him — includes no autobiography or memoir. There’s no English or Russian Wikipedia entry for such a book.
That doesn’t prove with total certainty that nothing exists. A small-print Russian-language title could sit outside these databases. But it does mean we won’t describe a book’s contents we cannot confirm — and neither should anyone else. What we can give you instead is the real man, with citations.
Who is Aleksandr Savin?
Aleksandr Borisovich Savin was born on July 1, 1957, in Taganrog, in Russia’s Rostov region. His family moved while he was a child to Obninsk, a science town in Kaluga Oblast, and that’s where the volleyball story begins. He picked up the sport in 1967, aged ten, at the local youth sports school under his first coach, V. V. Pitanov.
He played as a middle blocker — the position that lives at the net, reading the opposition setter and shutting down attacks. From 1974 to 1988 he played club volleyball for CSKA Moscow, the army club that dominated Soviet sport. He wore the USSR national team shirt from 1975 to 1986, which is eleven years at the top of the hardest era in the sport’s history.
The “Elephant” nickname: the real story
This is the detail that makes the whole “flying elephant” phrase click into place — and it’s documented.
Inside the USSR national team, Savin’s nickname was «Слон» — Russian for “Elephant.” Not a book title. Not a marketing invention. A dressing-room name given by teammates, and it’s recorded in his standard biography.
Why “Elephant”? The nickname fits a middle blocker exactly. Big, immovable at the net, and hitting with enormous force. And once you know a powerful, heavy-hitting blocker was called the Elephant, the phrase “flying elephant” stops sounding random — a big man leaving the ground to block or spike is precisely the image. Our honest read is that this real nickname is the seed the book title grew from, whether or not the book itself ever existed.
Savin’s complete honours record
Here’s where the story needs no embellishment. This is one of the most decorated careers in volleyball history, and every line below comes from his published record.
Look at the European championship line for a moment. Six titles across 1975 to 1985 means he won it in every single edition he contested over a decade. And thirteen Soviet league titles in fourteen seasons tells you what CSKA was in that era — and what he was inside it. He was also named the best player of the 1970s, a decade-long verdict rather than a single good season.
Moscow 1980: the gold medal
Savin’s Olympic story has two chapters. The first was Montreal 1976, where he was still a teenager turning nineteen during the Games. The USSR took silver — Poland won gold in one of the most famous finals in volleyball history. A silver medal at nineteen is a remarkable start, but in the Soviet system it was also a debt to be repaid.
Four years later came Moscow 1980, on home soil, and the USSR won gold. Savin was 23. That tournament is the peak of his career and the source of the “Olympic champion” title attached to his name ever since.
An honest note on context, because it matters. The 1980 Moscow Games were affected by a US-led boycott, and the 1984 Los Angeles Games were boycotted in return by the Soviet bloc — which is why Savin’s record shows a win at “Friendship-84,” the alternative competition staged for boycotting nations. He was in his athletic prime in 1984 and never got a third Olympic tournament. That’s a real cost of the era, and it belongs in any honest account of his career.
Inside the Soviet volleyball system
Savin’s career is often used as a case study in elite development, so it’s worth describing what the system around him actually was — without pretending to quote a memoir.
Soviet sport ran on early identification and long-horizon development. Savin’s path is textbook: spotted at a municipal youth sports school in Obninsk at ten, developed through the structured pipeline, then absorbed into CSKA at seventeen. CSKA was the Central Sports Club of the Army — meaning his club career sat formally inside the military structure, which is how the Soviet state employed and housed its best athletes.
What that system bought was continuity. The same athlete could stay in one programme from ten years old to thirty-one, with coaching, facilities, and competition all state-provided. That’s the practical reason a player could accumulate thirteen league titles and six continental golds — the structure didn’t churn.
The trade-off was control. Athletes didn’t choose clubs, negotiate contracts, or market themselves. Which brings us to the money question.
What was a Soviet Olympic champion actually worth?
There is no credible net worth figure for Aleksandr Savin, and any site quoting one is guessing. We’re stating that plainly rather than inventing a number, because the reason no figure exists is genuinely interesting.
Savin competed from 1975 to 1986 — entirely inside the Soviet system. There was no prize money as modern athletes know it, no shoe contract, no image rights, no agent. Elite Soviet athletes were state employees, formally attached to organisations like CSKA. Compensation came as salary, housing, and access to goods that ordinary citizens waited years for. It did not come as accumulated capital.
Recognition arrived as state honours instead of cash: he received the Order of the Badge of Honour in 1980, the Olympic year, and the Order of Friendship of Peoples in 1985. Those were the era’s currency for sporting achievement.
Then the country he’d earned it in ceased to exist. Savin retired from playing in 1988 and the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 — so unlike a modern Olympic champion, he had no career earnings compounding into a fortune and no post-career endorsement market waiting. His documented income since has come from coaching and sports administration, which are salaried roles, not wealth-generating ones.
That’s the honest answer: a decorated champion whose wealth was measured in medals and state orders rather than a balance sheet. Anyone publishing “Alexander Savin net worth: $X million” has produced it from nothing.
Life after volleyball
Savin left the national team in 1986, aged 29, by his own choice — early for a player of his standing. He kept playing for CSKA until 1988, then moved into coaching.
His coaching path took an unexpected turn first: he worked in Madagascar until 1990. Back in Russia, he coached Rassvet Moscow from 1990 to 1996, then Samotlor in Nizhnevartovsk until 2001. He later served as a state volleyball coach within the Russian Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sport. In 1993 he completed the higher coaching school at GTsOLIFK, Russia’s main physical education institute.
He also founded a foundation for the development of physical culture and sport bearing his name, and he’s married with three children and five grandchildren.
Legacy: Hall of Fame and a school with his name
Two markers tell you how the sport regards him.
First, on October 22, 2010, Savin was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame — the sport’s international recognition, awarded decades after he stopped playing.
Second, and arguably more telling: since 2004, the youth volleyball school in Obninsk where he first learned the game has carried his name. The kid who walked in there in 1967 has his name on the door. For an athlete whose era offered no endorsement fortune, that’s the form his legacy took — a pipeline still producing players, named after the one who went furthest.
How we verified this — and what stays uncertain
Full transparency on method. Verified against primary reference records: Savin’s birth date (July 1, 1957), his 1976 and 1980 Olympic appearances, his complete honours list, the «Слон» nickname, his coaching career, his 2010 Hall of Fame induction, and his two state orders. Checked and not found: the memoir “The Flying Elephant” — zero results in Open Library, absent from his published bibliography, no encyclopedia entry in English or Russian. Deliberately not stated: any net worth figure, because none exists in a form we’d trust. If you have documentation of the book — a publisher, an ISBN, a photograph of a cover — send it through our corrections page and we’ll verify and update.
Key takeaways
- The memoir couldn’t be verified — no ISBN, no publisher, no database entry, and it’s missing from Savin’s published bibliography.
- Aleksandr Savin is entirely real — born July 1, 1957, Soviet volleyball middle blocker, Olympic champion.
- “Elephant” was his genuine team nickname («Слон»), which likely explains where the book title came from.
- His record is exceptional: 1980 Olympic gold, 1976 silver, two world titles, six European titles, thirteen Soviet championships.
- No credible net worth figure exists — Soviet-era athletes earned state salaries and honours, not accumulated wealth.
- Volleyball Hall of Fame inductee since October 22, 2010, with his childhood club in Obninsk named after him.
Frequently asked questions
Does “The Flying Elephant: Memoirs of an Olympic Champion” actually exist?
We couldn’t verify it. The title returns zero results in Open Library, has no Wikipedia entry in English or Russian, and doesn’t appear in the published bibliography for Aleksandr Savin. Articles describing it never cite a publisher, year, or ISBN.
Who is Alexander Savin?
Aleksandr Borisovich Savin is a Soviet-era volleyball middle blocker, born July 1, 1957 in Taganrog. He played for CSKA Moscow and the USSR national team, winning Olympic gold at Moscow 1980 and silver at Montreal 1976.
Why was Savin called “the Elephant”?
«Слон» — Elephant — was his documented nickname inside the USSR national team. It suited a powerful middle blocker who was immovable at the net, and it’s the most likely origin of the “flying elephant” phrase.
What did Alexander Savin win?
Olympic gold (1980) and silver (1976), two World Championships (1978, 1982), two World Cups (1977, 1981), six European Championships, thirteen Soviet league titles with CSKA, and five European Champions Cups.
What is Alexander Savin’s net worth?
No credible figure exists. He competed entirely within the Soviet system, where athletes received state salaries, housing, and honours rather than prize money or endorsements. Any site quoting a dollar amount is guessing.
Is Alexander Savin in the Volleyball Hall of Fame?
Yes. He was inducted on October 22, 2010, more than two decades after retiring from play. The youth volleyball school in Obninsk where he started in 1967 has also carried his name since 2004.
What did Savin do after retiring?
He moved into coaching in 1988 — working in Madagascar until 1990, then Rassvet Moscow (1990–1996) and Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk (until 2001). He later served as a state volleyball coach and founded a sports development foundation.
Sources and references
Every biographical claim above was checked against the records below, following our methodology. Where a claim couldn’t be confirmed — the memoir, and any net worth figure — we’ve said so rather than filling the gap.
- Wikidata — Aleksandr Borisovich Savin (Q704223): structured record confirming birth date, Olympic participation, and state honours.
- Wikipedia — Aleksandr Savin (volleyball player): English-language biography.
- Open Library: searched for the memoir title; returned no matching records.
- Printed references cited in his bibliography: Big Olympic Encyclopedia (Olympia Press, 2006, p. 597) and Volleyball: Encyclopedia (Chelovek/Sport, 2016, ISBN 978-5-906131-79-9).