Victor Konovalov got into athletics really early in his life when he was about 6 or 7 years old. His father introduced soccer to him and his brother. Into almost a year of playing soccer they basically thought the sport wasn’t for them, so they quit. About a week or two passed till their father discovered they quit; Victor can remember his father saying “Guess what you’re going to play soccer.” From that point forward they had to rejoin and all the way through high school soccer was the primary sport he played.

He got into motocross when he was 15 years old. Victor ran motocross till he was 20 years of age and at the age of 20 tragedy hit. While one day practicing, Victor attempted a double jump. He ended up looping his bike and landing on his feet, all of which shattered his vertebrae within his spine. Victor broke his back and injured his spinal cord, which paralyzed him from the waist down. His career in motocross was at it’s end.

He stayed in the hospital for nearly 3 months going through surgery, rehab and other things. Every day in the hospital he use to wake up praying, saying he didn’t want to wake up the next day, that he just wanted to die.

Victor: “When in the hospital many things are going through your mind. You are at your extreme worse while in rehab. You are completely incapable of doing anything. You are trying to find and determine what your capabilities are while everyone is doing everything for you. So in your mind your thinking this is how my life is going to be, someone else is going to have to bathe me and do everything for me. No way! I don’t want to live this way. Seeing your body just melt away beneath you, you’re not only loosing bodyweight but your legs are shrinking.”

Time came to get out of the hospital, he was afraid to leave and afraid to face the world. He became comfortable in the hospital; he knew the people in the hospital understood his situation. He also knew no body would hold it against him. When he goes into the real world, he said he didn’t want to face what other people thought of him.

When he went home he stayed inside his home. He didn’t even want to go outside. He didn’t want to face his neighbors and didn’t want to face his friends. He didn’t want to have to face them and explain to them. He was ashamed of himself and what had become of himself.

He had no identity at this point, didn’t know who he was, didn’t know what he was capable of or what he would be doing in the future. He was scared.

He decided to one day change his mindset and went outside to explore his possibilities after seeing the pain in his father’s and mother’s eyes. He wanted to do something really positive in his life to make them proud of him again.

Victor then had to make a big leap and swallow any fears he had, and step out into the real world. He thought about going back to school and getting a degree and moving on from there. So he went to college and signed up. That was a big improvement for him as he was putting himself out in front of an environment facing thousands of strangers.

He could remember many of times he would be cruising down the hallway going to his next class and he would see a girl approaching him the opposite direction surveying him: looking at him – looking at his chair – looking at him – looking at his chair. As she got close enough to him she would then look away. Victor took it in a way that she was looking away to show him she didn’t want to speak to him, she didn’t want to acknowledge him or afraid a conversation may spark up with him. These interaction with women just killed Victor.

Victor: “I’m still me, nothing has changed in the inside, but you don’t have to treat me like I was less of a person just because I’m in a wheelchair. I had an unfortunate accident, if you were to just understand that this could happen to you as well to you today as you’re going home from school. Don’t treat me like I’m this freak in a sense. That’s how I was treated by a lot of the females and was a difficult thing to deal with.”

He knew in the back of his mind he had to succeed at getting his degree. While in school Victor became friends with a guy he met in class whom works out at the gym. Victor had a lot of things going on in this time along side a divorce.

His new friend one day told Victor; “Let me pick u up take you to the gym show you how to work out.” Victor said he kept putting him off. Many things were going through his head at this time.

Victor: “I’m going to go the gym; I’m going to be the only guy in a wheelchair, everyone going to be staring at me like they do at school. I didn’t want to deal with that.”

Victor said the guy was so nice that he had to finally take him up on his offer. His new friend took him to the gym and Victor instantly fell in love with it. While he was there for two hours he wasn’t thinking of Victor being in a wheel chair he was thinking of Victor improving who he was as a person not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. Thinking how he can improve his physique, how he can get stronger, fit, and change his look. That’s what he was focused on for two hours. He was using the gym as his own personal therapy.

Some of the guys in the gym seen his transformation; “We really think you should do a show.” Victor just explained to them that he was just happy at working out and not doing any shows that shows weren’t for him. In 1995, just to get them off his back he agreed to do his first show.

Victor went to his first show, totally brand new adventure for him. Wasn’t sure how to prepare for it so he just trained his butt off and thought he was dieting the right way. He showed up at the show, being the only guy in a wheel chair while being a little embarrassed. He went up on stage anyways; he had an incredible experience being able to just to be up there having the audience acknowledge all his hard work. Amazing experience, from there it led to many other things.

While he was there at that show, Ed Connors from Gold’s Gym (One of the original owners) said he thought Victor had a nice physique, well balanced, and thinks he could do well at the Nationals. At this time Victor had no clue about what the Nationals were, he knew much of nothing about shows at all.

Ed Connors then went on to explain: “It’s a national event for guys in chairs.” Victor was ecstatic about this great opportunity, and quickly took him up on his offer. For that next year from 95-96 Victor was going to Gold’s Gym in Venice, California 5 days a week. Keep in mind Victor has only done 1 show at this point, so he was not so sure how well he was going to be perceived by the audience and by everyone else. Victor was just hoping he could go there and do well while never expecting to win.

Victor went on to do his thing on stage, and while he didn’t believe it himself he went on to win his weight class. He didn’t know what to do, finally they said overall winner: Victor Konovalov! Victor was so excited and didn’t believe it, he just knew there was no way this was happening with his first shot at in the Nationals.

Victor Konovalov held NPC National Wheelchair Overall Championship titles (1996, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2007) and was the first member of the IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Wheelchair Division.

His stature as a champion garnered him the first wheelchair bodybuilder to receive an endorsement from a supplement company, Weider. Victor’s most recent national overall title (2007) came at the age of 45, 24 years the senior of the runner up.

Victor soon gained notoriety and found himself giving motivational speeches to large corporations and guest posing at the Mr. Olympia event as well as making appearances on television shows and commercials. Victor didn’t stop there. He decided to further his education by obtaining a Masters Degree in Physical Education where he later began teaching and became the Department Chair at a local high school.

One of his other major highlights in bodybuilding career with Weider was when he had an opportunity to inspire and motivate other guys in chairs to get into competition. Weider gave him the ability to reveal himself to people all over the world. He was getting fan mail from many guys all over the country wanting to know how to get started. This gave Victor the opportunity to help others with their questions. He thinks they saw that if he could do it: Win National titles, get his pro card, get a contract with Weider, etc… Potentially they could do the same thing; they had the same options and opportunities to do the same thing too.

Victor: “I think in that sense just doing my own thing just trying to be the best I can be just inspired them motivated them to do the same thing and seek being a bodybuilder themselves.”

When Victor went to the 2004 Nationals the guy who he dethroned was someone who was looking up to him as his mentor. He said he use to watch him and see him in the magazines and wanted to be like Victor. He thought it was a thrill to be on the same stage with someone who inspired him.

Victor claims he’s no one special, that he’s just doing his own thing. As other people see him succeed, it drives them to want to do the same thing.

Fans say: “Victor Konovalov inspires them.”

Victor feels this is where he belongs. He thinks this is his place and his reasoning of being here on earth. He looks to continue in the bodybuilding and fitness industry to keep helping to inspire others to achieve their goals and become their best.

“Follow your dreams! Reach for something new!”