A moment of glory: as a boy from Ukraine, he first became famous in the USA, and then he lost everything

Richard Sandrak started going to the gym almost before the principle of walking: his father, who moved from Ukraine to the USA, dreamed of raising a new Schwarzenegger from a boy. For many years, his father, mother, coaches and managers tried to make a new movie star out of a teenager, but as a result, the little Hercules, who had matured, found himself not at all where his parents would like to see. "Lenta.ru" told the story of a young bodybuilder.

Photo: frame YouTube / Inside Edition / TeamNewAngeles2

Chubby kid

Richard Sandrak was born in one of the villages in the Ukraine in April 1992, but already in 2, he moved to the USA with his parents. His father Pavel was a professional taekwondo player, and his mother Elena participated in fitness aerobics competitions. They dreamed of Hollywood glory and set out to raise a new Schwarzenegger from a child. Richard’s trainings began almost from infancy: when he was two months old, Paul did stretching exercises with his son for the songs of Gloria Estefan.

As soon as the child began to walk, the father added martial arts to the light workouts and took his son to the gym. Realizing that the child is making progress, Pavel Sandrak moved the family from less prestigious Pennsylvania to California, closer to Hollywood. There they met with trainer Frank Jardina, who saw the potential in the boy and promised to make him a star. At the first meeting with the coach, his father asked Richard to show what he was capable of. The boy jumped and made three kicks before landing.

Soon, Richard already acted under the pseudonym "Little Hercules" in the most famous bodybuilding show in America: "Mr. Olympia", "Night of Champions", "Mr. USA", "Emerald Cup", "Arnold Classic" and many others. Sandrak became famous overnight and for some time did not leave the covers of magazines and television screens. At the age of 8 for years, he could reap from his chest weight in 95 kilograms, in 3 times his own and received the title “The strongest boy in the world”. Little Richard did not resemble a real boy, but a video game character or an action movie: in addition to his impressive muscles, the boy had a black belt in karate and an ideal stretch. According to the father, his body was only one percent fat, which, incidentally, is considered extremely unhealthy.

However, behind the fame of Sandrak stood a grueling workout and difficult relationship with his father. And if, for the time being, he managed to hide it from journalists besieging him, then in 2004, when the boy was 11, the tale was over: Pavel Sandrak was jailed for domestic violence — he broke his nose and wrist. The police secretly called Richard and asked him to drive up to the house with the sirens turned off - he did not know how his father would react to the appearance of the police.

After that, both the child and his coach have been substituted. Jardine began telling reporters about the brutal methods of educating Richard: the boy allegedly trained 6 and even 7 hours a day, did a thousand twists in one set and did not go to school, getting along with home tutoring lessons. Before 10, the boy was not allowed to communicate with other children, for the slightest offense he was forced to squat 300 times and push ups 600 times and fed only white beans. The fact that he had previously kept quiet about all this was explained by the coach by saying that the elder Sandrak had threatened to kill him.

First pizza and kinoproval

After his father was put in prison, Richard stopped communicating with him and for some time gave up training. She and her mother moved to the small town of Santa Clarita, but Elena did not leave hopes to turn her son into a star and found a manager named Marco Garcia, who procured roles for the movie, talked to journalists and literally lived with the Sandrakov family - in the same house. Richard's mother also re-established contact with Jardina, who again became involved with an 15-year-old boy.

It is impossible to say that the talent of young people liked to train, but they did not cause disgust: Richard treated them as a necessary job. He trained for an hour and a half 5 once a week and sat on a sports diet, which seemed to him a paradise after a strict menu of white beans. However, the boy now observed the training schedule just before the shooting. With the advent of the manager, his life in general has changed dramatically: Richard found out what pizza tastes like, and sometimes he could do nothing all day like an ordinary teenager.

Elena Sandrak communicated with journalists with caution: she denied that her husband had mocked Richard, she refused to talk about her own relations with her husband in principle. And although she admitted that she was worried about Paul’s upbringing methods, she insisted that her son was never forced to do anything - allegedly the child himself began to work out in the gym, barbells and dumbbells.

Under the manager’s gaze, Richard confirmed his mother’s version: “I was never forced to train or do something else against my will. Parents have always trained, I just wanted to work with them. It was my choice. I grew up with dumbbells in my hands. I was not forced, we never had any quarrels about this. ” Richard insisted that he did not consider his father’s measures too cruel: yes, he was sleeping on the floor, but now he has perfect posture. And journalists, in his words, “inflated from this that it was obvious that they tortured me.” To the question of reporters, whom he considers his hero, the boy confidently answered: parents. However, after the manager's remarks, he made a reservation that only his mother had in mind.

Garcia not only helped the teenager communicate with journalists, but also produced the 3D film “The Adventures of Little Hercules,” starring Richard Sandrak and featuring wrestler Hulk Hogan. The manager also planned to film the boy in several films about martial arts (“Like “The Karate Kid,” but with the addition of hip-hop,” Garcia announced), but the audience did not like Hercules so much that the ambitious dreams had to be abandoned. 2 years later, Richard appeared in another film, but was also received extremely coldly by the public. The young man’s film career ended ingloriously: since then he has appeared on screens only in videos dedicated to the dangers of teenage obesity and promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Richard Sandrac in the role of the young Hercules.
Frame: the film "The Adventures of the Little Hercules"

From stuntmen to quantum physics

The last time the journalists noticed the little Hercules in 2015 year. By 23 years, Richard Sandrak was completely disillusioned with bodybuilding, gym and acting career. A pretty young man earned a living by cascading for life: he worked in a show Waterworld in los angeles park Universal Studios. During the day, it was set on fire several times, thrown from the tower into the water, and shot through the cannon in front of the amazed public.

Richard Sandrac in 2015.
Frame: TeamNewAngeles2 / YouTube

Richard is proud of his past and does not consider it necessary to hide it. He is still confident (or wants to show it) that there was nothing special in his life: not all talented children managed to become famous by becoming adults. To keep fit, he rides a skateboard, runs upstairs and pulls himself up. He admits that he wants to do quantum physics and work as an engineer at NASA, and believes that he is quite capable of it.

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