Russian Personalities

People well-known in art, sport, film, fashion

Category Archive: Sport

Catharine A Gerboldt, figure skater

Catharine A Gerboldt

Catharine A Gerboldt, figure skater

Beautiful Russian figure skater Catharine A Gerboldt was born on March 28, 1989 in St. Petersburg. At the age of six the girl became engaged in figure skating. The parents named their daughter after the legendary German figure skater Katarina Witt. They wanted their baby girl to become a sportswoman.
Catharine is a Russian pair skater. Previously, she competed as a single skater. Pretty girl is a bronze medalist of Russia (2009), champion of Russia among juniors (2008), bronze medalist of the stage junior Grand Prix (2008). Also she is a silver medalist of Russian Championship among juniors (2006). From spring 2010 to 2014 she performed in pair skating with partner Alexander Enbert. By the way, she is Master of Sports of Russia of international class. Gerboldt completed her career in 2015.
Catharine was coached by Tatiana Mishina and Alexei Mishin in Saint Petersburg. But in 2009 she moved to CSKA Moscow and began working with Svetlana Sokolovskaya.
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Elena Vesnina, tennis player

Elena Vesnina, tennis player

Elena Vesnina, tennis player

Elena Vesnina is a Russian professional tennis player, Honored Master of Sports. In 2016 Elena and Ekaterina Makarova became Olympic champions. Also Vesnina is the winner of three Grand Slam doubles titles (Roland Garros-2013, US Open-2014, Wimbledon-2017) and one mixed-event tournament (Australian Open-2016). In addition, she is a 10-time Grand Slam finalist (7 – in the women’s doubles and 3 – mixed doubles) and the winner of the WTA Final tournament (2016) in doubles. You know, she is the winner of 21 WTA tournaments (three of them singles) and the third racket of the world in doubles. Awesome girl is a two-time winner of the Federation Cup (2007-08) as a part of the Russian national team.
Pretty girl was born on August 1, 1986 in Lvov, the USSR. Her mother Irina Vesnina was born in Sochi. Irina was engaged in athletics, but due to an injury she had to give up sports. So, Irina went to Kiev, where she met Sergey Vesnin, Elena’s father. He was engaged in the Greece-Roman wrestling. Elena has a younger brother – Dmitry. By the way, Dmitry also tried himself at professional tennis and now he works as a tennis coach.
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Polina Iodis, singer and surfer

Polina Iodis, singer and surfer

Polina Iodis, singer and surfer


Polina Iodis is a Russian singer and sportswoman, first soloist of the famous Russian female pop group Blestyashchie (1995-1998).
Pretty girl was born on December 12, 1978 in Moscow. Since her childhood she was interested in extreme kinds of sports.
When Polina graduated from the secondary school, she chose a profession of a lawyer. But two years later she started touring with Blestyashchie and had to abandon her studies. In 1995, together with Olga Orlova and Varvara Koroleva, she became a soloist of the group. Later, in 1996, Zhanna Friske and Irina Lukyanova joined the group.
Shortly after the release of the second album Polina left the group, and (married or dated) filmmaker Vlad Opelyance.
After leaving the group, Iodis studied architecture, graduating from the Institute of Free Arts and Sciences.
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Kseniya Vdovina, sprint athlete

Kseniya Vdovina, sprint athlete

Kseniya Vdovina, sprint athlete


Kseniya Vdovina (after marriage Kseniya Ryzhova) is a Russian sprint athlete. She was a silver medalist at the 2010 World Cup, two-time champion of Europe (2009, 2011), Honored Master of Sports of Russia. By the way, she became the world champion in 2013.
Beautiful Kseniya was born on April 19, 1987 in Lipetsk, USSR. As a child Vdovina was engaged in volleyball, swimming, dancing. Later she chose running.
Talented girl graduated from the Voronezh Institute of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
Recently, Vdovina has become popular not only as an athlete but also as a successful model. During the 2012 Olympics in London, she became one of the most beautiful participants.
In 2012 she participated in the TV show Dancing With The Stars on Russia-1 and RTR-Planeta channels.
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Klishina Darya, long jumper

Klishina Darya

Klishina Darya, long jumper

Klishina Darya is a Russian long jumper, one of the most promising athletes of the country and sex symbol of Russian sport. She has a truly impressive collection of awards to her credit. Darya is the two-time European champion (2011, 2013), European Youth Champion (2011), European Junior Champion (2009), World Champion (2007). By the way, she is a European junior record holder (7.05 m), as well as Miss Sport 2010.
Pretty girl was born on January 15, 1991 in Tver. As a child she was engaged in dancing and volleyball. Then she decided to choose athletics as individual sports were closer to her.
13-year-old girl was noted by a coach from Moscow. Despite the fact she was the smallest in the group the coach could see something in Darya and convinced parents to let her go to Moscow. So Klishina moved to Moscow and entered the Olympic Reserve School.
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Irina Lobacheva, ice dancer

Irina Lobacheva, ice dancer

Irina Lobacheva, ice dancer


Irina Lobacheva is a Russian ice dancer, Honored Master of Sports of Russia. Together with her partner Ilia Averbukh, she is the 2002 Olympic silver medalist, the 2002 World Champion and the 2003 European Champion.
Pretty girl was born on February 18, 1973 in Moscow. Ira became engaged in skating in 1979. At the age of 12 Irina took part in her first international competitions in Prague. When Irina came to pair dancing, Oleg Onischenko became her partner. Their duet lasted about one and a half year and then the young man quit the sport and went into business. The next partner was Alexei Pospelov, but he immigrated to Switzerland, and then completed his sports career.
Averbukh and Lobacheva teamed up in 1992 after falling in love while skating in the same group but with different partners. Marina Anisina was Averbukh’s partner. In 1994, together with the coaches Natalia Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov Lobacheva moved to Delaware, USA.
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Lesya Makhno, volleyball player

Lesya Makhno, volleyball player

Lesya Makhno, volleyball player


Lesya Makhno is a Russian volleyball player, Honored Master of Sports of Russia, World champion in 2010.
Pretty girl was born on September 4, 1981 in Poltava Region, but as a child she and her family moved to Surgut, Tyumen region. In Tyumen she started playing volleyball in the sports school Geologist.
Later, in 1998, the girl began developing her career as an athlete, playing several seasons for Gazprom-Rossy in Moscow. Soon she went to the Luch. Russian national team won bronze at the World Universiade in 2003.
The girl decided to continue her career, and from 2004 to 2005, she played for the Dynamo team, and in 2006 moved to CSKA, but there she was for only one year. In 2005, Lesya won the silver medal and the Cup of Russia. This was the first serious victory after the Universiade.
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