Alena Leonova is a Russian figure skater. You know, she is a silver medalist of the World Championship (2012), Junior World Champion 2009, two-time silver medalist of Russian Championships (2010-2011). By the way, she is a champion of the 2015 Winter Universiade, winner of the Russian Cup (2013 and 2016). Also Alena is Master of Sports of Russia of international class.
On May 2, 2018 she was the 37th in the rating of the International Skating Union (ISU).
Pretty girl was born on November 23, 1990 in Leningrad. Leonova started skating at the age of four at the ice rink Crystal. Her first coach was Marina Vakhrameeva. Alla Pyatova became Alena’s main coach when the girl was 10 years old.
Leonova was a two-time Coupe de Nice gold medalist and won silver at the 2007 Junior Grand Prix Romania. Also she won the silver medal at the 2008 Russian Junior Championships.
Later, the girl won gold at the 2009 World Junior Championships and silver at the 2010 Russian Championships.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics Leonova took the 9th place and at the 2010 Coupe de Nice she won the gold medal.
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Alexander Nevsky is a bodybuilder, screenwriter, producer, writer and actor. You know, he has become the first successful Russian writer, producer and actor in Hollywood (thanks to his roles in Moscow Heat and Treasure Raiders).
Sasha Kuritsyn (his real name) was born on July 17, 1971 in Moscow. The boy began to do sports in 1986. He was an amateur boxer from 1986 to 1992, practiced different martial arts and attended master-classes by Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal. Later Alexander was engaged in bodybuilding and became medalist in Moscow. By the way, he was awarded by the Association of natural bodybuilding for the fight against steroids and was a judge at the World Cup Natural Olympia (1999).
However, Nevsky’s statements were challenged by the functionaries of the Federation of Bodybuilding and leading Russian bodybuilders (including Sergey Shelestov), who stated that they had never heard of the athlete with the same name.
In 1994 Nevsky graduated from the State Academy of Management in Moscow.
At the age of 25 Alexander changed his surname to Nevsky.
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Yulia Efimova is a Russian swimmer, five-time world champion, three-time European champion, Honored Master of Sports. You know, she competed for Russia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics. By the way, her victory in Rome in 2009 was the first victory in the pool for Russian women’s swimming at the world championships.
Pretty girl was born on April 3, 1992 in Grozny, Chechnya. Her grandparents met there and gave birth to their son Andrei, who became a father of the future champion. Andrei and his family moved from Chechnya, when the war began. Yulia was only two years old when she came to Volgodonsk.
But no matter where Yulia was born and grew up, she would certainly become an athlete, because she was born into a sporty family. Her grandmother cycled and even took part in the national championships, her father worked in the swimming pool and often took the daughter with him. The father became Yulia’s first coach. 13-year-old Yulia moved to Taganrog, where she was trained by the honored coach of Russia Irina Vyatchanina. In March 2011, the swimmer went to the US, where David Salo became her coach.
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Anna Petrakova is a Russian professional basketball player, Master of Sports of Russia. She has competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics. You know, she is a four-time champion of Russia, winner of three Russian Cups, two-time European champion.
Pretty girl was born on December 4, 1984 in Budapest, Hungary. Her father is a tenfold champion of the USSR.
Her first coach was A. K. Orekhov, and the first professional team was Gloria.
In summer 2001, Anna went to the USA. There she studied at the University of Louisiana and played in the University basketball team. In 2006 Anna returned to Russia and became a player of Kazan NUR.
From the 2007/08 to the 2008/09 season she was a Spartak player from the Moscow region, but Anna twice went to Vologda-Chevakat and CSKA. After the disbanding of the women’s CSKA Moscow in 2009, she played for Spartak from St. Petersburg and again in Vologda-Chevakat. In the summer of 2011, she signed a contract with Dynamo Kursk. On May 31, 2012 the girl joined the UMMC (Yekaterinburg). During the 2014-2015 season she played for Dynamo Moscow, and then returned to UMMC.
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Evgeni Plushenko is the brightest figure skater, the champion of Russia, Europe and the world, who has collected a huge number of awards. You know, he is Honored Master of Sports of Russia, two-time Olympic champion and winner of two silver Olympic medals. By the way, he is three-time world champion, seven-time European champion and ten-time Russian Champion. Actually, he shares the record for the number of Olympic awards in figure skating with Jillis Grafström.
The boy was born on November 3, 1982 in Solnechny, Khabarovsk region. In the small taiga town his parents participated in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. Evgeni started skating at the age of four when his mother sent him to figure skating classes to strengthen his poor health. Later the family moved to Volgograd. When his skating rink was closed Evgeni moved to St. Petersburg to continue training. 11-years-old boy had to face difficulties during his first years far from home, living alone in a communal flat. The boy trained with Alexei Yagudin.
At the age of 14 Evgeni won the 1997 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, in Seoul, South Korea.
At the 1998 World Championships Plushenko took only the third place and his close friend Yagudin managed to win a gold medal.
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Alexandra Patskevich is a Russian synchronized swimmer. You know, she is a two-time Olympic champion (2012 and 2016), 13-time world champion and two-time European champion.
Pretty girl was born on November 4, 1988 in Moscow.
In Andorra la Vella (Andorra) Alexandra together with her friends won the team competition at the final of the European Cup Championship in synchronized swimming.
In 2009, the athlete as a part of the Russian team in synchronized swimming became a two-time World Champion. Together with Anzhelika Timanina, Anna Nasekina, Daria Korobova, Alla Shishkina, Victoria Shestakovich, Elizaveta Stepanova and Sophia Volkova, Alexandra was the first in the technical program. And then along with Anastasia Davydova, Natalia Ishchenko, Anzhelika Timanina, Anna Nasekina, Daria Korobova, Svetlana Romashina, and Alla Shishkina, Alexandra was the first in the creative program.
In 2010 at the European Championships in Budapest Alexandra won two gold medals – in the group competition and in the combination.
On April 5, 2010 the girl became Honored Master of Sports of Russia.
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Evgeni Malkin (Geno) is a Russian professional ice hockey player for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). On June 20, 2012, Malkin was named the Hart Memorial Trophy winner as the league’s MVP, for the 2011-12 season.
The boy was born on July 31, 1986. His father was a defenseman for Metallurg Magnitogorsk. His brother was also in Magnitogorsk’s hockey system. Evgeni, according to his father, used to sleep with a hockey stick in his bed.
Little Zhenya began skating at the age of three. Experts refused to take Malkin to the Ural region youth team, they didn’t see his athletic potential.
At age 17 he made his debut in the championship of Russia and by the end of the season was recognized as the best rookie.
18-year-old Malkin first became champion at World Junior Championships.
In the Russian national team, he became silver and two-time bronze medalist. And in 2012 he became the champion of the world.
You know, Malkin’s debut game in the NHL was on October 19, 2006.
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