Russian Personalities

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

Category Archive: Sport

Olga Slutsker, President of Russian Fitness Group

Olga Slutsker, President of Russian Fitness Group

Olga Slutsker, President of Russian Fitness Group


Olga Slutsker (Berezovskaya) is a President of Russian Fitness Group and master of sports in fencing. People call her the Queen of Fitness.
Pretty girl was born on January 14, 1965 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Her father Sergei Berezovsky is a well-known lawyer, honored lawyer of Russia. You know, her mother was married to a Czech diplomat, lived and worked abroad. However, on vacation she met the young lawyer and lived with him for fifty years. The main thing that the parents taught their daughter is to respect the law and not betray friends.
PE teacher advised her parents to give the child to the sports school. And her father accidentally brought his daughter to the fencing section, although he thought he had come to the swimming pool. Slutsker calls her coach Faina Naumovna Sayevich a fantastic woman. In 1987 the girl graduated from the Academy of Physical Culture.
The idea of creating fitness clubs, that are known under the brand name World Class, originated in Italy. During her trip Olga attended a class of aerobics and realized what she wanted. The startup capital was borrowed by her spouse Vladimir. So, in 1993, Olga opened World Class fitness club in Moscow.
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Anastasia Grebenkina, ice dancer

Anastasia Grebenkina, Russian ice dancer

Anastasia Grebenkina, Russian ice dancer


Anastasia Grebenkina is a figure skater, former competitive ice dancer who represented Latvia, Russia, and Armenia in different years. By the way, she became International Master of Sports in 1998.
Pretty girl was born on January 18, 1979 in Moscow, Russia. At the age of five she started skating. In parallel, little Anastasia was engaged in ballet. You know, Anastasia was coached by Natalia Dubova, Svetlana Alexeeva, and Natalia Linichuk.
In 1996 she teamed up with Vazgen Azroyan and skated with him for two years, representing Russia. They broke up and she skated with Vitali Novikov. Actually, she teamed up with Azroyan again in 2003 representing Armenia. They were the three time Armenian national champions and were the first Armenian skaters to win medal at a Grand Prix event in 2005. Their last coach was Alexander Zhulin. Grebenkina and Azroyan participated in the Olympic Games in Turin, but took only the 20th place.
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Vera Zvonareva, professional tennis player

Vera Zvonareva, professional tennis player

Vera Zvonareva, professional tennis player


Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player, Honored Master of Sports. The girl is a four-time winner of the Grand Slam tournaments and a three-time finalist of the Grand Slam tournaments. By the way, she is a winner of 19 WTA tournaments and a bronze medalist of the 2008 Olympic Games in singles. Vera is the former second racket of the world in a single ranking and two-time winner of the Federation Cup (2004, 2008). In addition, she was a two-time winner of the Orange Bowl tournament in 2000 and 2001.
Pretty girl was born on September 7, 1984 in Moscow into a family of sportsmen. Her mother Natalia Bykova was 1980 Olympic Games bronze medalist. And her father Igor took part in the national hockey championship. At the age of six the little girl was engaged in tennis and turned professional in 2000.
At that time Zvonareva didn’t think about professional career and played tennis mostly for pleasure. But then she decided to devote her life to sports.
Zvonareva is a player with good offensive and defensive capabilities from the baseline and also confident at the net, as shown by her good doubles record. She is known for her great fitness, speed, and instinct, owing to her excellent lateral movement, and can therefore outrun many opponents during rallies and making her one of the best movers on the tour.
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Dinara Safina, tennis player

Dinara Safina, tennis player

Dinara Safina, tennis player


Dinara Safina is a Russian professional tennis player, Honored Master of Sports and TV commentator. She is Marat Safin’s younger sister. Dinara and her brother are the first brother-sister tandem in tennis history both to achieve No.1 rankings.
Pretty girl was born on April 27, 1986 in Moscow. As Dinara admitted, in her childhood she dreamed of becoming a doctor. However, parents brought 3-year-old girl to the court, where her elder brother was training. At the age of seven she was engaged in tennis professionally.
Safina was trained by her mother when she was young. Her mother is a former Soviet tennis player and a tennis coach. She worked not only with her son and daughter, but also with other leaders of the Russian women’s tennis at the beginning of the XXI century: Elena Dementieva, Anastasia Myskina and Anna Kournikova. Dinara’s father is a director of the Spartak tennis club in Moscow. When Dinara was 8 years old her family moved to Valencia, Spain. As a result, Safina speaks fluent Spanish as well as Russian and English.
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Ksenia Semenova, artistic gymnast

Ksenia Semenova, artistic gymnast

Ksenia Semenova, artistic gymnast


Ksenia Semenova is a Russian artistic gymnast. She is the 2007 World Champion on the uneven bars, and the 2008 European Champion on the uneven bars and the balance beam. She was a member of the silver-medal-winning Russian team at the 2008 European Championships. By the way, Semenova is the 2009 European All-Around Champion. You know, she is the acting judge of the All-Russian category.
Pretty girl was born on October 20, 1992 in Novomoskovsk, Russia. Her first coach was her mother Elena Pervova, former athlete.
The official career of the gymnast began in 2000. In 2005, during training, she suffered a severe back injury, because of which she had to work only on the uneven bars. Despite constant pain, she continued training.
In 2007, Semenova brought the only gold to the Russian team at the World Championships in Stuttgart.
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Svetlana Tsarukayeva, Russian weightlifter

Svetlana Tsarukayeva, Russian weightlifter

Svetlana Tsarukayeva, Russian weightlifter


Svetlana Tsarukayeva is a Russian weightlifter. She is Honored Master of Sports of Russia. The pretty girl is 2011 world champion and 2012 Summer Olympic Games silver medalist.
Sveta was born on December 25, 1987. In 2002, she won the first gold award, although she was only fifteen years old. The following year the girl won gold at the championship of Russia. It should be noted that those were competitions of youth level.
In 2006 Svetlana debuted in adult competitions. At that time, she was only nineteen years old, but she managed to win silver at the 2006 World Championships.
A year later the girl again won a silver medal at the World Championships. In the same year, she won the gold of the adult Russian championship. Svetlana was twenty years old, and she was among the most promising athletes of the country. In 2008, the girl received the gold medal at the Russian championship. The following years, the athlete won several awards at the World and European championships, but did not win a single gold medal. 2011 was very important in the career of the young weightlifter.
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Karolina Sevastyanova, most beautiful athlete at London Olympics

Karolina Sevastyanova

Karolina Sevastyanova, most beautiful athlete at London Olympics


Karolina Sevastyanova is a Russian rhythmic gymnast, member of the Russian national team in rhythmic gymnastics in group all-around. By the way, she is 2012 Olympic champion and 2010 Youth Olympic Games champion. Pretty girl is Honored Master of Sports of Russia. You know, Karolina was named the most beautiful athlete at the Olympic Games in London. After the 2012 Olympics Sevastyanova decided to complete her sports career. Natalia Kukushkina was her coach.
Awesome girl was born on April 25, 1995. She was born in Kiev and then her family returned to Moscow, where the girl was engaged in rhythmic gymnastics. 13-year-old Karolina was invited by Irina Viner (coach of Irina Chaschina and Alina Kabaeva) to the Olympic Training Center. A year later Sevastyanova joined the Russian national team.
She started competing as an individual gymnast and took part in international competitions. In 2003 Sevastyanova took first place at the International Tournament No Limits Open in Belgium, the third place in Baby Cup in Minsk, first place in the International Tournament Golden Leaves.
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