Olympic figure skating champion Alina Zagitova.
Sergey Elagin/Business Online/Global Look Press
Kanakina was born in Krasnoyarsk in 1995 and has been involved in sports since childhood. She is the 2017 World Junior Champion and also competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Yulia Kanakina has tens of thousands of followers on various social networks, who follow her training sessions and personal life. She recently married bobsledder Mikhail Mordasov and gave birth to a child.
At 22 years old, Alina Zagitova has already become an Olympic champion (2018), a world champion (2019), a European champion (2018) and a medalist in many other competitions. Now, she can also be seen as a sports journalist.
A native of St. Petersburg, Polina Knoroz, 25, has become one of the most famous Russian track and field athletes today. She is the champion of Russia (2023) and the winner of the 2024 BRICS Games. There, she set a personal record of 4.8 meters in the high jump.
Ksenia Kovalenko (born 1995) is a midfielder for the CSKA women's team, with which she twice became champion of Russia, and a former member of the Russian Women's National Soccer Team.
Melnikova was born in 2000 in Voronezh and has already managed to become a 2020 Olympic champion, silver medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games, absolute world champion in 2021, four-time European champion (2016, 2017, 2018, 2021) and the winner of many other awards. In addition to sports, Angelina Melnikova has also tried her hand in acting – in 2024, she played the role of Soviet gymnast Elena Travnina in the Russian TV show ‘Igry’ (‘Games’).
Victoria Sinitsina (born in 1995 in Moscow) performs in pair ice dancing. Initially, she practiced solo skating, but it was in pairs that she became the most successful. Together with Nikita Katsalapov, they won silver and bronze at the 2022 Olympic Games, became world champions (2021), two-time European champions (2020, 2022) and Russian champions (2019, 2020).
Medvedeva (born in 1999) is one of the most famous Russian figure skaters. She is a two-time Olympic silver medalist (2018) and two-time world and European champion (2016, 2017). She ended her professional sports career, however, but she can still be seen in various ice shows.
Irina Sidorkova (born in 2003 in Petrozavodsk) has been passionate about cars since childhood. She sat behind the wheel of a kart for the first time at the age of six and, a year later, she started competing in children's competitions. Sidorkova is a former pilot of the women's ‘W Series’ tournament, winner of the 2020 Russian Circuit Racing Championship and a participant in various international championships. And also – she is one of the 100 most beautiful women in Russia, according to ‘Maxim’ magazine (2021).
One of the most charismatic Russian figure skaters was born in 1996. During her sports career, she managed to take part in the Russian championships as many as 15 times, become world champion (2015), European champion (2015) and also become a prize-winner in other prestigious competitions. She now also frequently performs in thematic ice shows.
These twin sisters (born in 1998) perform for the Russian national rhythmic gymnastics team and also have many individual awards to their credit.
Dear readers,
Our website and social media accounts are under threat of being restricted or banned, due to the current circumstances. So, to keep up with our latest content, simply do the following:
If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material.
Subscribe
to our newsletter!
Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox
