Svetlana Khorkina, formerly known as Svetlana Wasvina Khorkina, was born in 1979 in Belgorod, Russia.
The number one player of the Russian women's gymnastics team, the defending champion of the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games on uneven bars. Stretched, elegant and confident, Khorkina is the image representative of modern women's gymnastics, and her name and photos appear in almost all the world's famous sports magazines and newspapers.
Bright as peach and plum, cold as frost, quiet as a virgin, moving like a rabbit, surrounded by cold fragrance, as if a charming angel patronizes the world, this is the "ice butterfly" Khorkina on the sports playground.
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games - High and low pole
Known as the "Ice Beauty", Khorkina has won 57 gold medals in various international gymnastics events, making her one of the most successful athletes in the history of women's gymnastics. She is the female player with the most original moves, and she has original movements on uneven bars, vaulting horses, balance beams, and free gymnastics. After retiring from the army, Khorkina, as the backbone of the United Russia Party and a supporter of Putin's policies, was elected to the Duma parliament in 2007 and vice-chairman of the Federal Duma Youth Affairs Committee in 2008.
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games - Free Gymnastics
Khorkina's upbringing
She was sent to the gymnastics room by her mother at the age of four, hoping that she would consume a lot of energy after learning gymnastics, and no longer frown at breakfast. But the mother would never have imagined that between these simple gymnastics apparatus, the daughter found her beloved.
It wasn't until the age of seven that Khorkina met boris Pilkin, a famous coach who came to pick talent at a trial in her hometown. He began to spend his energy shaping this skinny, stubborn little girl, and he was expecting some kind of miracle to happen.
Khorkina
In 1994, Khorkina competed in her first international competition, and at the age of 15, she crushed doubts about her height with a silver medal at the European Championships.
Gold medal on uneven bars at the 1995 World Gymnastics Championships in Mako,
Gold medal on uneven bars at the 1996 San Juan World Gymnastics Championships,
Gold medal in uneven bars at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games,
1997 World Gymnastics Championships in Lausanne, individual all-around, uneven bars gold medal,
Gold medal in high and low bars at the 1999 World Gymnastics Championships in Tianjin
Beam
Gold medal in uneven bars at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games,
2001 Ghent World Gymnastics Championships on uneven bars, individual all-around, vault gold medal,
Individual all-around gold medal at the 2003 Anaheim World Gymnastics Championships
Individual all-around silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games
Floor
Of the countless gold medals, three were of great significance to Khorkina.
In the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, although the 21-year-old Khorkina passed the golden age of gymnastics, her strength was still far behind the first place in women's gymnastics, and everyone thought that she would naturally win at least three gold medals in Sydney, but unfortunately, due to the abnormal performance of the Russian team in the team final, and the failure of the all-around final equipment, she lost two gold medals in the team and the all-around. Under various pressures, how she will face the next single final has become the focus of the media attention, and on September 24, 2000, Khorkina resolutely gave the vaulting final qualification to her friend Zamorochkova in the single final, fully preparing for the high and low bar final. This time, she did not disappoint the world, and after Zamorochkova successfully won the vaulting gold medal, Khorkina also successfully defended the Olympic high and low bar champion, revealing her long-overdue smile for the first time in Sydney.
In 2001, most of the top players retired, and when everyone thought she would leave, Khorkina, who had been out of the game for more than half a year, returned to the field. In November 2001, at the World Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, at the age of 22, she won the second world championship individual all-around gold medal of her career, as well as the vaulting horse and uneven bars championships, and this vaulting gold medal was her first vaulting gold medal, making her the first "Pegasus Champion" in history. At this World Championship, she proved that she was right to stay with a perfect performance, and used her strength to fight back against all the voices of doubt.
Vault
In 2002, she won three titles at the European Championships in Petre, Greece, and won three titles in the team, individual all-around and uneven bars, but failed to win any medals at the 2002 World Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. However, at the 2003 World Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim, Khorkina reached another peak, winning the gold medal in the individual all-around for the third time. It was this gold medal in the individual all-around that Khorkina won at the age of 24 that made her the best female gymnast in history.
After the 2004 Athens Olympics, Khorkina officially retired from the army and drew a successful end to her career.
Today, Khorkina is currently a reserve lieutenant colonel, the public is the first vice president of the Russian CSKA Club, and nearly one-third of the athletes in the Russian Rio Olympic team are from the CSKA Club. Khorkina is not the only big star at the CSKA club, and is a current Army major, the pole vault queen Isinbayeva, who retired because she could not participate in the Rio Olympics. Khorkina is also one of five female sports stars in the Russian State Duma.
Today's Khorkina