Outstanding Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina was born January 19, 1979, in Belgorod, USSR. Honored Master of Sports of Russia Svetlana Khorkina is incomparable in the world of gymnastics. She is two-time Olympic champion in the Uneven Bars (1996, 2000), three-time absolute world champion and three-time all-around champion of Europe, (1995). The outstanding athlete started her gymnastics career at the age of four. Svetlana Khorkina has built a reputable status since 1993, when 14-year-old Sveta first competed at the Junior Europeans. Her brilliant performance on the uneven bars will remain in the history of gymnastics, and the style of her performance was truly ahead of time. Innovative gymnast Khorkina has contributed much into the sport, the eight gymnastic moves have been named after her – something unprecedented in the history of gymnastics.
It was amazing how the 164cm tall Khorkina (unusually tall for gymnastics) managed to fluent and elegant execute such an extraordinary routine. Sveta brought glory to her talented coach Boris Pilkin as well, who created and trained incredible combinations for her to perform on bars.
Sveta’s dramatic fall in Sydney 2000 has become the only title that she missed out. Many people said about the conspiracy, affecting her performance. But even then Svetlana stayed in the focus of attention more than anyone. Two days later, she came back as ‘the real Khorkina’ and won her second Olympic title on the U-bars after having generously given away her place in the vault final to her younger team-mate Elena Zamolodchikova. The latter not only won the title on the vault, but also the floor, leaving second place to no one else but Khorkina.
A shining star Svetlana Khorkina has also achieved success in politics, modeling, career of an actress. She was filmed as Brenda Venus, Henry Miller’s last love, in a landmark Moscow production. As for her politic career, since December 2004 she has been vice-president of the Russian artistic gymnastics federation. She has been a member of the political party of United Russia since 2003. Svetlana was also elected as a member of the United Russia party to the Russian State Duma in 2007 and became the vice-president of the Committee of Youth within it. She posed for the Russian version of Playboy in November 1997.
Motherhood became her priority. Svetlana Khorkina gave birth to her son Svyatoslav, on July 21, 2005 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, thus giving her child American citizenship. On May 2, 2011 Russian newspaper Express Gazeta reported, that Khorkina got married to a 55 year old former FSB general, Oleg Konchev.
On March 12, 2007 in her native city of Belgorod, the sport complex of the Belgorod State University opened. The complex was named after Svetlana. At the front of the complex is a statue of her as well. Her autobiography was published on April 22, 2008, entitled “Somersaults on High Heels”. Her second book, which focuses on fitness and avoiding sport injuries, was released in May 2009 (Title: Fitness as a hobby and bodies). She is an ambassador of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
