Svetlana Alekseevna Gladysheva was born on September 13, 1971 in the city of Ufa. He is a Soviet and Russian athlete. All her life Svetlana Gladysheva was engaged in mountain skiing. He is one of the most titled athletes from our country in this sport.
Achievements
Gladysheva Svetlana has achieved great success over her career. She took second place at the 1994 Olympics, which took place in Lillehammer (super giant). In addition, Svetlana Gladysheva received medals at the world championships, and more precisely, in 1991 she was third in downhill. If we talk about some other achievements of the athlete, then we can not say that she is a Honored Master of Sports of Russia (rank awarded in 1994).
Sports Facts
Gladysheva Svetlana is the owner of a unique achievement for our country in alpine skiing. Sveta is one of two Olympic winners in skiing from our country (the USSR and the Russian Federation are taken into account). The second winner is Yevgeny Sidorov (bronze in 1956).
In addition, Svetlana Gladysheva is one of two winners from our country (USSR and Russia) at the stages of the Women's World Cup. The second winner is Varvara Zelenskaya. Of course, Svetlana Gladysheva is an athlete that our youth should be equal to. This applies not only to skiing, because her perseverance and zeal for victories is a good example for any sport.
Gladysheva Svetlana: biography
Svetlana is from a complete prosperous family, she has a younger sister. Sveta began to get involved in skiing at the age of ten. In the spring of 1987, she returned from the mountain town of Kirovsk to her native Ufa and told her parents that after the school year she would move to live in Lviv to play sports there.
And so it happened. In July 1987 (at the age of 15, there is a move from Ufa to Lviv), the adult life of Svetlana Gladysheva begins. Alpine skiing since then is for her an occupation of her whole life. In Lviv, trainer Scriabin worked with Sveta. It was he who put her the right riding technique.
Already in December 1987, at competitions of the USSR (competitions were held in Alma-Ata), Gladysheva takes silver and falls into the note of the leading coaches of the USSR team of that time. This is an incredible and fast-paced development story of an athlete!
The beginning of a sports career and the first victories in domestic competitions
In the beginning of the difficult 90s, the young Svetlana performed extremely successfully at world competitions among juniors. Here she won the world championship in 1990 (downhill), and also took second place in the supergiant the same year.
In the Soviet Union, she had no equal not only among young athletes, but even among adults. At the age of 18, the girl managed to win the All-Union Championship (downhill). Later Gladysheva won the championships of the CIS and Russia. In addition, she has repeatedly been a winner at various stages of the European Cup. And already in 1992 she won the world standings.
Bronze World Cup 1991
In the winter of 1991, in our Austrian Saalbach, our young athlete (19 years old at that time) won a bronze medal in downhill. She let forward only the eminent Kronberger and Bouvier. It is noteworthy that for all three girls it was the first and only medals in their career from the world championships.
In fairness, we emphasize that since then no athlete from Russia has managed to win any award at the world ski championship.
OI-1992
In 1992, Gladysheva at the Olympics, which was held in the city of Albertville, took eighth place in downhill. At this competition, Svetlana performed under the flags of the “united team” due to some political features of that era.
OI-1994
In 1994, in the northern town of Lillehammer, Gladysheva achieved perhaps the highest success not only in her career, but in the entire history of the performances of all Soviet and all Russian skiers at the Olympics. Svetlana took silver in a super giant.
She started after the main group of leaders (starting number - 35). But Svetlana surprised the whole world and was ahead of the stars of that time (Costner, Wiberg, Wachter, Companioni, Merle). Only one Dianne Roff from the USA, who started that day under the first number, was able to go the distance faster than our athlete.
After this Olympics, Gladysheva was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports, in addition, she was awarded the incredibly prestigious Order of Friendship of Peoples, it is noteworthy that she became one of the last knights of this order.
Follow-up performances and sunset career
After her triumphant season, Gladysheva was able to win her only victory at the World Cup in the winter of 1996 (stage in the USA). If you count all the achievements of Svetlana in the World Cups, then in addition to the aforementioned victory, there are three more bronze medals. Bronze was conquered in Canada (1991) and in Austria (1992). In total, the athlete took part in 102 starts at various stages of the World Cup during her career. Svetlana stopped participating in competitions in 1998, at the same time she announced that she had finished professional sports forever.
In one of the interviews that the athlete gave right after she finished her career, she admitted that she was pleased with her performances, because she managed to achieve what none of our skiers could achieve anymore. It is for this reason that Svetlana said that she was very happy with her fate.
Moreover, in that interview, Sveta said that she was very lucky that her career went without any serious injuries, although they are not uncommon in such sports. Then the girl admitted that it was extremely difficult for her to watch the World Cup on television, because the competitors, at which she looked through the screen, were her rivals even less than a month ago. It’s hard to engage in sports when you sincerely love him. When the love of sports is precisely because of the competitive part, and not because of some fabulous cash fees that take place in modern sports.
Athlete's administrative work
In March 2010, she became and. about. President of the Federation in the field of skiing and snowboarding in our country. I must say that Gladyshev, like no other, deserves a similar position. In May 2010, by unanimous decision, Svetlana Gladyshev was appointed president of the FGSSR.
Since that time, Gladysheva oversees all significant events from the world of skiing in our country. An example of this can be a famous photo of a former athlete and President Putin at the opening of a ski resort in Krasnaya Polyana. This photo shows Vladimir Putin and Svetlana Gladysheva in full ski outfit. The photo emphasizes that Gladysheva is doing her job, numerous comments of people related to the fact that Svetlana’s eyes are “burning” in this photo, as always, when she does her work, which for her is her favorite and main occupation in life. It is noteworthy that Gladysheva considers her the craziest act in life - this is a decision to engage in professional sports.
Gladysheva in life
Everyone who knows Svetlana says that she is a very clean, kind and helpful person. She is full of energy and is ready to share this energy with people around her. Such people are rare, but they are there and this world rests on them. So you can not worry about the future of skiing in Russia, because now it is in good hands. And success will definitely come to our athletes now, because they are led by an experienced person with a worldwide reputation.
To summarize
Gladysheva is a pioneer in skiing for our country. This is the man who opens the way for millions of our young athletes. Moreover, Svetlana had to reach heights in her sports career in a very difficult time for all Russians. Now the conditions for the development of athletes are much better, so you should expect in the near future a whole generation of skiers who can compete in world competitions. And, of course, the example of all of them will be the wonderful athlete Svetlana Gladysheva, who was able to do the impossible in due time.