Svetlana Ishmouratova

Svetlana Irekovna Ishmouratova ( _ru. Светлана Ирековна Ишмуратова, _tt. Svetlana İrek qızı İşmoratova) (born 20 April 1972) is a Russian biathlete. She lives in Chelyabinsk and is a soldier by profession.

Ishmouratova won the gold in the women's 15 km individual contest at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Biography

Svetlana Irekovna Ishmouratova was born in Zlatoust (Chelyabinsk region) . Her father Irek Ishmouratov, master in cross-country skiing, became her first coach. She started learning to ski when she was five and got her first medal when she was in the fourth form of a sports college. Svetlana did well at school though she didn’t like studying very much. At first, she didn’t think about career in sport and even planned to study medicine after school. But then she decided not to leave her home town, to keep studying and training there. Svetlana graduated Trade Secondary School of Zlatoust first and then State Academy of Physical Education.

In 1991 Ishmouratova became the USSR junior champion in individual race and the champion in senior team race. By the mid 90s she became a strong skilled athlete and entered the national Russian team, showing stable and good results in all kinds of competitions. But in 1996 she was mistakenly accused of doping and so was disqualified for two years (later the official apologies followed). That was the end of her skiing career.

But in autumn of 1996 Valentin Zadonski, a coach from Moscow, offered Svetlana to train with his women biathlon team. And in a year Svetlana became the champion of Russia and got a few medals in World Cup races. Despite her brilliant results, she was included in the National Olympic team only after some successful races in Italy not long before the Olympic Games in Nagano. Unfortunately, Svetlana got ill and didn’t take part in the Winter Games of 1998. But in 2002 in Salt Lake City she became a bronze medalist in the relay. Besides, she has six World Champion titles (in summer and winter biathlon) and a lot of World Cup medals. Svetlana has been showing stable results for the last five years, reaching high positions in World Cup Total standings (10, 7, 11, 11, 12 places). Svetlana’s coaches are V. Zadonski and A. Brylov. They say she is a kind and considerate person, a nice young lady with great will power and a strong character.

She doesn’t like to speak about sports in her interviews. She speaks German and likes reading books during her leisure time. Her dream is to have a good loving family and children. She will probably work as a coach after finishing her sporting career. Her height is 165 cm and her weight is 57 kg.

See also

* Russia at the 2006 Winter Olympics