Svetlana Khorkina: biography, personal life. Svetlana Khorkina: personal life of an outstanding gymnast
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Svetlana Khorkina is a Russian gymnast, two-time Olympic champion in parallel bars. Honored Master of Sports of Russia. This woman is often called the “queen of the parallel bars.” Experts put the famous gymnast on a par with other prominent representatives of Russian sports who have glorified the country in the international sports arena. With her hard work and striving forward, Svetlana was able to achieve her goal, winning many prestigious titles and awards.
Svetlana Vasilievna Khorkina was born in Belgorod in January 1979. The athlete’s parents come from Mordovia. They came to Belgorod to work, but stayed here for a long time. Dad worked as a builder, mom got a job as a nurse in a kindergarten.
It’s strange, but Svetlana’s future was influenced by a complete stranger - her apartment neighbor. It was the woman who lived next door who advised Svetlana’s mother to take her 4-year-old daughter to a sports school, recommending a gymnastics section. The woman liked the idea, and little Svetlana began attending classes regularly.
It is noteworthy that Khorkina’s physical qualities were not suitable for this sport. But coach Boris Pilkin, to whom the future sports legend was brought, still took Svetlana. The mentor liked the girl’s hard work and perseverance. The young gymnast could endlessly repeat an exercise that was difficult for her. Khorkina, as they say, starved out the desired result.
The career rise of the young athlete was rapid, except for a small hitch. For some time, they did not want to accept Svetlana Khorkina into the USSR youth team, although the girl became the best in her age group. They looked down on the athlete from the provinces, finding fault with minor errors in technique. But here, too, Khorkina showed iron persistence and achieved her goal: in 1992, Svetlana entered the Russian artistic gymnastics team.
Gymnastics
The sports biography of Svetlana Khorkina includes a large number of victories, which were sometimes accompanied by unfortunate falls. But they, too, according to the famous gymnast, were needed - primarily because they provided invaluable experience and further strengthened her already steely character.
In 1995, 2 weeks before the most important performance at the World Championships in Sabae (Japan), the gymnast unsuccessfully jumped off the uneven bars and injured her back. The pain was so severe that Khorkina found it difficult to even walk, let alone exercise. After an anesthetic injection, Sveta was taken to the hospital. There the girl heard the verdict: she had to undergo serious treatment. Doctors advised her to forget about the World Championships, for which Svetlana Khorkina had been preparing for years.
The 16-year-old athlete made a strong-willed decision: to receive treatment and continue training. In this case, the health risk is enormous. But first, Svetlana had to pass a control training session. If everything goes smoothly, then a trip to Japan will take place.
A strong athlete with good physical characteristics (Svetlana’s height is 165 cm, weight is 46 kg), she overcame this difficult test. The girl managed to take her will into her fist and concentrate on victory so much that she overcame the severe pain. The Russian woman won the World Championships, bringing home several medals.
After recovery, the gymnast continued her rapid ascent to Olympus. Now in the literal sense of the word: in 1996, the Russian woman went to the Olympics in Atlanta. Here the gymnast won gold in the uneven bars exercise and 2nd place in the team championship. After this brilliant performance, Svetlana Khorkina began to be called the “queen of the uneven bars.” It was this type of exercise that became the gymnast’s favorite and always brought the highest scores.
It would seem that after the Olympic gold, a 17-year-old girl can consider that she has achieved her dream, and will now rest on her laurels. At first, Svetlana did just that. Returning from the USA, Khorkina came to her native Belgorod and entered the university. But the athlete, accustomed to working hard and constantly moving towards her goal, soon became bored at the university. The girl quickly packed her things and returned to Moscow.
In 2000, Svetlana Khorkina, the undisputed leader of Russian gymnastics, went to the Olympics in Sydney. At that time she was 21 years old. The athlete was well prepared and determined to win. But in Australia, trouble awaited Svetlana. Due to an incorrectly installed apparatus, the gymnast injured her knees. Nevertheless, the Russian woman’s performance was successful. Svetlana Khorkina managed to reach the end of the competition and retain the title of Olympic champion on uneven bars. And the girl decided to go to the next Olympics.
In 2001, Khorkina became the absolute champion at the World Championships. From 1995 to 2001, Svetlana managed to win all the world championships and Olympic titles on her favorite apparatus - uneven bars.
In 2002, the gymnast became a candidate of pedagogical sciences. Khorkina defended her dissertation on the topic “Study of sports and gymnastic exercises using linear-didactic programming.”
In the same year, Svetlana Khorkina made her debut as an actress in the theater company's play "Venus". The play is based on the texts of the American writer and his book of love letters, Dear, Dear Brenda. Khorkina played the main female role in the play.
In 2003, the Russian athlete managed to snatch victory at the World Championships, which took place in Anaheim, and become the absolute champion for the third time. Before this, no woman had managed to reach such a height.
The 2004 Olympics in Athens was Svetlana's last. The Russian woman reached the finals in two categories - all-around and uneven bars - and was recognized as the favorite of the games. After Athens, the gymnast announced that she was starting a different life and ending her sports career.
In 2007, a monument was erected to the athlete in her native Belgorod. Also in this city is the educational and sports complex of Svetlana Khorkina, where conditions have been created for conducting a full cycle of classes for students.
Leaving the sport
Having left big sport, Svetlana Khorkina was not lost. The former gymnast is often invited to participate in popular television projects. Viewers saw the athlete in the shows “Circus with the Stars” and “Dancing with the Stars.” And the beauty is one of the few Russian athletes who agreed to appear for Playboy.
In December 2007, Svetlana Khorkina appeared in the political arena. The celebrity is elected as a deputy of the State Duma of the 5th convocation, as stated on the official website of the United Russia party, which Khorkina represents. In 2004, the champion took the post of vice-president of the Artistic Gymnastics Federation. The former athlete believes that in this position she continues to help her country.
In 2014, Khorkina became the ambassador of the Winter Olympics, which took place in Sochi. The athlete continues to be in the spotlight today. In February 2016, Svetlana Vasilyevna Khorkina, who holds the rank of reserve lieutenant colonel, was appointed by the decision of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation to the position of first deputy head of CSKA.
Personal life
In July 2005, in Los Angeles, Svetlana Khorkina gave birth to a son, Svyatoslav. All the media started talking about this event. For some time, paternity was attributed to the artist Levan Uchaneishvili. The baby received American citizenship. But soon rumors leaked to the press that the boy’s father could be the actress’s husband, a businessman. Users of social networks, including the service " Instagram”, the press actively discussed such assumptions. Khorkina and Shubsky themselves do not comment on these rumors.
Not long ago, an autobiographical book by an athlete entitled “Somersaults in Heels” was published, in which the name of the businessman who became Svyatoslav’s father is not mentioned. But his name - Kirill - is named.
In 2011, Svetlana Khorkina’s personal life changed. According to media reports, the athlete’s husband was Oleg Kochnov, a general of the Federal Security Service.
Svetlana Khorkina now
In 2016, the second film from the “Champions” franchise (the full title of the film is “Champions: Faster. Higher. Stronger”), which tells about the successes of Svetlana Khorkina and other Russian athletes, appeared in theaters. Many viewers said that after watching this film, which is based on real stories from the lives of famous Russian sports representatives, a feeling of pride in the country arises. The role of Svetlana is played by a giant actress.
In the fall of 2016, Svetlana Khorkina announced that she performed on the show with an injury. It is known that the television project called “Alexey Nemov and the Legends of Sports 1996-2016” often features athletes who have completed their careers, as well as current Olympic champions. Khorkina performed a floor exercise program in this show. According to the athlete, she trained for an hour and a half every day all week, but daily exercise did not help immediately.
In March 2017, Khorkina also commented on the doping scandal in Russian sports. Khorkina believes that the decision to disqualify the All-Russian Athletics Federation was unfair. The athlete called the scandal with WADA a “fight against windmills,” which is doomed to failure, since, according to the Russian, it is a “tame” organization.
“I didn’t like fighting against windmills. Major competitions have always been accompanied by doping control. We are ready to fight, but let’s make sure that everything happens within the same legal framework, so that WADA becomes open and everyone understands what is being done there,” Khorkina noted in an interview.
Other athletes, as well as fans, agreed with this opinion of the Russian celebrity.
Achievements
Victories in the Olympic Games:
- 1996 – Atlanta (USA), bars
- 2000 – Sydney (Australia), bars
Victories at the World Championships:
- 1995 – Sabae (Japan), uneven bars
- 1996 – San Juan (Puerto Rico), uneven bars
- 1997 – Lausanne (Switzerland), bars
- 1997 – Lausanne (Switzerland), all-around
- 1999 – Tianjin (China), parallel bars
- 2001 – Ghent (Belgium), uneven bars
- 2001 – Ghent (Belgium), all-around
- 2001 – Ghent (Belgium), vault
- 2003 – Anaheim (USA), all-around
Victories at the European Championships:
- 1998 – St. Petersburg (Russia), freestyle
- 1998 – St. Petersburg (Russia), all-around
- 1998 – St. Petersburg (Russia), parallel bars
- 2004 – Amsterdam (Netherlands), bars
Outstanding gymnast Svetlana Khorkina was born in Belgorod on January 19, 1979 in the family of a worker and a nurse. Little Sveta was restless and often sick, so her parents decided to rectify the situation by sending their daughter to sports. The choice fell on gymnastics. In 1984, the girl was brought to her first training session. The little girl began training under the guidance of Boris Pilkin, who immediately realized that she had a great future in sports. Svetlana Khorkina really liked artistic gymnastics; at competitions among children, the girl often turned out to be the best. She plunged headlong into the training process, but never forgot about her personal life: she studied, communicated with peers.
Sports career
Sveta's favorite apparatus almost immediately became the uneven bars, as she showed excellent results in this type of program (the Chinese were the world leaders in this apparatus until 1993). The success of the athlete, who is too tall for this type of program (164 cm), was unexpected. Hardworking and persistent Svetlana found a way out and created techniques for gymnasts above 155 cm.
At the 1994 World Championships, the gymnast won silver in two types of exercises. The European championship of the same year brought her a gold medal in her performance on the uneven bars. The result in the all-around is second place in the standings.
1995 was also successful for Sveta. The European Cup brought her first place in the all-around; the uneven bars, vault and floor program were successful. Experts predicted Khorkina's triumph at the 1995 world championship, but she ended up second. In the floor exercise, instead of a triple twist, a double twist was performed. The uneven bars (an incredible performance score of 9.90), beam and vault were performed flawlessly.
Our country's team looked much more confident at the 1996 Olympics than 4 years earlier. Largely thanks to the young athlete. However, the less experienced members of the team did not perform well, becoming victims of excitement, as a result of which the team did not live up to expectations. Khorkina was also worried. She fell from her favorite bars. As a result, the team took second place in the all-around. The individual program on uneven bars brought the 17-year-old girl gold.
In 1997, the system for evaluating performances changed, but this did not prevent the gymnast from becoming the absolute world champion after her triumph on the uneven bars. In 1998, she repeated her success, bringing the technique of performing the elements to perfection. Experts and spectators who watched her program noted the champion’s unique techniques and firmly secured her the title of “queen of the uneven bars.”
The 1999 World Championships turned out to be a failure in the all-around. The balance beam performance was a failure. At this championship, the athlete became a four-time winner of world competitions in uneven bars exercises.
Olympics in Sydney and Athens
Ahead of her was the Olympics in Sydney, where Svetlana was supposed to compete at the already “respectable” age for gymnasts of 20 years. This Olympics was a complete disappointment for the girl. According to the results of the preliminary competitions, our guys were in the lead in all types of the program. Sveta’s performances in the all-around also qualified the gymnast for the finals, which ultimately turned out to be a nightmare. The girl's fall from her favorite apparatus, as well as the unconvincing performance of other members of the team, on whom considerable hopes were pinned, reduced the team's chances of winning gold. However, he still remained. If Svetlana had performed impeccably, the team would have become first. The “blame” for the silver was placed on her shoulders. The gymnast was extremely upset by the loss and withdrew her well-deserved silver medal.
The all-around competitions were unsuccessful. Due to an error by the organizers, the pommel horse was installed 5 centimeters below the required level. Svetlana pointed out this mistake to the organizers, but the mistake was not corrected immediately. Many athletes made uncharacteristic mistakes. The gymnast's first jump was performed successfully, however, while performing the second jump, she fell. Worries about falling led to mistakes in performing on the uneven bars. The rest of the exercises were performed perfectly, but a fall during a jump prevented Sveta from taking the highest step of the podium in the all-around. Svetlana has repeatedly admitted to journalists that this failure left an unpleasant mark on her soul. The only pleasant moment of the 2000 Olympics was Svetlana’s victory in the individual uneven bars competition. She retained the title of Olympic champion.
For 6 years, starting in 1995, none of the athletes was able to repeat Svetlana’s success on the uneven bars.
The years 2001 and 2002 replenished the champion's collection with three gold, one silver and one bronze awards.
The 25-year-old athlete declares herself to participate in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
The team took third place as a team. In the all-around, Svetlana lost the lead to Carly Patterson from the USA.
In 2004, Khorkina left big sport.
Personal life
After 2004, Svetlana met with businessman Kirill Shubsky. The couple had a son, Svyatoslav, in 2005. The couple’s relationship did not work out, it did not come to a wedding, but Shubsky recognized Svyatoslav as his son. The woman has been happily married for 6 years now. Her chosen one was FSB General Oleg Kochnov, who is 23 years older than his wife. Despite the age difference, the couple looks very harmonious and happy.
Svetlana's energetic character did not allow her to sit still after finishing her sports career. Svetlana tried herself on television and acted for popular men's magazines.
The woman is actively engaged in a political career and participates in the implementation of various public projects for young people. Svetlana Vasilievna is a deputy of the State Duma of the 7th convocation, vice-president of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation. Since 2010, Khorkina has been a member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture.
Svetlana Khorkina is the pride of her native Belgorod. On her initiative, a sports complex was built, later named in her honor. The film “Champions: Faster, Higher, Stronger” was made about the athlete, in which she played the famous gymnast, who also spent some time doing artistic gymnastics.
Svetlana Khorkina- one of the most famous Russian gymnasts, three-time absolute world champion and three-time absolute European champion. Honored Master of Sports of Russia in artistic gymnastics, vice-president of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation (FSGR).
Biography of Svetlana Khorkina
Svetlana Khorkina born on January 19, 1979 in Belgorod. She started doing gymnastics at the age of four and trained under the guidance of Boris Pilkin. Since 1992, Svetlana joined the Russian artistic gymnastics team.
Sports career of Svetlana Khorkina
In 1996, Svetlana received her first Olympic gold. At the Atlanta Olympics, she won first place in the uneven bars exercise and also received silver in the team competition. At the next games, Khorkina repeated her success and again took gold on the uneven bars and silver in the floor exercise and team competition.
The uneven bars have always been Svetlana’s favorite apparatus; it was in this event that she received the highest marks. The gymnast was repeatedly called the “queen of the uneven bars.” However, on his third Olympics (Athens 2004) Khorkina was unable to repeat previous successes. It was for the uneven bars exercises that the athlete received 8.925 points, and this score moved her to eighth place.
However, in the individual all-around championship at the Athens Olympics, Svetlana won silver, losing only to American Carly Patterson.
In 1995, Svetlana Khorkina received the title of Honored Master of Sports of Russia. Svetlana has repeatedly become the champion of Russia, Europe and the world.
In 2002, the gymnast became a candidate of pedagogical sciences. She defended her dissertation on the topic “Study of sports and gymnastic exercises using linear didactic programming.”
In 2003, at the World Championships in Anaheim, she won the overall championship and became a three-time world champion. Before her, no athlete had achieved such an achievement.
After the Olympic Games in Athens, Svetlana Khorkina ended her sports career. The athlete commented on her departure as follows: “I am quite capable of performing at the highest level, but I don’t want to do it anymore. It's time to start another life."
Svetlana Khorkina after completing her sports career
On July 21, 2005 she gave birth to a son Svyatoslav. The birth took place in Los Angeles, thanks to which the boy received US citizenship. Then for some time Khorkina and her son lived in Belgorod, Moscow and Europe. The gymnast’s mother left her job and moved from Belgorod to Moscow to help Svetlana with her child.
In 2007, a monument was erected to Khorkina in her hometown of Belgorod.
After leaving sports, Khorkina actively participated in various television projects. She appeared in " Circus about the stars" And " Dancing with the Stars" Svetlana became one of the first athletes to pose for the magazine Playboy.
She became an ambassador for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
In addition, Khorkina began a political career. She is a member of the United Russia party; on December 2, 2007, Svetlana was elected to the State Duma of the 5th convocation, and is also the vice-president of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation.
In 2017, Khorkina starred in the program “Muscovites” on the Domashny TV channel.
Personal life of Svetlana Khorkina
In 2005 Svetlana Khorkina gave birth to a son, Svyatoslav, in Los Angeles. For many years, the question of the child's father remained open in the media. It was believed that the boy’s father was Georgian and American actor Levan Uchaneishvili, but many representatives of sports and show business had suspicions that Svetlana gave birth to Vera Glagoleva’s husband, businessman Kirill Shubsky.
In 2017, it became known that Khorkina got married. Her chosen one is a professional military man.
Svetlana Khorkina: “When I finished my sports career, I wanted to continue the mission I had begun - to raise the prestige of the country and help people. I believe that I have helped the country in my own way before: again, speaking for your entire Motherland is a very responsible matter. That’s why I became a deputy of the State Duma from my region - the Belgorod region, where I was born, took my first steps, and received my education.”
Svetlana Khorkina is one of those who glorified Russia with her sporting achievements. An outstanding gymnast, among other things, is an example of perseverance and a dream come true. Born into a simple, one might even say poor, family, she was able only with the help of her own labor and talent to reach heights that only a few can rise to.
Sveta Khorkina was born on January 19, 1979 in the ancient Russian city of Belgorod. Today, both in the Russian Federation and throughout the world, she is spoken of as an unsurpassed athlete, who was called the “queen of the uneven bars.” And in the late 70s, hardly anyone could have imagined that a little girl had such a great future. Svetlana won all her titles and awards through pain, tears, injuries, thanks to her inner core and strong character.
Her mother and father were originally from Mordovia, but to improve their material well-being they moved to Belgorod and decided to settle there. The gymnast's parents are simple, not very educated working people - her mother was a nurse in a kindergarten, and her father worked in construction. Sveta is not the only child in the family; she has a sister, Yulia Vasilievna Khorkina.
The Khorkins led a modest life and did not spoil their children, but nevertheless Sveta and her sister had everything they needed. In her book, the gymnast wrote that their family knows from their own experience how hard it is to earn money, and they understand the value of it.
When Svetlana was five years old, her father received a room of 11 square meters in a dormitory. The family received the premises in an unsanitary condition, along with insects and other living creatures. Most of all there were bedbugs.
The parents brought the tiny room into a habitable state. It was divided into two “rooms” by a wardrobe.
In one of them there was a huge bed for parents and Sveta’s chair-bed, and in the second there was a dining table. The father took care of physical education for his daughters and built a small sports corner right above the table. He hung a trapeze and a rope from the ceiling. In this first makeshift gym, little Sveta learned the basics of gymnastics.
Sveta was a very playful child: she climbed like a monkey from a rope onto a trapeze, then onto a closet and from there onto her parents’ large bed. Couldn't sit still for a second. The girl’s sporting destiny was influenced by her neighbor, who suggested to her parents how to use Sveta’s irrepressible energy for her own benefit.
A gymnast rushes onto the podium
And then one day a mother and daughter came to the entrance to the Spartak Sports Palace. Sveta was only four years old. Thus, since 1983, Sveta began her career in gymnastics. And the future queen of the beam was trained by Boris Pilkin. From the very first training sessions, the coach noticed that Khorkina was a very hardworking and capable girl, focused on results.
The result of hard training was not long in coming:
She took part in all major competitions: the World Team Championship and the Goodwill Games. In 1995, Sveta won the all-around competition for the first time at the European Cup.
The athlete also received medals:
- on uneven bars;
- in a jump;
- in floor exercises.
That same year, she was the main contender for gold at the World All-Around Championships.
However, everything seemed to be ruined by an unfortunate mistake. Instead of a triple turn in the floor exercise, she only did two turns, and as a result she received low marks in the program.
But thanks to perfectly executed fantastic exercises on the uneven bars and pure performances on the vault and beam, Khorkina comes out in second place. And in the final, beating the Chinese athlete Mo Huilan with the highest score of 9.90, Sveta won a gold medal for Russia in the uneven bars exercise.
Failures, defeats and victories
The following year, 1996, as a member of the Russian national team, Svetlana won silver at Europe, and won bronze in the vault. The fiasco in the all-around ended all chances for a medal; as a result of losing contact with the balance beam and falling from the apparatus, our athlete did not even make it into the top five and took sixth place. Nevertheless, at the Olympics in Atlanta, Svetlana was considered the most important contender for the gold medal.
These Olympic Games unexpectedly became sad for the entire Russian team. Having worked well on the beam exercises, floor exercises and vault, Svetlana could not cope with the nervous tension and fell off her favorite uneven bars. The athlete ends up only in 15th place.
But in the individual competitions, she was still able to win on the uneven bars. Thanks to this clear victory Svetlana Khorkina was first called the “queen of parallel bars”.
After this, the uneven bars became the girl’s favorite type of exercise in gymnastics, where she was always the best. It seemed to 17-year-old Svetlana that she had achieved her dream, having received a gold medal at the Olympics, and that now she could do something else, more necessary for her future destiny. After all, the life of an athlete is short-lived.
Therefore, after returning from the USA to her hometown, the girl applies to the university. But the “queen of the parallel bars” quickly became bored with the measured activities in the temple of science.
She has already tasted the poison of sports fame. The girl felt that she constantly needed to go towards the goal, fight and win.
Without hesitation, Svetlana returned to Moscow. In 2000, the Russian gymnast team, led by the “queen of the uneven bars,” flies to Sydney for the Olympics. Svetlana is already 21 years old. She trained hard to win, but troubles awaited her in Australia. Khorkina injured her knees due to a poorly placed projectile.
But the Russian woman cannot be broken so easily. Failures have strengthened her, and it even seems that Sveta simply needs failure at the beginning in order to pull herself together. She passes all stages of the competition and confirms her Olympic championship on the uneven bars.
After this, Svetlana firmly decided to go to the next Olympics. At the World Championships in 2001, Khorkina single-handedly won the championship. From 1995 to 2001 inclusive, Svetlana Khorkina constantly wins all world championships on her favorite uneven bars.
A talented person is talented in everything
It seems that the girl devoted herself entirely to sports. But along with this, she also achieves other goals that are no less important for herself. In 2002, Svetlana was awarded the scientific title of Candidate of Biological Sciences.
This year she tries herself as an actress in the play “Venus”, staged at the theater company of Sergei Vinogradov, where she played the main female role. This somewhat unexpected debut turned out to be quite successful.
In Anaheim in 2003, at the World Championships, Svetlana snatches victory and becomes the all-around champion for the third time. Not a single woman could win as many titles as the Russian “queen of the uneven bars” won! The last Olympics for Khorkina were the games in Athens in 2004. The outstanding Russian athlete reached the finals both on uneven bars and in the all-around and was considered the main competitor in the fight for the champion title. As a result, she took silver in the all-around.
Life with a clean slate
After the Olympics, Svetlana decides to end her career in sports and start life from scratch. Although it was quite difficult for the sports legend to do this. Indeed, in honor of the “queen of the parallel bars” a monument was even erected in her hometown of Belgorod in 2007. True, there is a more important facility there: in a small town, a sports center for Svetlana Khorkina was erected, where there is everything for training future champions.
Having completed her sports career, Svetlana did not fade into the shadows. On the contrary, her irrepressible energy demanded an ever wider field of activity.
She was often seen on television, including the famous shows:
- "Circus with the Stars";
- "Dancing with the Stars".
Among other things, the “queen of parallel bars” tried herself in a photo shoot for Playboy magazine.
Having paid attention to television, in 2007 Svetlana got into politics. She is elected to the State Duma as a deputy of the 5th convocation. Information about this, in particular, appeared on the website of the United Russia party.
But not only this, Svetlana holds the position of vice-president of the Artistic Gymnastics Federation. In 2014, at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Khorkina was elected ambassador of the Olympic Games. Attention to her person has not diminished to this day. Svetlana Vasilievna has the rank of reserve lieutenant colonel; in 2016, she was appointed to the position of first deputy head of the Central Sports Club of the Army (CSKA).
The most expensive "gold"
The athlete considers the birth of her only son, Svyatoslav Khorkin, whom Svetlana loves more than life itself, to be the main and most expensive “gold” that only she could receive.
Svetlana said goodbye to world sports in the fall of 2004; in the same year she took part in demonstration performances in Mexico City. Due to a sharp deterioration in Khorkina’s health, she had to turn to doctors. The athlete was very surprised to hear that the cause of her health problems was pregnancy at 2-3 months. Svetlana cried and rejoiced at the same time. She had no idea before that maximum emotions can be obtained not only by winning champion titles in sports.
In Los Angeles, Svetlana gives birth to her son Svyatoslav in July 2005. Like any baby born in the United States, the boy received citizenship of this country. All the journalists wrote and talked about this stunning news. At first, the artist Levan Uchaneishvili was considered the boy’s father.
After some time, rumors appeared that the true father of Svetlana’s son is businessman Kirill Shubsky, husband. Active debate about this version took place on social networks, where Svetlana Khorkina was discussed - Instagram and VKontakte. However, the people involved in the rumors themselves did not comment on them.
Khorkina recently wrote a biography with the interesting title “Somersaults in Heels.” In this book, she names the name of her son's father - Kirill, but does not reveal his last name.
2011 brought major changes to Svetlana Khorkina’s personal life. The athlete’s husband becomes Oleg Kochnov, a reserve general who served in various federal structures, in particular the Federal Customs Service and the Federal Drug Control Service.
As usual, ill-wishers found disadvantages in this too, reproaching Khorkina for marrying an old man (Kochnov is really older than his wife). Svetlana responded simply to these reproaches: “Now I felt peace of mind and real happiness! He found a common language with my son." Svetlana and Oleg have an excellent relationship, despite the 23-year age difference and the absence of common children. Svyatoslav and his stepfather get along well.
Upon completion of his service, Oleg Anatolyevich Kochnov was invited to the position of assistant to the governor of the Amur region. And a few years later, the former officer received the position of authorized representative of the Amur region under the President of Russia. It would seem that Svetlana Vasilievna Khorkina and her husband live calmly and happily.
And it was somewhat unexpected that in her second book, entitled “The Magic of Victories,” Svetlana again remembered Svyatoslav’s father. She honestly told how her son’s future father, Kirill Shubsky, deceived her throughout the entire time they were in a relationship. He was not shy about promises of a happy family life, eternal love and marriage. But as soon as he found out about Svetlana’s pregnancy, everything immediately changed.
Everything had to be kept secret and not tell anyone about the pregnancy and their relationship. It was incomprehensible to her and very offensive to hear from the person she loved about the need to hide. Then Kirill began to avoid her, trying in every possible way to disown his child.
True, now, after several years, the father has recognized his son, from time to time he communicates with him and helps him financially.
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