Sport in Russia
Encyclopedia
Russia
is a keen sporting country, successful at a number of sports and continuously finishing in the top rankings at the Olympic games
. During the Soviet era the team placed first in the total number of medals won at 14 of its 18 appearances; with these performances, the USSR was the dominant Olympic power of its era. Since the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 and continuing today, the Soviet and later Russian athletes never went below third place in the world (never below 2nd until the most recent Olympics), in number and gold medals collected at the Summer Olympics. Russia has finished in the top five at every Paralympic winter games since 1994, and is continuously climbing the rankings at the Paralympic summer games.
Among the most played sports in Russia are football, ice hockey
and basketball
. Other sports widely played in Russia include bandy
, team handball
, weightlifting, gymnastics
, boxing
, wrestling
, martial arts
, volleyball
, rugby union
and skiing
.
As the Soviet Union, Russia was traditionally very strong in basketball, winning various Olympic tournaments, World Championships and Eurobasket. At the moment they have two players in the NBA, Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko
and New York Knicks center Timofey Mozgov
, and are considered as a worldwide basketball force. In 2007, Russia defeated world champions Spain to win EuroBasket 2007. Russian basketball clubs such as PBC CSKA Moscow (2006 and 2008 Euroleague Champions) have had great success in European competitions such as the Euroleague and the ULEB Cup.
The Russian team has not been as dominant as the Soviet team, winning the gold in the World Championships three times in 18 years, but it remains one of the top teams in the world. Russia finished fourth at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Russia has a total of 77,702 players, about 0.05% of its population. As of August 2006, their head coach is Vyacheslav "Slava" Bykov.
The top three nominees for the 2009 Hart Memorial Trophy (the most valuable player award in the National Hockey League) all play for the Russian team: Alexander Ovechkin, Pavel Datsyuk, and Evgeni Malkin.
Russia's ice hockey team has a long history of tradition and success, and today about 30 Russians play in the NHL. During the Soviet era, hockey was one of the dominant sports, and members of the national team were given the finest apartments and cars.
The 1972 Summit Series
between Canada
and the Soviets proved that Russia produced some of the finest players in the world, losing the 8 game series 4-3-1.
1994 - Finished 4th place
1998 - Won silver medal
2002 - Won Bronze medal
2006 - Finished in 4th place
From 1956 to 1988 the Soviet Union national hockey team won seven gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal in nine appearances. The Unified team at the 1992 Olympics also won the gold medal.
World championship records
1992 - Finished in 5th place
1993 - gold medal winner
1994 - finished in 5th place
1995 - finished in 5th place
1996 - finished in 4th place
1997 - finished in 4th place
1998 - finished in 5th place
1999 - finished in 5th place
2000 - finished in 11th place
2001 - finished in 6th place
2002 - silve medal winner
2003 - finished in 6th place
2004 - finished in 10th place
2005 - bronze medal winner
2006 - finished in 6th place
2007 - bronze medal winner
2008 - gold medal winner
2009 - gold medal winner
. The Soviet Union won all the Bandy World Championships
from the start 1957 until 1979. Russia is almost always between the two best. The national league games have in average 3500 spectators. The best club today is Dynamo Moscow
and the two with biggest public support are Baykal-Energiya from Irkutsk
and HC Kuzbass from Kemerovo
.
Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.
The rules of the game have many similarities to those of association football. The game is played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Each team has eleven players, one of whom is the goalkeeper. A standard bandy match consists of two halves of 45 minutes each. The offside rule is also similar to that observed in football.
is another popular sport; in the 1960s the Soviet Union rose to become a dominant power in figure skating, especially in pairs skating and ice dancing. At every Winter Olympics from 1964 until the present day, a Soviet or Russian pair has won gold, often considered the longest winning streak in modern sports history. Other winter sports the Soviets or Russia are dominant in are cross country skiing (especially women's), bobsleigh
, biathlon
, speed skating
, skeleton
, and luge
.
The Russian figure skating championships are a figure skating national championship held annually to determine the national champions of Russia. Skaters compete at the senior level in the disciplines of mens singles , ladies singles, pair skating, and ice dancing.
The first Russian national competition was held on March 5, 1878 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire. The winner was V. I. Sreznevski. From 1897 on, official Russian national championships in figure skating were held. The first national champion in Russia in figure skating was Alexandr Nikitich Panshin, who won the Russian nationals from 1897 to 1900.
Between 1924 and 1990 Russian national championships in figure skating were not held. During this time, Russian skaters competed at the Soviet Union Figure Skating Championships.
is a growing sport in Russia
. Russia
is ranked 17th worldwide by the International Rugby Board
(IRB) with over one hundred clubs and close to 20,000 players nationally.
Russian domestic rugby went professional in 2005 with the launch of the Professional Rugby League
. After a post-Soviet lull, Russian players are again signing with major clubs in England and France.
Krasnoyarsk
, a large Siberian city, has traditionally been the stronghold of Russian rugby union. Domestic matches are covered in the local media, and the intra-city derby match between sides Krasny Yar and Enisei-STM can attract large crowds.
Rugby football
in the Russian Empire
pre-dated the Russian Revolution by a number of years, but it was only played sporadically. It appears to have been the first (non-indigenous) football code to be played in Russia, around a decade before the introduction of association football. Mr Hopper, a Scotsman, who worked in Moscow arranged a match in the 1880s; the first football match was in 1892. In 1886, however, the Russian police clamped down on rugby because they considered it "brutal, and liable to incite demonstrations and riots" Condemnation by the tsar's police probably deterred many people from playing, and records of rugby over the next thirty years are sparse.
Russia has qualified for the 2011 Rugby World Cup
in New Zealand
as Europe 2 after finishing second in the 2008-10 ENC. This will be the team's debut in the tournament, where they will face Australia, Ireland, Italy and the United States in Group C of the tournament.
has grown in popularity and Russia has produced a number of famous tennis players. In recent years, the amount of top Russian women players has been considerable, with both Maria Sharapova
and Dinara Safina
reaching number one in the WTA rankings. Other Russian women to achieve international success include Anna Chakvetadze
, Elena Dementieva
, Svetlana Kuznetsova
, Anastasia Myskina
, Nadia Petrova
, Vera Zvonareva
and Anna Kournikova
. The Russian Federation has won the Fed Cup
4 times, in 2004
, 2005
, 2007
and 2008
.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics
, Russia swept the women's tennis podium with Elena Dementieva
winning the gold, Dinara Safina
and Vera Zvonareva
the silver and bronze, respectively. As of October 16, 2009, two Russian women were ranked in the WTA tour's top 10; with an additional two in the Top 20.
Russia also boasts two former number 1 men's players—Safina's older brother Marat Safin
and Yevgeny Kafelnikov
. Russian men currently in the top 50 include Nikolay Davydenko
, Igor Andreev
, Igor Kunitsyn
, and Mikhail Youzhny
. The Russian men won the Davis Cup
in 2002
and 2006
.
is considered one of the most popular sports in Russia. In addition,it is considered in general that Russia
has the best rhythmic gymnasts. Irina Tchachina
, Alina Kabaeva
, Yanina Batyrchina and Yulia Barsukova
turned out to be Russia' top rhythmic gymnasts. There are many rhythmic gymnastics clubs in Russia and the most famous one is the Gazprom School which Irina Viner
teaches rhythmic gymnasts in Moscow.
, Russian Mikhail Botvinnik
, started an era of Soviet dominance in the chess world. Until the end of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion.
n national organisation of orienteering
. It is a full Member of the International Orienteering Federation
.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
is a keen sporting country, successful at a number of sports and continuously finishing in the top rankings at the Olympic games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
. During the Soviet era the team placed first in the total number of medals won at 14 of its 18 appearances; with these performances, the USSR was the dominant Olympic power of its era. Since the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 and continuing today, the Soviet and later Russian athletes never went below third place in the world (never below 2nd until the most recent Olympics), in number and gold medals collected at the Summer Olympics. Russia has finished in the top five at every Paralympic winter games since 1994, and is continuously climbing the rankings at the Paralympic summer games.
Among the most played sports in Russia are football, ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
. Other sports widely played in Russia include bandy
Bandy
Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.The rules of the game have many similarities to those of association football: the game is played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Each team has 11 players,...
, team handball
Team handball
Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...
, weightlifting, gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
, boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, wrestling
Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
, martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
, volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
and skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
.
As the Soviet Union, Russia was traditionally very strong in basketball, winning various Olympic tournaments, World Championships and Eurobasket. At the moment they have two players in the NBA, Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko
Andrei Kirilenko (basketball)
Andrei Gennadyevich Kirilenko is a Russian-American professional basketball player who plays at the small forward position for the CSKA Moscow in the Russian Professional Basketball League. He also plays for the Russia national basketball team...
and New York Knicks center Timofey Mozgov
Timofey Mozgov
Timofey Pavlovich Mozgov is a Russian professional basketball player for Khimki Moscow Region of the Russian Professional Basketball League. He is tall and he weighs . He plays at the center position.-Pro career:Mozgov began his professional career with LenVo St...
, and are considered as a worldwide basketball force. In 2007, Russia defeated world champions Spain to win EuroBasket 2007. Russian basketball clubs such as PBC CSKA Moscow (2006 and 2008 Euroleague Champions) have had great success in European competitions such as the Euroleague and the ULEB Cup.
Ice hockey
The Russian men's national ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of Russia and are controlled by the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia. They are currently rated first in IIHF World Rankings. The team has been competing internationally since 1993 and follows a long tradition of Soviet teams mostly composed of Russian players. The Russian team replaced the Unified Team of the ice hockey at the 1992 Winter Olympics and the Commonwealth of Independent States team of the 1992 World Championships.The Russian team has not been as dominant as the Soviet team, winning the gold in the World Championships three times in 18 years, but it remains one of the top teams in the world. Russia finished fourth at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Russia has a total of 77,702 players, about 0.05% of its population. As of August 2006, their head coach is Vyacheslav "Slava" Bykov.
The top three nominees for the 2009 Hart Memorial Trophy (the most valuable player award in the National Hockey League) all play for the Russian team: Alexander Ovechkin, Pavel Datsyuk, and Evgeni Malkin.
Russia's ice hockey team has a long history of tradition and success, and today about 30 Russians play in the NHL. During the Soviet era, hockey was one of the dominant sports, and members of the national team were given the finest apartments and cars.
The 1972 Summit Series
Summit Series
The Summit Series was the first competition between the Soviet and an NHL-inclusive Canadian national ice hockey teams, an eight-game series held in September 1972...
between Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the Soviets proved that Russia produced some of the finest players in the world, losing the 8 game series 4-3-1.
1994 - Finished 4th place
1998 - Won silver medal
2002 - Won Bronze medal
2006 - Finished in 4th place
From 1956 to 1988 the Soviet Union national hockey team won seven gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal in nine appearances. The Unified team at the 1992 Olympics also won the gold medal.
World championship records
1992 - Finished in 5th place
1993 - gold medal winner
1994 - finished in 5th place
1995 - finished in 5th place
1996 - finished in 4th place
1997 - finished in 4th place
1998 - finished in 5th place
1999 - finished in 5th place
2000 - finished in 11th place
2001 - finished in 6th place
2002 - silve medal winner
2003 - finished in 6th place
2004 - finished in 10th place
2005 - bronze medal winner
2006 - finished in 6th place
2007 - bronze medal winner
2008 - gold medal winner
2009 - gold medal winner
Bandy
One traditionally popular sport is bandyBandy
Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.The rules of the game have many similarities to those of association football: the game is played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Each team has 11 players,...
. The Soviet Union won all the Bandy World Championships
Bandy World Championships
The Bandy World Championships are a competition between bandy-playing nations. The tournament is administrated by the Federation of International Bandy....
from the start 1957 until 1979. Russia is almost always between the two best. The national league games have in average 3500 spectators. The best club today is Dynamo Moscow
Dynamo Moscow (bandy club)
Dynamo Moscow is a Russian sports club from Moscow which was founded in 1923. The bandy team plays in the new Krylatskoye Sports Complex in the outskirts of Moscow. Krylatskoye is a high-tech closed indoor bandy and speed skating arena with world-class facilities. It has hosted both Bandy World...
and the two with biggest public support are Baykal-Energiya from Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
and HC Kuzbass from Kemerovo
Kemerovo
Kemerovo is an industrial city in Russia, situated on the Tom River, east-northeast of Novosibirsk. It is the administrative center of Kemerovo Oblast, located in the major coal mining region of the Kuznetsk Basin...
.
Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.
The rules of the game have many similarities to those of association football. The game is played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Each team has eleven players, one of whom is the goalkeeper. A standard bandy match consists of two halves of 45 minutes each. The offside rule is also similar to that observed in football.
Winter sports
Figure skatingFigure skating
Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
is another popular sport; in the 1960s the Soviet Union rose to become a dominant power in figure skating, especially in pairs skating and ice dancing. At every Winter Olympics from 1964 until the present day, a Soviet or Russian pair has won gold, often considered the longest winning streak in modern sports history. Other winter sports the Soviets or Russia are dominant in are cross country skiing (especially women's), bobsleigh
Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled that are combined to calculate the final score....
, biathlon
Biathlon
Biathlon is a term used to describe any sporting event made up of two disciplines. However, biathlon usually refers specifically to the winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting...
, speed skating
Speed skating
Speed skating, or speedskating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating...
, skeleton
Skeleton (sport)
Skeleton is a fast winter sliding sport in which an individual person rides a small sled down a frozen track while lying face down, during which athletes experience forces up to 5g. It originated in St. Moritz, Switzerland as a spin-off from the popular British sport of Cresta Sledding...
, and luge
Luge
A Luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine and feet-first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh 21-25 kilograms for singles and 25-30 kilograms for doubles. Luge...
.
The Russian figure skating championships are a figure skating national championship held annually to determine the national champions of Russia. Skaters compete at the senior level in the disciplines of mens singles , ladies singles, pair skating, and ice dancing.
The first Russian national competition was held on March 5, 1878 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire. The winner was V. I. Sreznevski. From 1897 on, official Russian national championships in figure skating were held. The first national champion in Russia in figure skating was Alexandr Nikitich Panshin, who won the Russian nationals from 1897 to 1900.
Between 1924 and 1990 Russian national championships in figure skating were not held. During this time, Russian skaters competed at the Soviet Union Figure Skating Championships.
Football
Rugby union
Rugby unionRugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
is a growing sport in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Russia
Russia national rugby union team
The Russian National Rugby Union Team, is the national team representing Russia at the sport of rugby union.Rugby union in Russia is administered by the Rugby Union of Russia . The RUR is the official successor union of the Soviet Union and the combined CIS team which played in the early 1990s...
is ranked 17th worldwide by the International Rugby Board
International Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...
(IRB) with over one hundred clubs and close to 20,000 players nationally.
Russian domestic rugby went professional in 2005 with the launch of the Professional Rugby League
Professional Rugby League
Professional Rugby League is the premier rugby union competition in Russia. The Professional League was formed in 2005 and succeeds the Superleague. The Superleague, in turn, was active from 1992 to 2004 and succeeded the Soviet Championship....
. After a post-Soviet lull, Russian players are again signing with major clubs in England and France.
Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third largest city in Siberia, with the population of 973,891. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia's largest producers of...
, a large Siberian city, has traditionally been the stronghold of Russian rugby union. Domestic matches are covered in the local media, and the intra-city derby match between sides Krasny Yar and Enisei-STM can attract large crowds.
Rugby football
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
pre-dated the Russian Revolution by a number of years, but it was only played sporadically. It appears to have been the first (non-indigenous) football code to be played in Russia, around a decade before the introduction of association football. Mr Hopper, a Scotsman, who worked in Moscow arranged a match in the 1880s; the first football match was in 1892. In 1886, however, the Russian police clamped down on rugby because they considered it "brutal, and liable to incite demonstrations and riots" Condemnation by the tsar's police probably deterred many people from playing, and records of rugby over the next thirty years are sparse.
Russia has qualified for the 2011 Rugby World Cup
2011 Rugby World Cup
The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Africa at a meeting in Dublin on 17 November 2005...
in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
as Europe 2 after finishing second in the 2008-10 ENC. This will be the team's debut in the tournament, where they will face Australia, Ireland, Italy and the United States in Group C of the tournament.
Tennis
Since the end of the Soviet era tennisTennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
has grown in popularity and Russia has produced a number of famous tennis players. In recent years, the amount of top Russian women players has been considerable, with both Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
and Dinara Safina
Dinara Safina
Dinara Mikhailovna Safina , born April 27, 1986 in Moscow, is a Russian professional tennis player of Tatar background. Safina's career high ranking is World No. 1....
reaching number one in the WTA rankings. Other Russian women to achieve international success include Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Djambulilovna Chakvetadze is a Russian professional tennis player . On September 10, 2007, she reached her career-high professional singles ranking of World No. 5. She has won eight WTA Singles Titles and appeared in the 2007 US Open semifinals. As of July 4, 2011, Chakvetadze is ranked World...
, Elena Dementieva
Elena Dementieva
Elena Viatcheslavovna Dementieva is a retired Russian professional tennis player. Dementieva is most notable for winning the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She won 16 WTA singles titles and reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open. Dementieva achieved a...
, Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova ; born June 27, 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player and as of October 10, 2011 ranked No. 21 in the WTA singles and No. 90 in the doubles ranking. Kuznetsova has appeared in four singles Grand Slam finals, winning two, and has also appeared in six doubles...
, Anastasia Myskina
Anastasia Myskina
Anastasiya Andreyevna Myskina is a professional tennis player from Russia. She won the 2004 French Open singles title, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to win a Grand Slam main draw singles title. Subsequent to this victory she rose to number 3 on the WTA ranking, becoming the first...
, Nadia Petrova
Nadia Petrova
Nadezhda Viktorovna Petrova is a Russian professional tennis player.Overall, she has won 28 WTA Titles, ten in singles and eighteen in doubles. In singles, Petrova has reached a career high ranking of World No. 3 in May 2006 and has reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2003 and 2005...
, Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career high is World No. 2 by the WTA, and she is currently ranked as the World No. 7. Zvonarёva has won twelve WTA Tour singles titles and reached the...
and Anna Kournikova
Anna Kournikova
Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova is a Russian retired professional tennis player. Her beauty and celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis stars worldwide, despite the fact that she never won a WTA singles title. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name...
. The Russian Federation has won the Fed Cup
Fed Cup
Fed Cup is the premier team competition in women's tennis, launched in 1963 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the International Tennis Federation...
4 times, in 2004
2004 Fed Cup
The 2004 Fed Cup was the 42nd edition of the most important competition between national teams in women's tennis. 77 nations participated in the tournament...
, 2005
2005 Fed Cup
The 2005 Fed Cup was the 43rd edition of the most important competition between national teams in women's tennis. 76 nations participated in the tournament...
, 2007
2007 Fed Cup
The 2007 Fed Cup is the 45th edition of the most important tournament between national teams in women's tennis. 74 nations participated in the tournament...
and 2008
2008 Fed Cup
The 2008 Fed Cup was the 46th edition of the most important tournament between national teams in women's tennis. 8 teams contested the World Group, and 85 teams competed in total...
.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Tennis competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were held from August 10 to August 17 at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre. The DecoTurf surface rendered the event a hardcourt tournament....
, Russia swept the women's tennis podium with Elena Dementieva
Elena Dementieva
Elena Viatcheslavovna Dementieva is a retired Russian professional tennis player. Dementieva is most notable for winning the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She won 16 WTA singles titles and reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open. Dementieva achieved a...
winning the gold, Dinara Safina
Dinara Safina
Dinara Mikhailovna Safina , born April 27, 1986 in Moscow, is a Russian professional tennis player of Tatar background. Safina's career high ranking is World No. 1....
and Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career high is World No. 2 by the WTA, and she is currently ranked as the World No. 7. Zvonarёva has won twelve WTA Tour singles titles and reached the...
the silver and bronze, respectively. As of October 16, 2009, two Russian women were ranked in the WTA tour's top 10; with an additional two in the Top 20.
Russia also boasts two former number 1 men's players—Safina's older brother Marat Safin
Marat Safin
Marat Mikhailovich Safin is a retired Russian tennis player of Tatar descent. Safin won two grand slams and reached the world number 1 ranking during his career. He was also famous for his emotional outbursts and sometimes fiery temper on court. Safin also holds the record for most broken...
and Yevgeny Kafelnikov
Yevgeny Kafelnikov
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Russia. He won two Grand Slam singles titles , four Grand Slam doubles titles, and the men's singles gold medal at the Sydney Olympic Games. He also helped Russia win the Davis Cup in 2002...
. Russian men currently in the top 50 include Nikolay Davydenko
Nikolay Davydenko
Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko is a Ukrainian-Russian tennis player. Davydenko's best result in a Grand Slam tournament has been reaching the semifinals, which he has done on four occasions: twice each at the French Open and the U.S. Open. His biggest achievement to date was winning the 2009 ATP...
, Igor Andreev
Igor Andreev
Igor Valerievich Andreev is a Russian professional tennis player, born in Moscow.-2003:Andreev made his ATP debut in September 2003 at Bucharest, Romania as a qualifier and defeated top seed Nikolay Davydenko 7–5, 6–7, 6–0 in the first round, before losing in the next round to José Acasuso.At the...
, Igor Kunitsyn
Igor Kunitsyn
Igor Kunitsyn is a professional male tennis player from Russia. He made it into the top 100 for the first time in 2006, and reached a career-high singles ranking of 35 on July 6, 2009.-Early life:...
, and Mikhail Youzhny
Mikhail Youzhny
Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny , is a professional Russian tennis player, noted for his consistency and all-court play style. He has been coached by Boris Sobkin for 17 years....
. The Russian men won the Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...
in 2002
2002 Davis Cup
The 2002 Davis Cup was the 91st edition of the most important tournament between nations in men's tennis. A total of 130 nations participated in the tournament...
and 2006
2006 Davis Cup
The 2006 Davis Cup was the 95th edition of the most important tournament between nations in men's tennis. Sixteen teams participated in the World Group and 125 participated in total...
.
Rhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnasticsRhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which individuals or teams of competitors manipulate one or two pieces of apparatus: rope, clubs, hoop, ball, ribbon and Free . An individual athlete only manipulates 1 apparatus at a time...
is considered one of the most popular sports in Russia. In addition,it is considered in general that Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
has the best rhythmic gymnasts. Irina Tchachina
Irina Tchachina
Irina Viktorovna Tchachina is an Individual rhythmic gymnast born 24 April 1982 in Omsk, Russia. Known for her jumps and clean technique, Irina is considered to be one of the most elegant and technical gymnasts ever. She has been quoted as saying “Besides your body, you should train your mind too...
, Alina Kabaeva
Alina Kabaeva
Alina Maratovna Kabaeva is a Russian Honored Master of Sports, retired rhythmic gymnast, and politician. Since 2007, she has been a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party....
, Yanina Batyrchina and Yulia Barsukova
Yulia Barsukova
Yulia Vladimirovna Barsukova is Individual Rhythmic Gymnast. She is the 2000 Olympic Champion in the All-Around.-Biography:At age five, she began figure skating in the Izmaylovo District of Moscow where she lived. One day, when she was eight years old, she was passing a sports club, and in the...
turned out to be Russia' top rhythmic gymnasts. There are many rhythmic gymnastics clubs in Russia and the most famous one is the Gazprom School which Irina Viner
Irina Viner
Irina Aleksandrovna Viner is a Russian rhythmic gymnastics coach who is head trainer of the Russian national team. She is Jewish. She has trained sportwomen like:...
teaches rhythmic gymnasts in Moscow.
Chess
Chess is a favourite pastime, and a sport that has been dominated by Russians in the post-war (1945-) era. The winner of the 1948 World Chess ChampionshipWorld Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
, Russian Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
, started an era of Soviet dominance in the chess world. Until the end of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion.
Orienteering
The Russian Orienteering Federation (Федерация Спортивного Ориентирования (ФСО)) is the RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n national organisation of orienteering
Orienteering
Orienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain, and normally moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they...
. It is a full Member of the International Orienteering Federation
International Orienteering Federation
The International Orienteering Federation is the international governing body of the sport of orienteering. The IOF head office is located in Helsinki, Finland....
.