Svetlana KHORKINA

With 47 Olympic, World and European Championships medals, Svetlana Khorkina is considered as the best gymnast of the 1990s and early 2000s. She has also won more medals in major all-around championships than any other male or female gymnast, with 10 (seven gold and three silver). Khorkina is the first gymnast to win three all-around titles at the World Championships, a feat she achieved in 1997, 2001 and 2003. She also won three European all-around titles (1998, 2000, 2002). But her most successful apparatus was the uneven bars, where she won two Olympic titles (1996, 2000), five World titles (1995-97, 1999, 2001) and six European titles in a row (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004). Her other major titles were the World vault title in 2001, European floor exercise title in 1998, European balance beam title in 2000, and two European team titles (2000, 2002). Khorkina won at least one gold medal in a major championships between 1995 and 2003. At 1.65 m, Khorkina was unusually tall for her sport, so she had to create a lot of new moves to accommodate her height and exploit her strengths. She has an unprecedented eight moves named after her in the Artistic Gymnastics Code of Points, including at least one on each apparatus and that is more than any other gymnast, male or female.

Khorkina retired from sports after the 2004 Olympics and went into politics. Since December 2004, she has been the vice-president of Russian Gymnastics Federation. From 2005-08, she was a member of the International Federation of Gymnastics Athletes' Commission. She has also been member of the political party United Russia since 2003 and in 2007 was elected to the Russian State Duma (Parliament). She is a deputy chairwoman of the Duma's Youth Affairs Committee. During the 2008 Olympics, Khorkina also worked as a gymnastics commentator for the Russian TV station NTV+ and also works as an ambassador for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, to be held in Sochi, Russia. She has also published two books, first her autobiography ( Somersaults on High Heels , 2008) and the second focuses on fitness and avoiding sport injuries ( Fitness for the Body and Soul , 2009).