Svetlana Khorkina is celebrating her 40th birthday today and there are a few interviews in the Russian media marking the occasion. HotBeautySpot.ru talked to Khorkina about her beauty routine.
Q: You’ve been an athlete since childhood. How did you end up in artistic gymnastics? Were there moments when you wanted to quit and live a life of a regular kid?
A: When I was almost four years old, my mom brought me to a gymnastics class. At first, I was not accepted because I was too tall and had no muscle power. I often got sick and didn’t eat well. Actually, my mom wanted me to do sports to solve those issues: she thought I would start eating better and become healthier. But everything turned out differently. I fell in love with gymnastics and spent all my time in the gym. I stopped eating at all although I did get sick much less frequently. Then, my gymnastics results became obvious for those around me. When I came back from competitions and came to school, my classmates congratulated me and the teachers supported me in my studies so much that I even went ahead of schedule since I need to leave for another competition soon. My classmates probably envied me a bit because I traveled all around the country, saw many cities and people. At the time, it was unlikely they had such an opportunity. I really liked my life in the sport and, with time, it even started giving me some benefits. Thanks to my results and victories I made the regional team and started receiving food coupons. It was a huge help for my family: at the time, our financial state left to be desired and we could sometimes exchange these coupons for food.
Q: You retired after learning you were pregnant. Was it easy to make this decision, to choose the baby? What memories of your athletic career are the warmest and most pleasant?
A: I retired in 2005. I was really happy to learn I would be a mom. I dreamed about becoming a mom (and I want to do it again now), to feel these incredible feelings when a new life is born in you. It’s something out of this world. There was no choice between my career and the baby. I think that I got a great career but not everyone has a chance to be a mom. It happens. Of course, the most pleasant memories of my career are the victories. Each of them, no matter whether it was the USSR Championships or the Russian Championships, the World Championships or the Olympics. The most important was that I made huge crowds stand when the anthem of my country played. I experienced great pleasure from it, every time I was enthralled by the magic of victories, I wanted to continue, to break the records. When you taste the victory for the first time, it’s almost impossible to stop.
Q: How did you manage to stay in shape? What can you recommend, based on your experience?
A: I know that I’m an idol for many millions of children. And it’s important to me to always stay in shape in order not to disappoint them and not to destroy the image of that Khorkina who they saw on the Olympic podium. I exercise, I organize national competitions, I travel around the country with master classes in which I not only tell how to do or how to learn an element but also show how it should be done. Believe me, this leads to not only the kids
Q: What is your perfect workout?
A: The perfect workout is when something still hurts since the last workout and a drop of sweat is running along your spine. It means that yesterday you kneaded your stale bones well.
Q: What is your nutrition? Do you allow yourself to indulge or adhere to a strict diet?
A: I eat normally, I almost never limit myself in anything except for the amount of food. I also don’t eat cakes because I just don’t like them – as a kid, I wasn’t allowed to eat them and now I don’t really want them.
In a short interview with Info-RM, Khorkina also gave advice to people who stopped believing in themselves and want to give up and quit the sport they’re doing:
“Don’t give up! You need to get my book and read it and then the desire to give up will vanish right away. In sports, every second, every minute is overcoming [something]. And if you can overcome your “laziness”, you will make a huge step forward, to an Olympic medal, among other things. People used to not believe in my all the time. First, they didn’t want to put me in gymnastics classes, then to put me on the junior national team, then to put me on the senior national team. I was tall and didn’t have such great health as the others but I had a huge desire to become an Olympic champion and we worked a lot with my coach who believed in me and I believed in him”.
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LOL you NEED to get my book to feel immediate motivation! Her narcissism is astounding. Phenomenal gymnast but she needs to get over herself.
I love her narcissism lol it’s fun to read
Heehee. Why is that? I, too, was quite entertained. I thought she would redeem herself when she began speaking to the hypothetical person that feels like quitting. “Dont give up!” followed up with the most khorkina of khorkinas ive ever read. Lmao . of course buying her book will solve that problem! And probably all of the problems throughout the world. Lolololol .oh how we love her. She certainly is a character.
Caricature of herself.