Elena Golovina

Elena Golovina is a Soviet and Russian biathlete, ten-time World Champion in 1985-1991 (including 9 times in relay races and team races), winner of the 1988/89 World Cup. The future biathlete was born in the small village of Komarovo, in the Sverdlovsk region, into a simple Soviet family. The girl grew up active and restless; she started skiing early and quickly became interested in this sport. Soon she began training at a local sports school, devoting almost all her free time to training. Elena's first mentor, V. Belov, immediately recognized her enormous potential and the makings of a future winner. Golovina's first experience in biathlon was successful, so she finally became convinced that this was her calling. After graduating from school, the girl entered the Mechanics and Ceramic College, and at the same time continued to work hard in the specialized sports section. Already in her teens, she began to take part in regional competitions, performing in a team and independently. In the early 80s, the biathlete began training at the Dynamo sports society. And in 1985, after an effective performance at the first major international competition in her career, Elena received the title of Master of Sports, and she was also included in the Soviet biathlon team. At that time, the program of world championships in this sport included four types of competitions: sprint, relay, as well as individual and team races. Golovina won her first world championship gold in the same year, 1985, in Ege, Switzerland. Two years later, at the championship held in Lahti, she won two gold medals at once, and for the next four years, the Soviet biathlete regularly climbed to the highest step of the podium at world championships. In 1991, Elena set a record for the number of victories at the biathlon world championships. This achievement remained unsurpassed for more than two decades, until in 2012, biathlete and Olympic champion Magdalena Neuner from Germany broke the record. In 1994, the 33-year-old biathlete decided to end her career in big-time sports. After she left professional sports, the head of the Russian Biathlon Union, Aleksandr Tikhonov, brought her to work as a mentor. Despite the fact that the former biathlete did not stay in this position for long, she managed to train young Svetlana Ishmouratova well, who later won two Olympic gold medals. The last time Golovina trained young athletes was in 1997, before the Olympic Games in Nagano.