Svetlana Sleptsova


Svetlana Yuryevna Sleptsova is a retired Russian biathlete. She is a member of the club CSKA. She is a three-time Junior World Champion and won the bronze medal in the mixed relay at the 2008 World Championships in Östersund. In 2009, she was part of the gold medal winning Russian women's relay team at the World Championships in Pyeongchang. Sleptsova is an Olympic champion in relay at Vancouver.
In February 2020, Sleptsova was found guilty of an anti-doping violation and had her results from 2013-14 disqualified

Career

Svetlana Sleptsova was born in a sports family. At the age of ten, she started regular biathlon classes, when biathlon coach Alexander Korchak came to her school and invited her to engage in biathlon. In a chat of 17 January 2008 at Rasen-Antholz, Sleptsova recalls: "I started doing biathlon in third grade. There was nothing else but biathlon in Khanty-Mansiysk at that time. There was no alternative." Initially, the young athletes were shooting with air rifles, and the biathlon exercises were combined with ballet dancing, boxing, and karate.
Sleptsova achieved her first success in 2001, when she won the A. Strepetova prize at the Russian Youth Championships. In 2005, under the direction of Mikhail Novikov, she won the individual competition at the Youth World Championships in Kontiolahti, 1:15 minutes ahead of Vita Semerenko. A few months later, she suffered a severe loss—the death of her father.
Growing into the juniors' age group, Sleptsova became a member of the Yugra team of head coach Valery Zakharov. After two years, thanks to hard training under the sensitive guidance of an experienced coach, she advanced to one of the world's best junior athletes, and did her World Cup debut at Pokljuka in 2007. According to Sleptsova, this experience helped her to be better prepared for the Junior World Championships, and so she achieved two victories at Martell—in the sprint and pursuit competitions, respectively. The successful season for this young athlete was completed by the Senior Russian Championships, where she won three medals, and received a ticket to the country's main national team.
Sleptsova coped surprisingly quickly with senior biathlon, attaining several top-10 ranks before the start of the new year. Next, she finished the sprint at Oberhof, Germany as second, and repeated this result in the subsequent week at Ruhpolding. Later, after the disqualification of Kaisa Varis, she was awarded the victory of this competition. Sleptsova arrived at the 2008 World Championships in Östersund in good form, but an illness prevented her from demonstrating her maximum capability. However, she won the bronze medal in the mixed relay competition. At the end of the season, at Oslo-Holmenkollen, she achieved her first "real" victory, finally standing on top of the pedestal, and won the pursuit competition as well. She came up with similar results at the 2008 Russian Championships, winning three gold medals and the grand prize—a car. As of 2009, she has three world cup victories, excluding the one Varis retrieved after being cleared to compete again after IBU had broken test correction process.
Sleptsova's last competition was the 2017 Summer Biathlon World Championships in Chaykovskiy, Russia. There, she won on all three disciplines. Following that, Sleptsova announced her retirement on 27 August 2017, as she will concentrate on family life.

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

Olympic Games

EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay
2010 Vancouver—13th18th14thGold

World Championships

EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay
2008 Östersund—6th8th17th4thBronze
2009 Pyeongchang—36th28th19thGold5th
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk————8th6th
2012 Ruhpolding7th7th16th24th7th—
2017 Hochfilzen71st33rd24th—10th—

Junior/Youth World Championships

EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay
2004 Haute-Maurienne11th42nd16th4th
2005 KontiolahtiGold7thSilverBronze
2006 Presque Isle6th18th14thBronze
2007 Martell-Val Martello5thGoldGold4th

Individual podiums

No.SeasonDateLocationDisciplineLevelPlace
12007/085 January 2008 Oberhof, Germany7.5 km SprintWorld Cup2nd
22007/0811 January 2008 Ruhpolding, Germany7.5 km SprintWorld Cup2nd
32007/0817 January 2008 Antholz, Italy7.5 km SprintWorld Cup3rd
42007/0819 January 2008 Antholz, Italy10 km PursuitWorld Cup2nd
52007/089 March 2008 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup3rd
62007/0813 March 2008 Holmenkollen, Norway7.5 km SprintWorld Cup1st
72007/0815 March 2008 Holmenkollen, Norway10 km PursuitWorld Cup1st
82008/097 December 2008 Östersund, Sweden10 km PursuitWorld Cup2nd
92008/0912 December 2008 Hochfilzen, Austria7.5 km SprintWorld Cup2nd
102008/0913 December 2008 Hochfilzen, Austria10 km PursuitWorld Cup2nd
112008/0918 December 2008 Hochfilzen, Austria15 km IndividualWorld Cup2nd
122008/0929 December 2008 Hochfilzen, Austria7.5 km SprintWorld Cup1st
132009/1012 December 2009 Hochfilzen, Austria10 km PursuitWorld Cup2nd
142009/1019 December 2009 Pokljuka, Slovenia7.5 km SprintWorld Cup1st
152009/1020 December 2009 Pokljuka, Slovenia10 km PursuitWorld Cup1st
162010/119 January 2011 Oberhof, Germany12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup3rd

Relay podiums

No.SeasonDateLocationDisciplineLevelPlaceTeammates
12007/089 December 2007 Hochfilzen, Austria4x6 km RelayWorld Cup2nd
22007/0816 December 2007 Pokljuka, Slovenia4x6 km RelayWorld Cup2nd
32007/083 January 2008 Oberhof, Germany4x6 km RelayWorld Cup3rd
42007/089 January 2008 Ruhpolding, Germany4x6 km RelayWorld Cup3rd
52007/0812 February 2008 Östersund, SwedenMixed 2x6+2x7.5 km RelayWorld Championships3rd
62008/0921 February 2009 Pyeongchang, South Korea4x6 km RelayWorld Championships1st
72008/0914 March 2009 Vancouver, Canada4x6 km RelayWorld Cup3rd
82009/106 December 2009 Östersund, Sweden4x6 km RelayWorld Cup2nd
92009/1013 December 2009 Hochfilzen, Austria4x6 km RelayWorld Cup1st
102009/1010 January 2010 Oberhof, Germany4x6 km RelayWorld Cup1st
112009/1023 February 2010 Vancouver, Canada4x6 km RelayOlympic Games1st
122010/1122 January 2011 Antholz, Italy4x6 km RelayWorld Cup1st
132010/115 February 2011 Presque Isle, USAMixed 2x6+2x7.5 km RelayWorld Cup3rd
142011/1211 December 2011 Hochfilzen, Austria4x6 km RelayWorld Cup3rd
152011/124 January 2012 Oberhof, Germany4x6 km RelayWorld Cup1st
162011/1221 January 2012 Antholz, Italy4x6 km RelayWorld Cup3rd

Overall record

Shooting