27.06.202027.05.2017

Svetlana Vladimirovna Kapanina is not just a professional sports pilot. She is a true conqueror of the skies. On her iron ship, a charming young woman performs virtuoso dives and somersaults, known throughout the world as Svetlana Kapanina's skillful aerobatics.

So, meet the charming and inimitable, strong and fearless seven-time world champion!

Childhood

Svetlana Kapanina was born on the eve of the new year 1969, in a small resort town in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The girl's parents were simple people. His father worked as a taxi driver, his mother as an accountant. Watching their example, Svetlana grew up hardworking and purposeful, strong and independent.

Thanks to her father, the girl first became acquainted with the joyful sensation of speed. Vladimir Vasilievich was fond of figure driving on the ice. He passed on his love for sports and drive to his youngest daughter, a short, fragile blonde.

WITH early childhood Svetlana Kapanina was fond of physical education. She loved riding motorcycles and participating in races; she did gymnastics for several years, and thanks to her flexibility and plasticity she reached considerable heights.

At school, young Sveta was a real activist. Constantly keen on something new, striving to master any skill, a lover of truth and an excellent student - she served as an example and inspired others with her enthusiasm.

Youth

After school, the young girl was faced with the question - what should she devote her life to? Play sports professionally? Or should I learn a quieter profession? It would seem that any sports career is guaranteed for her.

But Svetlana Kapanina, whose aerobatics will fascinate and captivate the hearts of millions of viewers in just a few years, chooses a completely different professional direction. She enters medical school at the Faculty of Pharmacy and is assigned to the small town of Kurgan, where she works in her specialty in the pharmacy of a railway hospital.

The routine of everyday duties, all kinds of powders and pills did not drown out the girl’s cherished dream - to conquer the bottomless sky.

Introduction to flying

Next to the workers' dormitory where Svetlana lived, there was a real flying club. Without thinking twice, the girl went there to investigate. She wanted to jump with a parachute. The delight of the speed of flight beckoned and attracted like a magnet.

But the club instructor, the charming and athletic pilot Leonid Solodovnikov, persuaded her to try herself as a pilot. He conducted a test flight with young Svetlana, turning her head with his unprecedented turns and pickets. Sitting next to an experienced strong man, Kapanina squealed with fear and delight.

They could not help but like each other - the professional Solodovnikov, in love with the sky, and the enthusiastic, athletic, self-searching Kapanina. He gave her the first joy of flying, introduced her to the mysteries of the life of a pilot, taught her to feel the machine and merge with it, and she... She smiled at him, admired him, sacredly believed in him and listened carefully and strictly. They became a bright, beautiful couple.

Without hesitation, Svetlana devotes herself to a new profession and leaves pharmacology. Already in 1988, she worked at the aviation club, first as an electrical technician, then as an instructor pilot.

At the age of twenty-six, the girl receives a new education at a flight technical school. This happens a year after the tragedy.

Tragedy

The year 1994 will remain in Kapanina’s memory forever - the year when her beloved died. Leonid - so cheerful, so experienced, so self-confident - died in the sky after losing control.

Svetlana was inconsolable. It seemed that she was mourning not only her husband, but also everything that connected her with him. It seemed that this fragile, unfortunate girl would never again have the strength to get into the cockpit and take off. Fly to where your loved one fell from...

But Svetlana Kapanina found strength and determination, she overcame the fear and pain of loss, and again sat at the controls of the plane. Moreover, she did it so masterfully and brilliantly, so delightfully and impressively, that everyone immediately paid attention to her and remembered her.

Victory

Svetlana Kapanina's flights amaze with the complexity of aerobatic maneuvers and the unprecedented grace of gliding. But how much willpower, how much courage and patience is behind her victories!

Svetlana Kapanina is a pilot, in love with her profession, in love with the sky, in love with the plane. Therefore, she can endure anything - pain from torn ligaments and burst blood vessels, fear of the unknown and breakdowns, nervous strain and lack of funds. After all, she is the first, because she is the best.

In 1995, Kapanina proved to everyone that she was not just an exemplary female pilot, but a first-class aerobatics pilot.

This happened in South Africa, where a young girl who had just recently experienced... terrible tragedy, became the only woman at the World Championships and won silver. Having given her 100%, Svetlana beat many experienced, daring men and took second place in the competition. She dedicated this victory to her beloved husband.

Love for the Motherland

Svetlana Kapanina, whose photos are in our article, won worldwide popularity and widespread recognition with her incredible talents, virtuoso flights and unprecedented endurance and composure.

Many times she received invitations from foreign flying clubs and teams. But for Russian athlete the main thing is to bring victory to her homeland, the land where she was born and raised. With her victories and her skill, the girl wants to glorify only her homeland.

And let her live from paycheck to paycheck here, in Russia, train for her own money and frantically look for funds to support sports aircraft. Her dream is to create a state aviation center so that young people - the same enthusiastic boys and girls as she once was - have the opportunity to learn to fly and experience freedom and happiness at the height of the clouds.

Personal life

Svetlana Kapanina is married to a wonderful man who understands and supports her. This is Vladimir Stepanov, a karate athlete and honored coach of Russia.

They met at the airfield, where the man came specifically to look at the beautiful and brave pilot. He looked and fell in love. And after some time they got married. Soon children were born.

Children

Svetlana has two adult children - a fourteen-year-old son, Peresvet, and a twelve-year-old daughter, Yesenia. It is noteworthy that neither pregnancy nor childbirth prevented Kapanina from playing sports and winning victories.

Svetlana admits that immediately after the birth of her children she ran to the gym, where she did not recognize her previously flexible, mobile body. She was horrified that she could not only fulfill gymnastic exercises, but is not even able to simply jump or somersault! And this is after just two or three weeks of forced maternity leave! Then the desperate athlete began to quickly get into shape and train hard. And the result was not long in coming.

For example, just six months after giving birth to her son, Svetlana Kapanina amazed the whole world with her new, brilliant victories!

And, hopefully, even greater peaks and triumphs await her ahead. She totally deserves it!

AIRCRAFT

SPORT

VICTORIES

Kapanina Svetlana Vladimirovna

Born on December 28, 1968 in the city of Shchuchinsk, Kokchetav region (Kazakh SSR). Dad is a very sporty person: he worked as a taxi driver and did figure autodriving on ice, and was the vice-champion of Kazakhstan in this discipline. Every morning he does exercises and lifts weights. Subsequently, he replaced the taxi driver’s “steering wheel” with the position of huntsman of the Fisheries and Wildlife Inspectorate. My mother worked as a simple worker all her life. In Soviet times, he was an accountant at the Promtorg base, and then a gas station operator. I have a wonderful sister Larisa and brother Oleg. My family always helps and supports me! I love them very much!!!

I followed in my father's footsteps. She was interested in mopeds, motorcycles, and went in for sports. Defended the honor of the school and class in all sporting events and "Zarnitsakh". She ran well short distances, studied for six years gymnastics, fulfilled the standard for a candidate for master of sports. Invited to Tselinograd school Olympic reserve, refused due to the fact that the coach, Ruppel-Eryomushkina Larisa Aleksandrovna, was not invited to accompany her.

I adore Larisa Alexandrovna and am very grateful to her for her big heart, for her love for her students, for the humanity that she put into her athletes!!! A lot in a child’s development depends on the first coach. She instilled in her girls kindness, love for their work, for team members and rivals, willpower and hard work, a desire to win and many other positive qualities...

After the eighth grade, I entered the pharmaceutical department of the Tselinograd Medical School. The windows of the hostel overlooked the airfield - almost every day I watched the flights of gliders (“they didn’t impress me”), but the parachutists’ jumps interested me. I wanted to jump with a parachute. I got the girls to do this, and a group of seven or eight people went to the local flying club, but only I managed to pass the medical examination. I didn’t go to study alone. Classes are late, it’s a long drive, there’s a women’s dormitory, difficult relationships with teachers...

Graduated from medical school. According to distribution, they were sent to Kurgan, to the pharmacy at the railway hospital. A month later I found a local flying club... I was walking down the corridor, and then some instructor intercepted me and began to strongly persuade me not to go to the parachute section, but to “sign up for airplanes.” Well, I signed up. I studied theory for several months but never saw an airplane. And when they finally put me on the plane for the first time and took it for a ride, the assignment was to fly in formation as part of a flight of three aircraft, I was not impressed by this calm horizontal flight.

Having left the pharmacy with difficulty (in those days, it was very strict with work assignments after study), I got ready to go home to Shchuchinsk, but then Evgeniy Borovinsky came running (then we flew with him in the same group) and said: “Rukavishnikov asked not to leave forever, until you take a ride in aerobatics." Rukavishnikov Alexander Vasilievich was a coach at the Kurgan Air Sports Club (ASK). They said about him: “He will teach a monkey to fly...” Alexander Vasilyevich immediately caught on sporty character young girl, added vestibular apparatus and physical capabilities inherited from artistic gymnastics, and really did not want to lose, in his words: “a promising athlete.” I am very grateful to him for the persistence with which he convinced me to stay!!!

In general, I stayed at home and returned, thinking that it would be for a few days - to respect the coach.

And then Rukavishnikov agreed with the head of the ASK that Leonid Arkadyevich Solodovnikov (he later became my coach) would arrange a “real run-through,” and not as is usually done for beginners, so as not to frighten them ahead of time.

It was the most incredible flight, I have never experienced such sensations in my life: amazing steepness, the sky and earth revolve around the plane at breakneck speed, and even though my head was covered in bumps from hitting the cockpit canopy - in a word, I liked it terribly and determined my entire future fate ...

I was immediately registered as an electrician communications technician at ASK - and I started flying. Mom, of course, was horrified: “If you stay in this flying club, you are no longer my daughter!” But I know my mother, and indeed, her anger only lasted for five days. Then she often said: “Even if you fly into space, I won’t be surprised.”

It just so happened that athlete A.V. I didn’t join Rukavishnikov, but he helped and supported me in many ways... I really appreciate everything he did for me.

The first instructor was Nikolai Golubtsov. He was instructing for the first year, but was a very experienced athlete and a great person.

From the second year I began to fly with a wonderful navigator-instructor-trainer Leonid Arkadyevich Solodovnikov. This is the man who gave me EVERYTHING in airplane sports: aerobatics, handwriting, flying character, charm, strength and beauty of flight, the desire to win... We went through a lot with him: tears and grievances in training, the bitterness of defeats and the joy of victories in competitions, short family life... I grieve that his life was cut short so early... He is my “guardian angel”!

Since 1991, she has been a member of the Russian national aerobatic team.

To the name of L.A. Solodovnikov I would like to add a few more names of coaches who subsequently helped and continue to help me train and prepare for competitions: K.G. Nazhmudinov, A.G. Shpigovsky, V.N. Chmal.

In 1993 she performed at the first international competitions- European Championship. Then, competitions began to take place more and more often - several times a year, and this has been the case for more than 20 years.

Since 2000 I have been working at Sukhoi as a 1st class instructor pilot.

I live in Moscow. I have a wonderful husband - Vladimir, and wonderful children - son Peresvet and daughter Yesenia. They are my “GUARDIAN ANGELS” on earth! They always pray for me! And all my victories are for them!!!

Father:

Vladimir Vasilievich Kapanin

Mother:

Galina Grigorievna

Spouse:

Vladimir Stepanov

Children:

son Peresvet, daughter Yesenia

Awards and prizes:

Website: K:Wikipedia:Articles without images (type: not specified)

Svetlana Vladimirovna Kapanina(Tommygirl) (born December 28, 1968) - Russian pilot and seven-time absolute world champion among women in aerobatics, Honored Master of Sports of Russia, Honored Trainer of Russia, instructor pilot at Sukhoi Design Bureau. Member of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party.

A student of the Kurgan ASK DOSAAF USSR. First class instructor pilot of the aerobatic team of the Flight Test and Development Base of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. Lives in Moscow.

Biography

Svetlana Vladimirovna Kapanina was born on December 28, 1968 in the city of Shchuchinsk, Shchuchinsky district, Kokchetav region, Kazakh SSR (now Akmola region, Kazakhstan) in a family of workers.

She was interested in mopeds, motorcycles, and went in for sports. She defended the honor of the school and class in all sporting events and “Zarnitsa”. She was a good short-distance runner, did gymnastics for six years, and fulfilled the standard for a candidate for master of sports.

After the eighth grade, she entered the pharmaceutical department of the Tselinograd Medical School and graduated from it in 1987. Assigned to Kurgan, to the pharmacy at the railway hospital.

In 1988-1991 she worked as a communications electrician for the Kurgan DOSAAF air sports club.

In 1991-1992 she worked as an instructor pilot at the Irkutsk DOSAAF air sports club.

Since 1992 - instructor pilot of the Kurgan air sports club ROSTO.

Airsports

Awards

Medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (1995)
Honored Master of Sports of Russia in aerobatics (aircraft sports, 1995).
Candidate for Master of Sports of the USSR in artistic gymnastics.
Honorary Citizen of the Kurgan Region (February 2, 2015, for outstanding services that contribute to increasing the fame and authority of the region)
Honorary Citizen of the State of Oklahoma, USA (1996)
Personalized medal “100 years since the organization of the FAI” - as the best pilot of the century.
FAI Gold Personalized Medal Sabiha Gokcen, as the only 5-time Absolute World Champion in aerobatics (2005)
Medal Centenary,International Aeronautical Federation (2008).
Order of Merit, III degree, ROSTO (2007).
Order of Merit, 1st class, DOSAAF.
Medal named after A. I. Pokryshkina (ROSTO, 1997).
Medal “80 years of OSOAVIAKHIM (DOSAAF-ROSTO)” (2007).
Diploma Paul Tissandier, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), 1997
Cup " Best Woman European Championship" (2008).
Academician of the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement of the Russian Federation
Laureate of the National Award for Public Recognition of Women's Achievements "Olympia" (2003).
Laureate of the National Sports Award "Glory" (2007).

Achievements

Svetlana won awards more often than any of her colleagues. Also, she was the best among women at the World Aviation Games 2001 - absolute champion among women in 1997 and 2001.

Family

Father Vladimir Vasilyevich Kapanin, worked as a taxi driver and was engaged in figure autodriving on ice, was the vice-champion of Kazakhstan. Subsequently he became a huntsman of the Fishery and Hunting Supervision Authority.
Mother Galina Grigorievna, an accountant at the base in Promtorg, and then a gas station operator.
Sister Larisa.
Brother Oleg.
Husband Vladimir Stepanov, Honored Trainer of Russia and International Judge, has a fourth dan in karate.
Son of Peresvet.
Daughter of Yesenia.

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An excerpt characterizing Kapanin, Svetlana Vladimirovna

Several people joined the first.
“Look, it’s burning,” said one, “this, gentlemen, is a fire in Moscow: either in Sushchevskaya or in Rogozhskaya.”
No one responded to this remark. And for quite a long time all these people silently looked at the distant flames of a new fire that were flaring up.
The old man, the count's valet (as he was called), Danilo Terentich, approached the crowd and shouted to Mishka.
- What haven’t you seen, slut... The Count will ask, but no one is there; go get your dress.
“Yes, I was just running for water,” said Mishka.
– What do you think, Danilo Terentich, it’s like there’s a glow in Moscow? - said one of the footmen.
Danilo Terentich did not answer anything, and for a long time everyone was silent again. The glow spread and swayed further and further.
“God have mercy!.. wind and dryness...” the voice said again.
- Look how it went. Oh my God! You can already see the jackdaws. Lord, have mercy on us sinners!
- They'll probably put it out.
- Who should put it out? – the voice of Danila Terentich, who had been silent until now, was heard. His voice was calm and slow. “Moscow is, brothers,” he said, “she is mother squirrel...” His voice broke off, and he suddenly sobbed like an old man. And it was as if everyone was waiting for just this in order to understand the meaning that this visible glow had for them. Sighs, words of prayer and the sobbing of the old count's valet were heard.

The valet, returning, reported to the count that Moscow was burning. The Count put on his robe and went out to have a look. Sonya, who had not yet undressed, and Madame Schoss came out with him. Natasha and the Countess remained alone in the room. (Petya was no longer with his family; he went forward with his regiment, marching to Trinity.)
The Countess began to cry when she heard the news of the fire in Moscow. Natasha, pale, with fixed eyes, sitting under the icons on the bench (in the very place where she sat when she arrived), did not pay any attention to her father’s words. She listened to the incessant moaning of the adjutant, heard three houses away.
- Oh, what a horror! - said Sonya, cold and frightened, returned from the yard. – I think all of Moscow will burn, a terrible glow! Natasha, look now, you can see from the window from here,” she said to her sister, apparently wanting to entertain her with something. But Natasha looked at her, as if not understanding what they were asking her, and again stared at the corner of the stove. Natasha had been in this state of tetanus since this morning, ever since Sonya, to the surprise and annoyance of the Countess, for some unknown reason, found it necessary to announce to Natasha about Prince Andrei’s wound and his presence with them on the train. The Countess became angry with Sonya, as she was rarely angry. Sonya cried and asked for forgiveness and now, as if trying to make amends for her guilt, she never stopped caring for her sister.
“Look, Natasha, how terribly it burns,” said Sonya.
– What’s burning? – Natasha asked. - Oh, yes, Moscow.
And as if in order not to offend Sonya by refusing and to get rid of her, she moved her head to the window, looked so that, obviously, she could not see anything, and again sat down in her previous position.
-Have you not seen it?
“No, really, I saw it,” she said in a voice pleading for calm.
Both the Countess and Sonya understood that Moscow, the fire of Moscow, whatever it was, of course, could not matter to Natasha.
The Count again went behind the partition and lay down. The Countess approached Natasha, touched her head with her inverted hand, as she did when her daughter was sick, then touched her forehead with her lips, as if to find out if there was a fever, and kissed her.
-You're cold. You're shaking all over. You should go to bed,” she said.
- Go to bed? Yes, okay, I'll go to bed. “I’ll go to bed now,” Natasha said.
Since Natasha was told this morning that Prince Andrei was seriously wounded and was going with them, only in the first minute she asked a lot about where? How? Is he dangerously injured? and is she allowed to see him? But after she was told that she could not see him, that he was seriously wounded, but that his life was not in danger, she, obviously, did not believe what she was told, but was convinced that no matter how much she said, she would be answer the same thing, stopped asking and talking. All the way, with big eyes, which the countess knew so well and whose expression the countess was so afraid of, Natasha sat motionless in the corner of the carriage and now sat in the same way on the bench on which she sat down. She was planning something, something she was deciding or had already decided in her mind now - the countess knew this, but what it was, she did not know, and this frightened and tormented her.
- Natasha, undress, my dear, lie down on my bed. (Only the Countess alone had a bed made on the bed; m me Schoss and both young ladies had to sleep on the floor on the hay.)
“No, mom, I’ll lie here on the floor,” Natasha said angrily, went to the window and opened it. The adjutant’s groan from the open window was heard more clearly. She stuck her head out into the damp air of the night, and the countess saw how her thin shoulders were shaking with sobs and beating against the frame. Natasha knew that it was not Prince Andrei who was moaning. She knew that Prince Andrei was lying in the same connection where they were, in another hut across the hallway; but this terrible, incessant groan made her sob. The Countess exchanged glances with Sonya.
“Lie down, my dear, lie down, my friend,” said the countess, lightly touching Natasha’s shoulder with her hand. - Well, go to bed.
“Oh, yes... I’ll go to bed now,” said Natasha, hastily undressing and tearing off the strings of her skirts. Having taken off her dress and put on a jacket, she tucked her legs in, sat down on the bed prepared on the floor and, throwing her short thin braid over her shoulder, began to braid it. Thin, long, familiar fingers quickly, deftly took apart, braided, and tied the braid. Natasha's head turned with a habitual gesture, first in one direction, then in the other, but her eyes, feverishly open, looked straight and motionless. When the night suit was finished, Natasha quietly sank down onto the sheet laid on the hay on the edge of the door.
“Natasha, lie down in the middle,” said Sonya.
“No, I’m here,” Natasha said. “Go to bed,” she added with annoyance. And she buried her face in the pillow.
The Countess, m me Schoss and Sonya hastily undressed and lay down. One lamp remained in the room. But in the courtyard it was getting brighter from the fire of Malye Mytishchi two miles away, and the drunken cries of the people were buzzing in the tavern, which Mamon’s Cossacks had smashed, on the crossroads, on the street, and the incessant groan of the adjutant was heard.
Natasha listened for a long time to the internal and external sounds coming to her, and did not move. She heard first the prayer and sighs of her mother, the cracking of her bed under her, the familiar whistling snoring of m me Schoss, the quiet breathing of Sonya. Then the Countess called out to Natasha. Natasha did not answer her.
“He seems to be sleeping, mom,” Sonya answered quietly. The Countess, after being silent for a while, called out again, but no one answered her.
Soon after this Natasha heard even breathing mother. Natasha did not move, despite the fact that her small bare foot, having escaped from under the blanket, was chilly on the bare floor.
As if celebrating victory over everyone, a cricket screamed in the crack. The rooster crowed far away, and loved ones responded. The screams died down in the tavern, only the same adjutant’s stand could be heard. Natasha stood up.
- Sonya? are you sleeping? Mother? – she whispered. Nobody answered. Natasha slowly and carefully stood up, crossed herself and stepped carefully with her narrow and flexible bare foot onto the dirty, cold floor. The floorboard creaked. She, quickly moving her feet, ran a few steps like a kitten and grabbed the cold door bracket.
It seemed to her that something heavy, striking evenly, was knocking on all the walls of the hut: it was beating her heart, frozen with fear, with horror and love, bursting.
She opened the door, crossed the threshold and stepped onto the damp, cold ground of the hallway. The gripping cold refreshed her. She felt the sleeping man with her bare foot, stepped over him and opened the door to the hut where Prince Andrei lay. It was dark in this hut. In the back corner of the bed, on which something was lying, there was a tallow candle on a bench that had burned out like a large mushroom.

People have been drawn to the sky since ancient times. Whatever was created to conquer the blue space above our planet: homemade wings, barrels of gunpowder as a flying machine and other interesting things. When the first airplanes and airplanes appeared, men occupied this equipment, believing that women had no place at the helm of such a machine.

There are many references in history to female pilots, but the most outstanding was Svetlana Kapanina. She controls celestial transport so masterfully that the national anthem was played many times in honor of her flights. Svetlana Vladimirovna Kapanina, whose biography is interesting and varied, became the heroine of our article today. What caused her passion for flying?

Svetlana Kapanina: biography

Svetlana was born into a working-class family on December 28, 1968. Her hometown is located on the territory of Kazakhstan in the Akmola region.

Already in the elementary grades of school, the girl was fond of driving fast. While in fourth grade, she spent almost a week persuading her parents to buy a moped for her. Having received the desired gift, she participated in youth races many times.

The girl also took part in running competitions, as she could not only drive fast, but also run fast.

At the same time she is studying rhythmic gymnastics, by the sixth grade he already had good achievements in this sport. She was able to fulfill the standard for a candidate for master of sports.

Further education and dreams are not connected

Kapanina Svetlana dreamed of a parachute jump, wanted to feel the sky. Her plans were also to learn the art of karate and become a fighter in a special forces unit. Agree, these are not girlish dreams at all!

But fate led her to heaven from the other side. The girl, having completed eighth grade, enters medical school, where she studies to become a pharmacist.

From her place of study she is assigned to work in the city of Kurgan. There she begins to “manage” the hospital pharmacy.

Love in the sky

For the first time, Svetlana Kapanina flew as a passenger on a sports plane. It was not only the flight that turned her head, but also the pilot. He was a passionate pilot who flew the plane in such a way that the girl simply squealed with delight.

Leonid Solodovnikov did not try to scare the beautiful passenger, he tried to attract her attention to himself. As a result, the young people started dating and then got married.

Family happiness did not last long. Heaven gave them each other, but also separated them. In 1994, Leonid died tragically, losing control of the plane and crashing.

The main thing is to pull yourself together

It took pilot Svetlana Kapanina a year to come to her senses. She was very worried about the death of her husband, many thought that she would never take the helm and would not get out of the state into which she had fallen.

For the first time, she took part in demonstration flights not with her music. Usually, tango would play from the speakers on the field. But this time she asked to stage the composition “Juno and Avos” from a rock opera. Kapanina Svetlana called her flight “Hallelujah of Love” and dedicated it to all the pilots who are no longer alive.

First victories in airplane competitions

In 1995, the World Flying Championship was held in South Africa. This was the first world competition for Svetlana. She understood that she had a chance, but it was slim, because forty-four male pilots took part, and she was the forty-fifth participant - the only woman.

Men are more daring in their flights, but Svetlana Kapanina, who recently buried her husband, also became quite fearless. At these competitions, she gave it her all, sparing neither herself nor the plane.

At the end of the tournament, the results were announced: Svetlana became second! There have never been cases in world aviation sports where a woman has taken first place. This year she won gold, silver and bronze in individual competitions.

Next gold medal She took the World Championship in America. Although Svetlana Kapanina did not win the Aresti Cup in those competitions, from which she was one step away from the podium, this year she became the first female pilot in the world to beat the men.

Svetlana Kapanina - pilot without a plane

When Svetlana was awarded by Putin himself in the Kremlin, the girl did not miss the opportunity to complain to him about air sports in Russia. She told the president that her victory might not have happened, because she didn’t even have a plane for the world championship!

Vladimir Vladimirovich asked to describe in more detail all the problems associated with aviation sports and Kapanina’s lack of an airplane. She said that the “junk” they were training on had long since exhausted its flight life. Domestic aircraft are more than twenty years old; flying them is simply dangerous.

Svetlana Kapanina also told the president that there was not enough money allocated for either repairs or gasoline. One aircraft needs at least ten thousand per day.

Svetlana told Putin how she called before the world championship European clubs looking for a competition aircraft. Vladimir Vladimirovich promised that he would sort out these problems.

Family life of a pilot

Svetlana buried her first husband. She loved him very much, but this was not a reason to put an end to herself. Heaven also brought the girl together with her second husband Vladimir. Only this time, Vladimir, at the invitation of friends, came to look at demonstration performances beautiful pilot. From friends he heard about her victories, that male pilots adore her, and after each flight they carry the girl in their arms.

Vladimir's curiosity ended in love. When he saw Svetlana, he was so amazed by the combination of her beauty and talent that he simply lost his head. After some time they got married.

The married couple has two children: son Peresvet and daughter Yesenia. Svetlana’s husband raises his children in strictness, as he himself is an honored boxing and karate trainer of the Russian Federation!

Children also play sports and prefer snowboarding. The children are also proud of their parents; they told everyone at school about what a brave mother and strong father they had.

Luck and luck are the main components in the life of a pilot

Svetlana Kapanina, whose biography is not known to many, was on the verge of life and death more than once. In many ways, Fortune really accompanied her. Let's talk about one case.

During one training flight, a propeller blew off her plane! The blade rushed past her and bit into the wing. Aerodynamics were disrupted and terrible shaking began. In most of these cases, the shaking prevents the pilot from getting out for evacuation, and the pilots die. Svetlana was lucky - the propeller was completely torn out, which made it possible to land the plane without a running engine, simply by gliding.

But for Svetlana this was not the worst thing. She saw the severed propeller crash just a few meters from her family. That day, my husband and children watched Svetlana’s flight from the field. Thank God it worked out!

Svetlana Kapanina is a pilot whom many reporters want to interview. This is an ordinary woman, not a celebrity, who happily answers questions and communicates with aviation sports fans.

Biography

Svetlana Vladimirovna Kapanina (born December 28, 1968) - Russian pilot, seven-time absolute world champion in women's competition (1996,1998,2001,2003,2005,2007,2011) in aerobatics, Honored Master of Sports of Russia, Honored Coach of Russia, instructor pilot of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. Included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most titled female pilot in the world sports aviation category 2003. http://www.kapanina.com/

A student of the Kurgan ASK DOSAAF USSR. First class instructor pilot of the aerobatic team of the Sukhoi Design Bureau Flight Test and Development Base. Lives in Moscow.

Svetlana Vladimirovna Kapanina was born on December 28, 1968 in the city of Shchuchinsk, Shchuchinsky district, Kokchetav region, Kazakh SSR (now Akmola region, Kazakhstan) into a family of workers.

After the eighth grade, she entered the pharmaceutical department of the Tselinograd Medical School and graduated from it in 1987. According to distribution, she was sent to Kurgan, to the pharmacy at the railway hospital.

In 1988-1991 she worked as a communications electrician for the Kurgan DOSAAF air sports club.

In 1991-1992 she worked as an instructor pilot at the Irkutsk DOSAAF air sports club.
Since 1992 - instructor pilot of the Kurgan air sports club ROSTO.
In 1995 she graduated from the Kaluga Aviation Flight Technical School.

Since 2000 - 1st class instructor pilot of the aerobatic team of the Sukhoi Design Bureau Flight Test and Development Base.

Since 2011 - student at St. Petersburg State University of Civil Aviation.

Airsports

Since 1988, she began to engage in air sports in the Kurgan ASK on a Yak-52 aircraft. The first instructor was Nikolai Golubtsov. Since 1989, she began to fly with a coach, navigator-instructor Leonid Arkadyevich Solodovnikov (he became Svetlana’s husband, but family life did not last long: Solodovnikov died).

In 1991, she became a member of the Russian national aerobatics team.

In 1993, taking part in international competitions for the first time, she became silver medalist European Championship.

In 1998, she opened an air show in Great Britain in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Royal Air Force.

Mastered the Yak-52, Yak-50, Yak-55, Su-26, Su-29, Su-31 aircraft and their modifications, Extra 300, Extra 330, XtremeAir Sbach 300, L-13 airframe.

Awards

Order of Courage (2014)
Order of Honor (2002)
Medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (1995)
Honored Master of Sports of Russia in aerobatics (aircraft sports, 1995).
Honored Trainer of Russia (2002).
International Master of Sports of Russia (1993).
Master of Sports of the USSR (1991).
Candidate for Master of Sports of the USSR in artistic gymnastics.

Honorary Citizen Kurgan region(February 2, 2015, for outstanding services that contribute to increasing the fame and authority of the region)

Honorary Citizen of the State of Oklahoma, USA (1996)
Personalized medal “100 years since the organization of the FAI” - as the best pilot of the century.

Gold personalized medal FAI Sabiha Gökçen - as the only 5-time absolute world champion in aerobatics (2005)

Centenary Medal, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (2008).
Order of Merit, III degree, ROSTO (2007).
Order of Merit, 1st class, DOSAAF.
Medal named after A. I. Pokryshkina (ROSTO, 1997).
Medal “80 years of OSOAVIAKHIM (DOSAAF-ROSTO)” (2007).
Diploma Paul Tissandier, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), 1997
Cup “Best Woman of the European Championship” (2008).
Academician of the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement of the Russian Federation

Laureate of the National Award for Public Recognition of Women's Achievements "Olympia" (2003).

Laureate of the National Sports Award "Glory" (2007).

Achievements

Absolute world champion among women (1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011).
Absolute champion of the World Air Games among women (1997, 2001).
Absolute champion of Russia among women (1991, 2001).
USSR champion in aerobatics (1991).
Absolute European champion among women (1997, 2006, 2014, 2016).

Thirty-time world champion in certain types of programs among women (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013).

Eight-time champion of the World Air Games (1997, 2001).

Fourteen-time European champion in certain types of programs among women (1997, 2006, 2014, 2016).

Winner of 67 gold, 26 silver, 13 bronze medals World and European championships in the women's competition and the FAI Grand Prix.

Svetlana won awards in the women's competition more often than any of her colleagues. She was also the best among women at the 2001 World Air Games - overall women's champion in 1997 and 2001.

Family

Father Vladimir Vasilyevich Kapanin, worked as a taxi driver and was engaged in figure autodriving on ice, was the vice-champion of Kazakhstan. Subsequently he became a huntsman of the Fishery and Hunting Supervision Authority.

Mother Galina Grigorievna, an accountant at the base in Promtorg, and then a gas station operator.

Sister Larisa. Brother Oleg.

Husband Vladimir Stepanov, Honored Trainer of Russia and International Judge, has a fourth dan in karate.

Son of Peresvet. Daughter of Yesenia.