Alina Maratovna Kabaeva

• Early life and career
Kabaeva, the daughter of a Tatar father and Russian mother, was born in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, in the Soviet Union on 12 May 1983. She started rhythmic gymnastics there at the age of 3 with coach Margarita Samuilovna. Her father Marat Kabayev was a professional football (soccer) player and the family was constantly following him to different places in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. At first, many coaches did not like Alina because they considered her "too heavy" and "ugly" to be a rhythmic gymnast, none of them seemed to consider her a rhythmic gymnast of any particular talent. In her young teens she moved to Russia, where her mother took her to the Russian head coach Irina Viner, who liked her from the start.
She stayed with Viner and made her international debut in 1996. In 1998 the 15-year-old Kabaeva won the European Championships in Portugal. At the time she was the youngest member of the Russian squad, competing alongside internationally recognized teammates, like Amina Zaripova. In 1999 Kabaeva became European Champion for the second consecutive time and won the World title in Osaka, Japan. She went on to win a total of 5 all-around titles at the European Championships and added another World title in 2003 in Budapest, Hungary.