It is amazing that an athlete with a burning passion comes from a freezing city. Svetlana Moshkovich was born on June 4, 1983 in Krasnoyarsk, an urban area of 1 million inhabitants located in central Siberia, where winter temperatures can drop to -50°.
Behind every Paralympic athlete there is a great story: her story inevitably passes from 2004, the year in which a car accident causes an incomplete spinal cord injury. In 2009, with a diploma in foreign languages (with a specialization in English and German), she moved from Russia to Germany and started practicing para-cycling. Along with that, she studies at the Karl-Ruprecht University of Heidelberg and becomes part of the Ottobock Handbike team.
Traveling, archery and reading detective stories are her secondary passions, since the bike is in the first place in her thoughts.
Her results were not long in coming: in 2011, in Canada, she won the bronze medal at the time trial road world cup. Subsequently, she wins the Handbike City Trophy in Germany, the para-cycling Tour of the Pyrenees and takes two third places at the world cup in Rome and Segovia.
The Paralympics are both a dream and a goal, and at the 2012 London Paralympics you earn a bronze in the time trial. In 2016, Svetlana joins Team Equa, with a “view” of Rio de Janeiro, but Russia is excluded from the Games and is forced to give up the “five circles”.
The added value of Svetlana’s charisma is that she can become an “inspiration” for other disabled athletes: many, knowing her, have drawn motivation and energy from her story, calling her “A young woman who shines on a wheelchair”. But Svetlana shines above all on her handbike, which is a reason for “joy and freedom” and a companion of victories.
In Svetlana’s smile there is the “hot ice” of her origins that are intertwined with her personal and sporting history.