Svetlana Kapanina
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Svetlana Vladimirovna Kapanina (Template:Lang-rus) is a Russian aerobatic pilot.<ref name="haute voltige">Template:Cite web</ref>
Biography
Kapanina was born on 22 December 1968 in Shchuchinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union (now Kazakhstan). She dedicated herself to several sports modalities at school and always liked motorcycles and other motor vehicles. She enrolled at medical school in Tselinograd (now Astana), where she graduated in pharmaceutical sciences. She started flying at age 19, in 1988, on a Sukhoi Su-26M3, while working as a technician at the Kurgan sports aviation club of DOSAAF. By 1991 she was already an instructor pilot at DOSAAF's Irkutsk club, and then back at Kurgan. Also in 1991, she became a member of the Russian national aerobatic team. In 1995 she graduated from Kaluga aeronautical technical school.<ref name="FAI-awards 1">Template:Cite web</ref>
She is now living in Moscow with her husband and two children.<ref name="haute voltige"/>
Achievements in aerobatics
Kapanina was World Aerobatic Champion in the women's category in 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2011<ref name="FAI-awards 1"/> and has won the title more times than any other pilot in the category.<ref name="FAI-news 1">Template:Cite web</ref> Additionally, she was overall World Air Games Champion in 1997 and 2001.<ref name="FAI-awards 1"/>
Together with Mikhail Mamistov and Oleg Spolyansky, she won the team gold medal in the 16th FAI European Aerobatic Championships 2008 in Hradec Králové (Czech Republic). She placed fourth overall and was best female participant.<ref name="EAC08">Template:Cite web</ref>
Awards
In 1997, she received the Paul Tissandier Diploma by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).<ref name="FAI-awards 1"/> In 2005 she was awarded the Sabiha Gökçen Medal<ref name="FAI-awards 1"/> and the Centenary Medal by the FAI.<ref name="FAI-centenary-award">Template:Cite web</ref> She was awarded Russia's Order of Courage by President Vladimir Putin on 22 December 2014.<ref name="kremlin20141222">Template:Cite news</ref>
See also
References
External links
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