Svetlana Kapanina

Svetlana Vladimirovna Kapanina (; born 28 December 1968) is a Kazakh-born Russian aerobatic pilot.

Biography Kapanina was born on 28 December 1968 in Shchuchinsk, Kokchetav Oblast, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (now Akmola Region, Republic of 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.

She lives in Moscow with her husband and two children. Additionally, she was overall World Air Games Champion in 1997 and 2001.

Honours and awards

Order of Courage (14 August 2014). President Vladimir Putin presented the order on 22 December 2014. Order of Honour (2002) Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" 2nd class (1995)

In 1997, she received the Paul Tissandier Diploma by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).