Today is the 49th birthday of Svetlana Zasypkina (Светлана Засыпкина), a Russian gymnast-turned-actress, although she has not being active in neither sports nor acting since her teenage years.

I think it’s pretty safe to say Svetlana is virtually unknown outside of Russia, but she seems to be reasonably well known in her homeland, even to this day. According to a brief Russian biography I found online, she was born on December 3, 1970. She trained as a gymnast from a young age, but was forced to give up the sport after an injury. In 1988, she starred in the Soviet film Kukolka (Куколка), her one and only film role, in which she played Tanya Serebryakova (Татьяна Серебрякова), a gymnast whose career is also cruelly cut short by injury. The following year she married, and at her husband’s request she gave up acting.

The picture I drew to commemorate Svetlana’s birthday is of her as Tanya, in a manga-like style, wearing her trademark red “PERESTROIKA USSR” top. If you are interested in finding out more about Tanya and the film Kukolka, click HERE to have a look at the post I wrote earlier this year on Tanya. Till next time, au revoir, arrivederci and may the force be with you!😊