Is Alina Kabaeva, an Olympic gymnast the reason behind Putin’s divorce?

Sports Desk : Upon the announcement from Vladimir Putin that he will divorce his wife of nearly 30 years, Lyudmila, speculation is rampant that the Russian President is dating gymnast Alina Kabaeva.

 

Kabaeva, who is 30 years Putin’s junior, won a gold medal for rhythmic gymnastics in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and a bronze during the Sydney Olympics in 2000.  

Since 2007, she has been a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party.

 

  

 

Kabaeva is Russia's second most successful rhythmic gymnast after Evgenia Kanaeva, and is also one of the most decorated gymnasts in the history of rhythmic gymnastics with two Olympic medal

 

  

She started rhythmic gymnastics there at the age of 3 with coach Margarita Samuilovna. 

 

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 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. 

 

  

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Kabaeva was expected to claim gold in all-around, but, due to an error in an otherwise exceptional performance—she dropped her hoop and ran to retrieve it outside the competition area – took home the bronze with the final score of 39.466 (Rope 9.925, Hoop 9.641, Ball 9.950, Ribbon 9.950), Belarus' Yulia Raskina took the silver medal while fellow Russian teammate Yulia Barsukova won the Olympics Gold medal. 

In mid-April 2008, the Russian paper Moskovsky Korrespondent stated that she was engaged to marry the Russian President Vladimir Putin in mid-June, after he left office.