Ana Zamchalova

Happy birthday to Russia’s Anna Zamchalova, a sprinter who took her speed to an ice track and came home with a national medal in the bobsleigh.

In March 2023 in Sochi, Anna and Polina Kopylova took the **silver medal in the two-woman bobsleigh at the Russian national championships**, representing Krasnodar Krai. That is not a sideline. Bobsleigh recruits sprinters specifically, because the entire push phase is five seconds of pure acceleration on ice in spikes, and the difference between a medal and nothing is measured in hundredths generated before anyone gets in the sled. A woman who runs 7.93 over 60m is exactly what a pilot wants behind her.

On the track she is a multiple Russian championship medallist and a Candidate Master of Sport, with a 7.93 indoor 60m, a 12.57 over 100m and a 25.42 over 200m, out of the Academy of Athletics in St Petersburg. Her name has been on a **St Petersburg regional 4x200m record** since she was fifteen.

The best thing about her, though, is where it started and where it has ended up. Her **grandmother was a track and field coach**, and started training her at ten years old. Anna has said she wanted to become a coach like her grandmother. She now works as a personal trainer at Spirit Fitness in Krylatskoe in Moscow, specialising in functional training, strength, rehabilitation of the musculoskeletal system and nutrition — which is to say she is doing precisely the job she set out to do, three generations into a family that has been teaching people how to move for a very long time.

С днём рождения, Анна! Желаю здоровья и счастья на долгие годы, и на дорожке, и на льду. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇷🇺