This Russian Minx Has 365 Days To Steal Olympic Gold

Surfing’s Olympic debut has been postponed for 365 days, and the Russians couldn’t be happier. 

Buying herself some extra time to work out the top turn, Angelika Timanina has aspirations of turning her motherland into a surfing powerhouse. 

The Yekaterinburg dream has only been surfing for four years, but she’s got more Olympic hardware than Carissa Moore. The 30-year-old won the gold medal in synchronized swimming in the 2012 Olympics in London. Injuries took her out of the synchro game in 2016, but like Johnny Utah recovering from a knee injury, there was surfboarding.

“Surfing has opened up a whole new world for me: freedom, the ocean, the sun, you’re on the wave, alone with nature,” she said in a recent interview. 

“I realized that this is exactly what I needed,” Angelika continues.

Judging by her Insta page, a number of surf notables are paying attention to the Russian surf sprite. Even the single-and-ready-to-mingle Caio Ibelli seems to have taken notice of her skills—his name kept popping up in the “likes” as we flicked through her 160,000-follower Insta account. (Would Gabby be so bold as to snake him in the DMs?)  

As far as Angelika’s image is concerned, think Ivan Drago meets Alana Blanchard—although she sees herself more as an aquatic Maria Sharapova. Whatever the comparison, at this stage in her evolution, we reckon one of the Stab Lady Birds would smoke Angelika in a heat. 

The airs will come in due time, but the first thing Angelika did to set herself up for success was become an all-powerful influencer.

“I wanted to become a media personality so I could make money from it,” she says. 

“It worked.” 

But don’t go there with your creepy Russian model thoughts. Angelika has her limits. She’s not about to get all Wendy Botha.

“Luxury brands will never work with a girl who has done naked shoots for the cover of Playboy,” she says.

Bringing it back to surfing, Angelika is already on the Russian National Surf Team. And with the competitive surf world on pause, she’s looking to drop the hammer when things open back up again.  

“In the end, I was selected for the national team in first place, despite the fact I was competing with people who had been surfing for 10 or even 20 years,” Angelika says.

“If it wasn’t for the coronavirus, it’s uncertain how everything would have turned out. Of course, I’d like to get to the Games — I’ve always dreamed of going to Japan.”