Most Famous Russian Athletes

Russia has produced 1,257 notable athletes throughout history, led by Maria Sharapova. Rankings are drawn from a cross-verified academic dataset of 152,953 people.

Category All
Citizenship All
MS
Maria Sharapova Russian Player Born 1987
# 554
AK
Anatoly Karpov Russian Chess Born 1951
# 1,820
OK
Olga Korbut Russian Gymnast Born 1955
# 5,636
MB
Mikhail Botvinnik Russian Chess 1911 – 1995
# 5,670
EP
Evgeni Plushenko Russian Skater Born 1982
# 7,102
VK
Vladimir Kramnik Russian Chess Born 1975
# 7,569
VT
Vladislav Tretiak Russian Hockey Born 1952
# 11,204
RP
Roman Pavlyuchenko Russian Football Born 1981
# 12,549
AK
Aleksandr Kokorin Russian Football Born 1991
# 13,149
IA
Igor Akinfeev Russian Football Born 1986
# 14,594
AK
Aleksandr Kerzhakov Russian Football Born 1982
# 18,028
AD
Alan Dzagoev Russian Football Born 1990
# 18,840
AG
Aleksandr Golovin (footballer) Russian Football Born 1996
# 19,469
VB
Vsevolod Bobrov Russian Football 1922 – 1979
# 20,671
DK
Darius Kasparaitis Russian Hockey Born 1972
# 22,665
VA
Vasily Alekseyev Russian Weightlifter 1942 – 2011
# 22,771
ES
Eduard Streltsov Russian Football 1937 – 1990
# 25,245
RS
Roman Shirokov Russian Football Born 1981
# 25,844
OT
Oleg Taktarov Russian Judo Born 1967
# 27,035
LT
Ludmilla Tourischeva Russian Gymnast Born 1952
# 27,504