Meet Svetlana Soluyanova - The singing Russian champion boxer battling boredom in quarantine with music (VIDEO)
Russian champion Svetlana Soluyanova usually relies on her fists but in self-isolation the blonde bombshell boxer has a new weapon to combat Covid-19 quarantine boredom: her guitar and an array of humorous self-penned songs.
Tennis star Eugenie Bouchard earlier declared "quarantine would be a lot more fun with a boyfriend" and we're sure after her Instagram music videos, Soluyanova will receive a few similar offers of a quarantine courtship.
Sport has essentially ground to a halt the world over, and that’s no different in Russia, where members of the Russian boxing team are among the country’s population self-isolating to combat the spread of coronavirus.
Last week, the Russian boxing team returned from London, where the European qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games which had been taking place in the British capital were cancelled due to the outbreak.
But that hasn’t dampened the spirits of Soluyanova. A standout amateur on the Russian team, Soluyanova became European champion in the women’s 51kg flyweight division in 2018, and is now battling the quarantine boredom with her self-made songs and guitar.
It all started when the Russian Boxing Federation announced an initiative to post videos of their athletes’ activities outside of the gym to show how they’re coping with self-isolation.
“We know that the talents and interests of our followers aren’t limited to boxing. Publish in your stories a video, in which you tell us how you are passing the time outside of the gym,” the federation wrote on Instagram.
What resulted was a flash mob of Russian national team boxers and fans filming their isolation activities - and two-time Russian champion Soluyanova pounced on the opportunity.
The 25-year-old first posted a video black and white video of a song titled “the last message”.
“Again I’m reciting my poem in concert form. It will be much harder for my neighbours to stand this quarantine than for me! I just don’t have any other formula that would be more fun!” she captioned the clip.
In a second video, Soluyanova cheerfully told the story of sitting drinking and eating with her brother, arguing about sports and encountering a group of unsavory young street youths who come off worse after a short ‘conversation’ with the pair of boxers over cigarettes, which leaves the group needing to seek the services of a dentist and doctor.
“A completely made up story. A song from circa 2014 for morale!” she wrote of the video.
Soluyanova is a knockout outside of the ring and has amassed over 23,000 followers on Instagram owing to her pugilistic achievements and stunning good looks and most recently her musical talents.
From Dimitrovgrad in Russia’s Ulyanovsk Oblast, Soluyanova first became Russian champion at the tender age of 18, and after her win at the European Championships, was nominated for ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ by Russia’s Glamour magazine.
As the world seems to go crazy in collective quarantine, were sure being holed up with Soluyanova would save us from endless boredom, if not from the coronavirus itself.
READ MORE: La Liga shut down INDEFINITELY due to coronavirus pandemic