Alena Zavarzina

Alena Zavarzina is a Russian former snowboarder who specialised in parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom. Born in 1989 and raised in Novosibirsk, she began snowboarding at ten and moved from big air into alpine snowboarding. She became the 2011 World champion in parallel giant slalom, won a silver and a bronze at later World Championships, and took bronze in the parallel giant slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, competing with a brace on a broken arm. A four-time World Cup race winner, she took the parallel giant slalom crystal globe in 2016-17. She finished fourth at the 2018 Winter Olympics, retired in 2018, and later studied at Central Saint Martins and published an autobiographical book.