Sergey Shelestov

Sergey Vyacheslavovich Shelestov, born on 25 May 1971 in the village of Talovaya, Voronezh Oblast, in the Russian SSR, is a retired IFBB professional bodybuilder from Russia. His father was a railroad engineer and his mother a schoolteacher. At school he played soccer and was fond of wrestling, and he trained seriously in powerlifting, earning the rank of Candidate to Master of Sports in powerlifting before joining the Soviet Army in 1989. His first amateur bodybuilding competition came during his military service, and he rose to the rank of captain. In 1993 he placed third at the NABBA Russian Championship, behind Sergei Ogorodnikov, and he later moved to Moscow with his wife Irina, where he met the coach Mikhail Golovnev.