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Darya Klishina: Russia’s Most Sexy Athlete?

Written by Yiannis Dimitriou

Last updated on April 16th, 2022

Table of contents:

What To Know About Daria Klishina's Early Life?
What To Know About Darya Klishinas Career?
What About Darya Klishina In Rio and London?
What Else You Should Know About Daria Klishina?

With her long legs, good looks, and significant talent, long jumper Darya Klishina became the blonde-haired beauty of Russian track and field. While participating in the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, in 2010, Klishina tried to show the world that beauty can also be powerful. The history of beautiful blonde girls in Russian sport already counts several female athletes who managed to do great in the world of sports. Some of them could be the two tennis players Anna Kournikova and Maria Sharapova. All of whom were well known not only for their looks but for their achievements as well? Daria Klishina met Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon, and she was surprised that Sharapova was 1.88m, eight centimeters taller than Klishina. Even though Klishina was the ‘number one beauty of Russian sport’ (an unofficial title bestowed by a 2010 internet poll), she was unfortunately enough used to things going against her. While stretching out moments before the World Championship final in 2011, Klishina injured her foot and had to jump even though she was in great pain before getting surgery and, subsequently, a lengthy rehabilitation period. The next summer, Daria was back in shape for the Russian Championship, but she failed to qualify for the London Olympics. Even though she was bitter afterward, she held her spirits high and worked hard to maintain her perfect shape, giving her time and opportunity to make P.R. interviews and photoshoots with several magazines and newspapers.

Her status as a national beauty was putting a lot of pressure on her. Even while training and working out, when doing so outdoors, Klishina knew she was watched and perhaps ‘recorded’. In the world of social media, every photograph gathers thousands of ‘likes’ and excited comments. She was approached by all kinds of people, not just men, even girls, and older women, asking her for autographs. IMG, an international marketing agency, represented Daria Klishina. Her main goal was not to get distracted by sponsorship deals but to focus on training and compete as much as possible. She knew that without her long jumps, she would risk becoming just another pretty model. All of her major photoshoots were always scheduled a minimum of two weeks in advance, and her coach always had the last word. The deal was very clear between them. She could or would not reschedule the training because of a photo shoot or an interview. Even though being a famous Russian Athlete, Klishina has her heroes. In a masterclass, she was the one queuing for the autograph of her role model, Galina Chistyakova. The 1989 World indoor Long Jump champion who accomplished an astonishing world record jump of 7.52m when she was 25. Daria Klishina, like Galina Chistyakova, had tasted the sweet success with a European indoor gold medal. Klishina first did so at the European Indoor Championships in Paris in 2011 and then regained her title in Gothenburg, Sweden, two years after in 2013.

Let’s take a look at how Daria Klishina trains and eats to maintain her power and beauty. Darya used to follow specific exercises for athletes who compete in the long jump discipline. She was also doing different kinds of bodyweight movements and gym exercises. Some of her favorite exercises were front squats, dumbbell step-ups, and counter-movement. She was and still is on a very similar diet to the diets being followed by fitness models, where she’s avoiding anything that has sugar in it. She never eats any fast food while trying to stay away from fat. She calculates her daily intake of protein and carbs, and most of her daily meals consist of fish, chicken, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and plenty of water. During competitions, she followed a specialized diet that allowed her body to perform at its peak during competitions. This included eating a good amount of carbs and fats for energy, along with proteins that nourish and repair her muscles. She kept a lifestyle where she was eating correctly and sleeping enough – even during holidays. This gave her the ability to gain zero weight and stay fit. Even though she is 1.80m tall, Klishina only weighs around 57kg. It’s not just her genes. Klishina’s slim build is just as much a result of her lifestyle and passion for cooking. She likes grocery shopping, coming home, and inventing new dishes. Her favorite cooking is either meat or fish in the oven, and her favorite side is vegetables, stir-fried or baked. As for puddings, she doesn’t care much for sponge cakes but loves sweets and cheesecakes. If she had an urge for something sweet, she would buy a kilo of tangerines instead of sweets and sugar products.

What To Know About Daria Klishina's Early Life?

The Beautiful Russian long jumper Darya Klishina (Darya Igorevna Klishina) was born in Tver, a small city 165km northwest of Moscow, in Russia SFSR, on 15 January 1991. Her mother and father were active athletes when they were young (Igor, her father was training as a high jumper with his personal best of 2.15m), so she was born and raised into an all-athletic family. They were, at the time, competing in several sports before they chose to become parents. Both knew and acknowledged that it’s essential to dedicate your time and priorities to the sport you are competing in to be among the best. When Darya Klishina was eight years old, she began walking an athlete’s path and started playing volleyball. It quickly turned out that she had a talent and was very good at it. Her parents gave her a lot of freedom from an early age on. When she lived in Tver, they almost didn’t see her during the day. She would leave for school at 8.15 am, eat and do her homework, then take the bus alone across town, with a change on the way, to train volleyball. In the evening, she would come home around 9 pm, have a quick supper and go straight to bed.

However, as time went on, she recognized that she wasn’t really passionate about volleyball and got bored when she turned 12. Even though she was fast and sharp and had every chance of succeeding as a volleyball player, it was very convenient that she, aged 12, was spotted at a regional track and field championship by the young coach Olga Shemigon. This gave her an excellent opportunity to succeed within another sport, more precisely, the long jump. From that point on, her new trainer, Shemigon, who now was coaching her first world-class star, and Klishina, a small-town girl alone in a big and strange city, worked the ‘mine field’ together. Once again, her parents weren’t afraid to let their 13-year-old daughter go off to the capital, Moscow, alone to chase her sporting dreams. During his 20s, her father was a long jumper as well, and he encouraged her to follow her dream. With encouragement from her parents, nothing could stop Darya from striving to be the best she could be. From that point, Darya went on to attend high school but mainly remained focused on sports. After she matriculated, Darya focused entirely on her career as a long jumper. She decided not to enroll at college, and even though her parents somewhat disagreed, they allowed her to do whatever she wanted if she meant it was the right thing to do.

Daria quickly made friends in Moscow, and after she finished school, she was able to rent a flat where she could live, train and prepare completely as she wished. Her results became slowly but steadily better. She didn’t have the huge and surprising results going from, e.g., 6.1m to 6.6m, without slowly building up the length. This was, in fact, a good motivation factor for Daria, building her results consistently, knowing that her training was working and making her better day by day. She went to her first World Youth Championships at the age of 16 in Ostrava in 2007 and won with a respectable 6.47-meter jump. Furthermore, she also won the European Junior Champions Clubs Cup in Moscow, competing with several older athletes, and the European Youth Olympics in Serbia. Almost immediately after, she ran into problems with pain, especially in her lower back. She was growing so fast that her muscles weren’t strong enough. Subsequently, Daria Klishina had to focus on her muscle training to become stronger. It took time to build up her strength, which gave her many difficulties in the following two years, where she couldn’t compete internationally. Daria kept her focus and trained as much as possible. Finally, when she could compete again, she came back on the international athletics scene and made an astonishing result, including one of her best results ever, winning the European Junior Championships in 2009.

What To Know About Darya Klishinas Career?

After winning the European Championships in 2009, the only 18 years old, Daria Klishina was more than ready to challenge the best long jumpers in the world. Later that year, Darya was at the CSKA Moscow Indoor Arena, participating in a master class held by the long jump world record-holder Mike Powell from Philadelphia, USA (who has the World Record with a jump of 8.95m). A couple of years later, Klishina was helping another long jump world record-holder, Galina Chistyakova, at the same venue to host a long-jump master class for the new generation of athletics stars. In the meantime, Klishina had evolved from a prodigious young athlete to a powerhouse and became one of the world’s most consistent jumpers. She made her first record on 26 June 2010 when she jumped 7.03m. At that time, it was the best Russian junior jump and the second-best junior jump of all time, and the second-longest in the world, missing by just one cm the World All-time best of German Heike Drechsler. Due to her good results, everyone was expecting Darya to be selected to compete at the 2010 World Junior Athletics Championships, but she wasn’t. Nonetheless, Klishina was working hard both on the court and making a P.R. effort. Hence, she was attracting attention not only with her results but also with her appearance and personality. Soon Daria Klishina became one of the most sought-after personalities in Russian athletics.

Klishina broke the psychological barrier already the following winter – in 2011 when she became the European Indoor Champion. Her winning streak continued with victories at the European Team Championships and the European U23 Championships, where she set another personal best with a 7.05m jump. Unlike how she usually approached the competitions, she focused more on qualifying for the World Championship in Daegu, Korea, than about her personal best. The team management had promised her a ticket to Korea if she won in Ostrava. Because of the good result, she was coming into the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, second on the world charts with 7.05m. In the final, she was unlucky to get a foot injury which shattered her dreams. She did her best and jumped through tears and pain but finished seventh with 6.50m. Subsequently, for the first time in her life, Klishina had to undergo surgery. Even though her rehab went well, and she didn’t miss the following indoor season, the long period without focused training impacted her results. In a very competitive event in Russia, Klishina didn’t perform well enough to make the Olympic team in 2012. Even though she won the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, with 7.01m in March 2013, and later in July, the Summer Universiade in Kazan, her results went downhill again. She finished 7 in the World Championships in Moscow, Russia, as well as 7 in the World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland. Daria realized that something had to change.

Her management group, IMG, offered her the opportunity to live and train at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, USA, with coach Loren Seagrave. She decided to go there for two months to see how it would work out, and once again, just as she had done several years prior, she left her home all on her own, only this time for a more distant destination. Right from the beginning, she loved the new training facilities in every aspect, physically and psychologically. Suddenly she was looking forward to going to training and enjoyed every session. Seagrave’s group also included British hurdler Jack Green, Italian sprinters Libania Grenot and Gloria Hooper, and U.S. long jumper and sprinter Tianna Bartoletta. During the next years, Daria kept training with her new coach. She participated in smaller contests before competing with the Russian Olympic Team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. The IAAF organization suspended the Russian national federation from competing due to a breach of anti-doping rules. However, on 13 August 2016, the IAAF changed its decision for athletes proven to be ‘clean’. Hence, allowing Darya to compete. Unfortunately, she only jumped 6.63m, which gave her ninth place. A result that was the worst in over 20 years, where Russia didn’t win a medal in the Women’s long jump discipline. The year after, she jumped 6.84m at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia becoming in 4th place. Daria Klishina’s last notable appearance was at the World Athletics Championship, held in London 2017, where she jumped 7 meters just two centimeters behind the British jumper Brittney Reese, winning her and Russia a silver medal.

What About Darya Klishina In Rio and London?

Daria Klishina was one of the Russian athletes selected to compete for the Russian Olympic team in the Rio Olympics 2016. On 18 July 2016, an independent investigation commissioned by World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA, concluded that it was shown “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Russia had been running a state-sponsored” doping program. Hence, The IAAF (the International Amateur Athletic Federation) suspended the Russian national federation and all the Russian athletes from competing due to a breach of the anti-doping rules. Daria Klishina was the only member of the Russian athletics team allowed to compete in the Rio de Janeiro2016 Summer Olympics through special permission granted by the IAAF. She thought she was safe, but suddenly on 13 August 2016, this decision was reversed. Klishina, who was already in Rio de Janeiro, immediately appealed the new decision, stating that she was “a clean athlete and that she had proved that already many times and beyond any doubt. Based in the U.S. for three years now, she had been almost exclusively tested outside of the Anti-Doping system in question. Daria Klishina has been outspoken about the scene of events and felt that she was “falling victim to people who had created a system of manipulating her beautiful sport and who was guilty of using it for political purposes.” Finally, On 15 August 2016, the day before the long jump event, Klishina’s appeal was upheld, once again allowing her to compete as the only track-and-field athlete from Russia. Klishina’s was one of 136 appeals to the IAAF, but the only one provided the green light to compete.

The weeks up to the Rio Olympics and the competition had been an uncertain time for Klishina, and receiving the final approval didn’t feel like a privilege. She felt that she was pressured from every side. Journalists from Russia and around the world were trying to get her opinion whenever possible. People in the Olympic village were looking at her, and there was nowhere to hide. Before the Games, Klishina was in great shape. But a week and a half before the long jump competition, her body was empty. When competing with the best, your motivation and psychology run on emotion. You can be angry, high on adrenaline, nervous – anything – but not nothing, and at that point, she felt nothing, which was the biggest problem. When Daria Klishina went to Rio, she received many negative comments from all sides, including people in Russia, who thought she should have boycotted the event. From Klishinas point of view, this was unfair. Russia had many clean athletes who never had any problems with doping control, and she believed that it made no sense that clean athletes should sit at home on the couch if they hadn’t done anything wrong. Russia had already lost many professional athletes whose careers were over because they couldn’t wait for the issue to be resolved. Regarding the majority of professional athletes, if they don’t compete, they don’t get paid. Hence a long-term suspension is like being fired. On the evening of the long-jump competition, Daria Klishina qualified for the long jump final, finishing in a disappointing ninth place.

One year later, the sixteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships – the 2017 World Championships-took place from 4 to 13 August at London Stadium in London, UK. The Doping Review Board, composed of Robert Hersh (chair), Sylvia Barlag, and Antti Pihlakoski, unanimously accepted the application from Darya Klishina, who then became eligible to compete in International Competitions as an independent, neutral athlete. Once again, Darya Klishina would be the outsider and the sole Russian athlete permitted to compete, which was very stressful and a lot of pressure at the time. Besides that, she was the only Russian track and field athlete to successfully appeal to the IAAF in order to compete as a neutral at the Olympics. Klishina had been the only Russian athlete to compete at the Rio Olympics, where she was called a traitor to her nation. At the IAAF World Championship in London 2017, she once again became her country’s darling, as she accomplished a long jump and an outstanding long jump competition, winning a silver medal. Darya Klishinas leap of 7.00m was a season’s best, and it was only 2cm short of the American jumper Brittney Reese’s 7.02m that gave her a fourth world championship gold medal. Klishina was not allowed to wear Russian clothing or celebrate with her country’s flag due to IAAF regulations. Still, Klishina was very happy that she won a world championship silver medal and made a 7m jump.

What Else You Should Know About Daria Klishina?

Darya Klishina is currently 30 years old. She is 1.8m (5ft 11ins) tall, and weighs around 58kgs (130lbs), has long blonde hair and blue eyes. According to authoritative sources, she is a social media personality. Hence, she is very active on several popular social media platforms. She started her Twitter account in May 2011 and has accumulated more than 18,000 followers and tweeted approximately 550 times. Furthermore, she has a Facebook page as well, which currently counts nearly 340,000 fans. Moreover, her Instagram account is currently followed by 345,000 people, and she has uploaded over 800 pictures onto it. Darya Klishina is extremely passionate about sports and, in particular, the long jump discipline. Still, besides that, she also has numerous other interests and things she enjoys doing when she has spare time. For one, Klishina loves to travel, and she has been in most of the countries in Europe. This passion started when she began competing internationally and started to travel to new countries. Klishina has so far been to Turkey, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Qatar, France, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Poland, Switzerland, China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and others. She is also a nature lover and enjoys spending quality time in the mountains, woods, and forests. Likewise, she also enjoys being at the beach, having fun with her friends, enjoying the sun and the water. Darya is also planning on writing a book on nutrition, exercising, and the art of the long jump – but has stated that she is not sure when this book would be published.

Darya Klishina has always been very secretive regarding her relationships and love life. She hasn’t shared a single detail about her past or present affairs with the public or media. However, this secrecy on her part has led her fans to create rumors. One of those rumors is that in 2017 Darya was dating a man she was working out with. Both of them were competing at the same contest and were subsequently spending a lot of their time together. They had a good time together, and this eventually turned into a relationship. No one actually knows who he was, only that they allegedly were together for nearly half a year before they split up and departed as friends. It’s believed that Darya is currently dating a man she met while she was on her way to her daily training. The man recognized her in the street, told her that he was a fan, and asked if he could have coffee with her. It was an instant match, and the two have supposedly been together for many months now. However, this relationship hasn’t been confirmed (nor denied) by Darya. Judging by her many social media accounts, Darya currently still appears to be single, without a potential marriage or any kids on the way.

A bizarre incident happened to Darya Klishina in 2015. In several interviews, she has described how she was offered an incredible amount of £160,000, which is nearly £2million a year if she would become a high-class escort. The now 30-year-old world silver medallist, currently living in Atlanta in the U.S., revealed the crazy and shocking story to the Russian media website sports.ru and to the English news media The Sun, where she explained that an unknown person from the U.S. wrote her a direct message on her Instagram with this extraordinary proposal. Darya is not the kind of person who gets aggressive or swears at people, so she just answered him back that she wasn’t interested in the offer. The unknown man wasn’t about to give up just like that, so he wrote back to her, saying that she shouldn’t refuse the offer straight away when she didn’t even know the conditions and the amount he was offering. The proposal was then raised to £164,000 a month (almost $200,000). Darya wasn’t going to agree to his disrespectful offer and was angry that a man she didn’t know would think that she was the kind of woman who would be an escort girl, even in the midst of a career as a world-class athlete.