Zulfiya Khasanovna Zabirova (Зульфия Хасановна Забирова; born 19 December 1973)[1] is a Russian professional cycle racer who won the gold medal in the
time trial event in the
1996 Olympics and later, in 2002, won the
World Time Trial Championship.
Biography
Zulfiya was born in
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan on 19 December 1973. She is an ethnic
Uzbek. In 1993 two years after the breakup of the Soviet Union she emigrated to Russia and lived in
Rostov-on-Don. As the main reason for her emigration she cited that the
Islamist leadership of the newly independent Uzbekistan is hostile to the women sports and the rights of women in general. In 1996 she became famous after winning the Olympic gold medal in
Atlanta.
In 2005, she obtained the citizenship of
Kazakhstan and announced her intention to compete as a member of the Kazakhstan team. As the reason for her decision she cited the better conditions for training and her desire to be closer to her native Uzbekistan (Kazakhstan has a reputation to be much more secular and democratic than Uzbekistan) as well as her family circumstances. According to the Russian Newspaper
Komsomolskaya Pravda, Zabirova's main place of residence and training is
Lugano, Switzerland (as of 2005).