10. Anastasia Voinova (cycling)
Unlike representatives of most sports, track cyclists were lucky, because in 2020, amid a pandemic, they managed to host both the World Cup and the European Championship.
Anastasia Voinova took full advantage of the opportunity to take part in them and win medals.
In February, at the world championship in Berlin, she replenished her collection of silver medals in the individual sprint - in this discipline, the Russians have not won any awards in 15 years.
At the European Championships, Voinova won the individual and team sprints, and also took second place in the 500 meters round.
In total, she has 20 medals of the continental championship, and according to this indicator, the Russian woman shares the first place in the entire history of the competition with the British Katie Archibald.
9. Angelica Sidorova (athletics)
In 2020, Russian track and field athletes failed to fully prove themselves in the international arena.
Many competitions have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the same starts that did take place, the Russians were not expected due to the temporary cancellation of their neutral status.
Nevertheless, even in such a difficult situation, pole vaulter Angelica Sidorova managed to remind the entire athletics community that it was she who owned the world champion title.
In domestic competitions, she invariably won victories, and with very good results.
Her best jump of 4.95 meters in the whole of 2020 has never been repeated by any of her foreign competitors.
Sidorova became the season leader in her discipline for the second time in a row.
8. Valeria Demidova (freestyle)
Since 2020, Russia has its own world-class athlete in extreme freestyle disciplines.
This is Valeria Demidova.
In February, she won the overall half-pipe World Cup standings, winning one gold, one silver and two bronzes in five stages during the season.
For Russian freestyle, this achievement can be called a breakthrough.
Never before have girls taken the "Small Crystal Globe" in the Olympic types of the program, even in such traditional ones as acrobatics and moguls.
Demidova won her trophy at the age of 19 and became one of the youngest to win it.
7. Natalia Nepryaeva (cross-country skiing)
For Natalya Nepryaeva, 2020 was almost as successful as the previous breakthrough year.
Already in early January, a native of Tver for the second time in a row became the silver medalist of the multi-day race "Tour de Ski".
Almost all the time she was in the shadow of other skiers and won only bronze at one of the sprint stages, but thanks to the final mass start with an uphill climb, she managed to bypass all rivals, except for the invincible Teresa Johaug.
At the subsequent stages of the World Cup, Natalya won another gold and three silver, both in distance and in sprint races.
This versatility allowed the skier to finish the season in third place overall in the World Cup.
Nepryaeva managed to be in the top three for the second time in a row, the last of the Russians to achieve this was Larisa Lazutina at the turn of the century.
6. Vera Zvonareva (tennis)
Russian tennis players have not delighted fans with loud successes for a long time.
Vera Zvonareva became an exception in 2020.
Her career peaked at the turn of the 2000s and 2010s, but last season she achieved one of the main sporting achievements of her life - winning the US Open in the women's doubles.
To participate in the US Open, Zvonareva first paired with German Laura Siegemund.
Their duet immediately began to go one round after another.
Together they beat both famous singles and long-played pairs.
In the final, 36-year-old Zvonareva and 32-year-old Siegemund in two sets outplayed American Nicole Melichar and Chinese Xu Yifan, seeded under the third number.
For the Russian woman, this title became the second at the US Open and the third at the Grand Slam tournaments.
The last domestic tennis players to win the majors were Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, who won Wimbledon in 2017.
5.Maria Lasitskene (athletics)
Like Sidorova, the high jumper Maria Lasitskene did not have the opportunity to perform at the stages of the "Diamond League" and other international tournaments.
But this does not negate the fact that in 2020 she continued to be the best in her field.
In February, the three-time world champion won three victories at domestic starts, each time conquering the bar of two meters.
The best result of the Russian woman of 2.05 meters remained unsurpassed by anyone.
Since 2017, she has invariably remained the world leader in women's high jump, and so far no one can come close to her.
Before Lasitskene, only three athletes managed to remain the best for four years in a row.
4. Natalia Voronina (speed skating)
Speed skater Natalya Voronina has been consistently among the best stayers in the world for several years, but until 2020 they could not win at least some high-profile title in official competitions.
She brought only bronze medals from the Olympic Games and World Championships.
It was possible to fix this at the championship of the planet at certain distances.
At first, Voronina habitually took third place in the 3000-meter race, and at an even more difficult 5000-meter distance, she not only won an unexpected victory, but also broke the world record.
These achievements can be called extraordinary for Russian speed skating - since the times of the USSR, Russian athletes have not won this discipline and have not rewritten world records at any distance.
3. Alena Kostornaya (figure skating)
Russian figure skaters have been winning European championships for seven years.
In 2020, this series continued thanks to Alena Kostornaya.
She won gold at a tournament in Graz in a difficult struggle with her own compatriots - Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova.
The winner was the only participant in the continental championship who performed the triple axel, and this jump allowed her to score the most points.
At the end of the season, the skater won the ISU Skating Awards as the best rookie of the year.
In the summer, Kostornaya moved from the Eteri Tutberidze group to the Evgeni Plushenko Academy, and a new stage began in her career.
This season, she won silver at the Russian Cup stage in Kazan and the Grand Prix stage in Moscow, after which she was forced to withdraw from subsequent competitions due to health problems.
2. Ekaterina Katnikova (luge)
The Luge World Championship in February 2020 became a triumphant one for the Russian team, and the main heroine of the competition, unexpectedly for everyone, was Ekaterina Katnikova.
An athlete from the Perm Territory has never won a medal at a World Cup before, but in Sochi she sensationally won a sprint race.
Katnikova did not stop there and soon won another gold, already in the women's single sleigh.
She also had a chance to win the third highest dignity medal, but during the relay she made a mistake with the transfer of her stage, which led to the disqualification of the team.
1. Anna Shcherbakova (figure skating)
For figure skater Anna Shcherbakova, 2020 began with a performance at the European Championship.
On it, she won gold in the free program, breaking the world record for the most expensive element in women's single skating, but in the end she was content with silver, gaining fewer points than Kostornaya.
The new season began for the student of Tutberidze with hope.
Although the quadruple Lutz disappeared from her programs, she won two stages of the Russian Cup and easily qualified for the national championship, where she had to defend her title.
But then Shcherbakova started having health problems, because of which she missed the Grand Prix stage and could not go to the national championship.
Having never fully recovered, the 16-year-old skater still performed in Chelyabinsk.
Difficulties in preparation did not prevent her from showing two amazing programs and performing two quadruple jumps - lutz and flip.
Shcherbakova's performance was rated 264.10 points - at international competitions it would be a new world record.
For her character and unsurpassed skill, she became the best athlete of 2020 according to RT.