Biography
Emelianenko was born in 1976 in the city of Rubizhne, Luhansk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. In 1978, when he was two, his family moved within the Soviet Union to Stary Oskol, Belgorod of the Russian SFSR. His mother, Olga Fedorovna, was a teacher and his father, Vladimir Alexandrovich Emelianenko, was a welder. Emelianenko is the second child in the family and has an older sister and two younger brothers, including professional mixed martial artist Alexander Emelianenko. Fedor trains with his youngest brother Ivan, who has competed in Combat Sambo, and plans to begin a career in MMA in 2010.
Emelianenko finished high school in 1991 and graduated with honors from a professional trade school in 1994. From 1995 until 1997, he served in the Russian Army as a military firefighter. In 1999, he married his wife Oksana, and their daughter Masha was born in the same year. They divorced in 2006. On December 29, 2007, his second daughter, Vasilisa, was born to his long-time girlfriend Marina. Emelianenko and Marina married in October 2009. In his spare time, he likes to read, listen to music, and draw. He is a practicing Orthodox Christian and a parishioner at the church of St. Nicholas in Stary Oskol. His confessor is archpriest Andrei Zinoviev. His entrance theme song, oy, to ne vecher, was performed at his request by archdeacon Andrey Zheleznyakov, solist at the Episcopal Choir of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese.
Emelianenko had the honour of being one of 80 Russian sporting champions, cultural icons and national heroes to carry the Olympic torch in St. Petersburg in 2008.
Read more about this topic: Fedor Emelianenko
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