Sofia Pozdniakova

Sofia Stanislavovna Pozdniakova (София Станиславовна Позднякова; formerly Sofia Lokhanova; born 17 June 1997) is a Russian right-handed sabre fencer, 2018 individual world champion, 2019 team world champion, 2021 individual Olympic champion, and 2021 team Olympic champion. She is a Russian Armed Forces athlete, and her clubs are the Russian Central Sports Army Club and the Novosibirsk Regional Fencing Sports School of Olympic Reserve. In January 2024, she was included in the list of proxies of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin in the 2024 Russian presidential election.

Early life
Pozdniakova was born in Novosibirsk, where she was coached by Sergey Stepankin at the Fencing Center. Both of her parents were fencers: her father, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, is a 4-time Olympic champion, 10-time world champion, and 13-time European champion in individual and team sabre, as well as the President of the Russian Olympic Committee since 2018. Her mother, Anastasia, is Master of Sports and secretary at the Fencing Federation of the Novosibirsk Oblast. She decided to follow in her parents' footsteps at the age of 10, and abandoned swimming and acrobatic gymnastics.

Fencing career
Pozdniakova made her international debut in 2017. is the 2018 individual women's sabre world champion, a 2019 team world champion, the 2021 individual Olympic champion, and a 2021 team Olympic champion. She is a Russian Armed Forces athlete, and her clubs are the Russian Central Sports Army Club and the Novosibirsk Regional Fencing Sports School of Olympic Reserve.

Personal life
Pozdiakova studied Sport and Tourism at the Smolensk State Academy of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism, and as of 2018 she planned to become a sports journalist in the future. She moved to Moscow in 2015. Since 2016, she has competed for CSKA Moscow.

In September 2020, Pozdiakova married Saratov-based two-time world individual junior sabre champion and Olympic fencer Konstantin Lokhanov. He emigrated to the United States in 2022 in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, strongly opposed to Russia's war.

Lokhanov invited his wife to join him in America. She later said: "As for feelings, love, there was a moment when we did not understand where to go. I got up in the morning and thought: 'That’s it, I’m going to the States.' I was figuring out how I would communicate with my parents, how to explain all this to my dad... He would simply erase me from his life. Then the next day such thoughts: 'So, I’m staying here, my parents, my family - this is important to me.'" After many hours of telephone conversations in which she struggled with her decision, she declined and ultimately filed for divorce; they divorced in 2022. Her father called his daughter’s decision "the most important gift for Father’s Day." She said she was grateful to Lokhanov for many things, but that the two of them had gone in "different directions."

In January 2024, the Russian state-owned new agency TASS reported that she was included in the list of proxies of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin in the 2024 Russian presidential election. By law, self-nominated candidates such as Putin are allowed to have proxies who campaign in their favor. Proxies were expected to be people with high levels of public recognition who publicly supported Putin and Russia's war in Ukraine, and who were willing to spend time campaigning.