Meet the four-year-old girl snowboarder who is conquering Europe’s highest peaks.
The footage shows Zara Ivanova, a four-year-old boarder from Nizhnekamsk, in Tatarstan in Russia, snowboarding down Europe and Russia’s highest mountain Elbrus, which at 5,642 metres (18,510.5 feet) dwarfs the Mont Blanc’s 4,809 metres (15,406.82 feet).
The young girl reached a height of 4,800 metres (15,748 feet) on Mount Elbrus, with the first piece of footage showing her snowboarding on the mountain high above the clouds.
The second piece of footage shows the little girl boldly snowboarding in difficult conditions, as snow batters a mountainside while her father encourages her.
Before this, Zara had already overcome a height of 3,200 metres (10,498 feet) on Dombay, in Russia’s Karachay-Cherkess Republic and 2,300 metres (7546 feet) on Rosa Peak, in the Krasnodar Territory, according to Russian media.
Newsflash spoke to Zara’s proud dad Dmitri Ivanov, 38, in an exclusive interview and he told us his daughter has already set three world records that have been “recognised by interrecord.ru as Guinness has left Russia”.
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He said: “I’m crazy about my daughter’s happiness, how she enjoys everything, how her eyes were burning from such beauty and also riding from this height. Now she remembers this moment every day.”
He added: “Sports in our family is very important. With Zara, I train every day, in the morning and in the evening, and she also has gymnastics and other activities.”
Dmitri said that they practice 30 minutes in the morning and between 30 minutes and two hours in the evenings.
He said that Zara wants to be a doctor when she grows up so that she can work in a hospital as an obstetrician working to help pregnant women.
He said that hard work has allowed his daughter to develop tremendous abilities and that by overcoming tantrums, these have turned into joy and pleasure.
Dmitri, who works as a coach teaching kids to snowboard and wakeboard, added. “It is really something to see her when she sings songs while she snowboards!”
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Explaining how it all began, Dmitri said: “I lived an ordinary life, work, home.
“At one point, I realised that it is necessary to do something special and interesting, and I decided to set a goal to learn to snowboard.
“Without an instructor myself, it took me a very long time to learn. Then I met my spouse, she loved the mountains and I snowboarded on them, and I taught her how to snowboard.
“And now she not only enjoys the views of the mountains but also rides down them.”
He said that it was only natural that after they had a daughter together. She would follow in their footsteps.
Dmitri and Zara previously made headlines in Russia in 2022 after the police cautioned them after footage emerged of her wakeboarding behind her father’s car as he towed her along.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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