This month, the son of Yana Rudkovskaya and figure skater Evgeni Plushenko – Sasha – celebrated his third birthday. Usually, at this age, parents strive to enrol their little ones in kindergarten, but not Plushenko and Rudkovskaya. The couple decided to raise little Sasha into an athlete, so instead of nursery school, he has daily training sessions with his father on the ice.

«Мама на работу, братья в школу, папа и Саня на тренировку» (Mother goes to work, the brothers go to school, Dad and Sanya go to training), Yana wrote under a photo of her son posted on her page.

In response to questions about why the child does not attend kindergarten, the businesswoman replied: «мы растим спортсмена, и он итак по дошкольной программе идет с опережением! У него тренировки вместо сада!» (We are raising an athlete, and he is already ahead of schedule in the preschool programme! He has training sessions instead of kindergarten).

Sasha’s nanny teaches him to read and write. The toddler can already combine syllables into words with ease.