Kazakh weightlifter Ilya Ilyin has posted photos on Instagram from a family holiday with his wife and young daughter, the website infohub.kz reports.
The images show the famous athlete with his wife Tatyana and their two-year-old daughter Aili. Ilyin chose Vietnam's Phu Quoc Island for the getaway.
"Five minutes, dozens of emotions, not a single identical expression on our faces. And a sea of laughter! I love these moments when we're in no hurry, fooling around, hugging and simply enjoying each other," Ilyin captioned the post.
Followers left numerous warm wishes for the athlete's family under the photos: "May your life have many such happy days"; "All the photos are great, and you look so happy in them. And of course, the star of every scene is that sweet little girl. Have a good holiday"; "Ilya is great not only as an athlete, but also as a man, a husband, a son and a father! A very decent person"; "This is family and human happiness, where respect, love and lots of sunshine prevail! It's so heartening that on our planet Earth there are people who rejoice in every day and believe in love"; "Beautiful and happy."
Ilya Ilyin is an Honored Master of Sport of the Republic of Kazakhstan in weightlifting. Over his career he won the world championship four times and the Asian championship twice. In 2008 and 2012 he brought Olympic gold to Kazakhstan, but was later caught up in a doping scandal and stripped of the medal.
In March it emerged that Ilya Ilyin was able to retire at 37 and he named the size of his pension benefit. It exceeded 430,000 tenge a month.