Career
Sanders had her highest placement finishing 10th in all-around at the 2003 World Championships.
Sanders represented America in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, placing 15th in the qualifying round. She has since retired from rhythmic gymnastics and is employed by Cirque du Soleil. Sanders performs on a freelance basis within the Special Events department of Cirque Du Soleil, but has previously toured full-time with Corteo and Delirium. Sanders is also a creative collaborator and Spokesperson for the Reebok and Cirque du Soleil JUKARI program. More recently, Sanders was one of the Creative Directors for the 2012 Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions.
As a Rhythmic Gymnast, Sanders has ranked higher at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships and Olympics than any competitor from the Western Hemisphere in history, until Laura Zeng's performance at the 2015 World Championships. [1]
Sanders was chosen for induction into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2009. [2]
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon or rope. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coordinated. Rhythmic gymnastics is governed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), which first recognized it as a sport in 1963. It became an Olympic sport in 1984, with an individual all-around event. The group all-around competition was added to the Olympics in 1996. At the international level, rhythmic gymnastics is a women-only sport. The most prestigious competitions, besides the Olympic Games, are the World Championships, World Games, European Championships, European Games, the World Cup Series and the Grand Prix Series. Gymnasts are judged on their artistry, execution of skills, and difficulty of skills, for which they gain points. They perform leaps, balances, pivots, and flexibility movements, along with tossing, catching, rolling and otherwise manipulating the apparatus.
Cirque du Soleil is a Montreal-based entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 June 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.
Yulia Raskina is a former individual rhythmic gymnast. she is the 2000 Olympics silver medalist, the 1999 World All-around silver medalist, the two time (2000,1999) European All-around silver medalist and 1999 Grand Prix Final All-around champion.
Tamara Anatoliyivna Yerofeyeva is a famous individual rhythmic gymnast. She was All-Around World Champion, multiple World Cup's winner and Olympic Game's finalist. Tamara was competing for Ukraine's National Team from 1996 to 2004 winning more than 300 medals for Ukraine at various competitions. She is currently performing at different shows in Las Vegas including Cirque Du Soleil, David Saxe Productions and more.
Mary Elise Ray is an American gymnast who represented the United States at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the 1999 World Championships. She is currently the head gymnastics coach at the University of Washington.
Kristen Ann Maloney is a retired gymnast from Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, United States, who won bronze in the team event at the 2000 Olympic Games. Maloney was also the U.S. senior all-around national champion in 1998 and 1999 and the 1998 Goodwill Games gold medalist on the balance beam.
Lisa Maree Skinner is an Australian artistic gymnast who competed at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. She was the first Australian gymnast to qualify for an individual event final at the Olympics. She has toured with Cirque du Soleil performing aerial hoops.
Ludivine Furnon is a retired Olympic athlete from France. She was the first French female gymnast to ever win a medal at the World Gymnastics Championships.
Valeri Viktorovich Liukin is a Russian-American retired artistic gymnast turned gymnastics coach. As a competitor for the former Soviet Union, Liukin was the 1988 Olympic champion in the team competition and individually on the horizontal bar, and Olympic silver medalist in the all-around and the parallel bars.
Elena Lev, born in Moscow, Russia in 1981, began her training to become a rhythmic gymnast at an early age, assisted and coached by her mother, Elena Lev Sr. She developed a signature hula hoop act incorporating gymnastics and contortion. Her big breakthrough came when she was invited to join the Alegría touring troupe of Cirque du Soleil, of which she was a member from 1994 through 2000. She also performed briefly with the Quidam troupe in 2002. Lev performed with Cirque du Soleil's Wintuk at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Lisa Wang is the CEO and co-founder of SheWorx entrepreneurship platform for women and startup funding, and an American rhythmic gymnast of Chinese descent. She is four-time US National Champion, winning once as a junior and three times as a senior, and the 2007 Pan American Games Champion. Wang was a key member of the U.S. senior national team, representing the United States at three World Championships. Wang retired in 2008 after gaining admission to Yale University.
Stephen Raj Bhavsar is an American artistic gymnast. He was a member of the 2001 and 2003 World Championships U.S. team. He earned a bronze medal as a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team. He was originally an alternate, but was named to the team following the injury withdrawal of Paul Hamm. At the Games, Bhavsar earned a bronze medal with the U.S. team in Artistic Gymnastics with teammates Alexander Artemev, Joey Hagerty, Jonathan Horton, Justin Spring, and Kai Wen Tan.
Shenea Booth is an American acrobatic gymnast who represented the United States of America at the 2001 World Games, the 2002 World Championships and the 2004 World Championships in the Mixed Pair event, along with her partner, Arthur Davis.
Yvonne Tousek-Renne is a retired artistic gymnast who competed for her native Canada in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
Julie Ashley Zetlin is a retired elite rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2010 U.S. Senior National Champion in Rhythmic Gymnastics, and represented the United States at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Laura Yihan Zeng is an American individual rhythmic gymnast. She is a 2016 Rio Olympian, 2015 Pan American Games all-around champion and 2014 Youth Olympic all-around bronze medalist. She is also a multi-time medalist in world-cup competitions and the World University Games. At the national level, she is the five-time (2015–19) U.S. national all-around champion and two-time (2013–14) U.S. junior all-around national champion.
Jasmine "Jazzy" Kerber is a retired American individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2015 Pan American Games All-around silver medalist. At the National level, she is the 2014 US National champion and 2015, 2013, 2012 US National silver medalist.
Kristen "Kristy" Powell is an American gymnast. She was co-national All-Around champion alongside Vanessa Atler in 1997. She retired from competition the following year.
Evita Griskenas is an American individual rhythmic gymnast. She is a current member of the USA Rhythmic Gymnastics National Team. Evita has won multiple medals in international competition representing both North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center and the USA National Team. At the USA national level, Evita is the three-time All-Around silver medalist at the USA Senior National Championships (2017–19) and the USA Junior All-Around National Champion in 2015. In August 2019, Evita was recognized for having won the most medals by any single athlete in any sport at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, winning four gold medals and one bronze medal. In September 2019, Evita secured one of two Olympic spots for USA for Tokyo 2020 by finishing 8th All-Around at the 2019 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Lili Mizuno is an American rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2018 Pan American Championships hoop silver medalist.
