Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shoulders, back, chest, and abdominal muscle groups. Gymnastics evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus performance skills.
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform individually or in groups on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon and 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. At the international level, rhythmic gymnastics is a women-only sport.
Maria Dimitrova Petrova is a Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast. She is a triple World All-around champion and a triple European All-around champion.
Nellie Vladimirovna Kim is a retired Soviet and Belarusian gymnast of Sakhalin Korean and Tatar descent who won three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. She was the second woman in Olympic history to earn a perfect 10 score and the first woman to score it on the vault and on the floor exercise, rivaling Nadia Comăneci, Ludmilla Tourischeva, and other strong competitors of the 1970s.
Evgeniya Olegovna Kanaeva OMF is a retired Russian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the only individual rhythmic gymnast in history to win two Olympic all-around gold medals, winning at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she finished with 3.75 points ahead of silver medalist Inna Zhukova, and at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she also became the oldest gymnast to win the Olympic gold. On 4 July 2013, Kanaeva received the International Fair Play Award for "Sport and Life".
Alina Oleksandrivna Maksymenko is a retired individual rhythmic gymnast.
Darya Andreyevna Dmitriyeva is a Russian rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2012 Olympic all-around silver medalist, the 2010 World ribbon champion, the 2012 Grand Prix Final all-around champion, 2011 Grand Prix Final all-around silver medalist and 2010 Grand Prix Final all-around bronze medalist.
Yana Alexeyevna Kudryavtseva is a retired Russian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2016 Olympic All-around silver medalist, three-time World Champion in the All-around (2013–2015), the 2015 European Games All-around champion, two-time European Championships All-around champion, the 2012 European Junior ball champion. In national level, she is a two-time Russian National All-around champion and three time Russian Junior National all-around champion.
Arina Charopa is a Belarusian retired individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2012 Grand Prix Final All-around silver medalist and 2010 Youth Olympic silver medalist.
Eleonora Alekseevna Romanova is a Russian and former Ukrainian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2013 Ukrainian national junior champion.
Laura Halford is a British rhythmic gymnast from Cricklade, Wiltshire. Halford is a four times senior British champion, and two times junior British champion. She represented Wales at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Dipa Karmakar is an Indian former artistic gymnast. She is the first Indian female gymnast to compete at the Olympic Games. At the 2016 Olympics, in the vault event, she missed a medal by just 0.15 points. Karmakar is one of only five women in the world to have mastered the Produnova vault. In 2024, she announced her retirement from gymnastics.
Elaine Koon is a former rhythmic gymnast known for being the first gymnast to ever win an individual rhythmic gymnastics gold medal for Malaysia in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. She competed at the 2009 World Championships, where she was 54th in the all-around, and the 2010 World Championships, where she was 40th in the all-around.
Anastasiya Evgenievna Serdyukova is an Uzbekistani former individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the All-around bronze medalist at the 2014 Asian Games and the 2017 Asian Championships All-around gold medalist.
Pooja Surve is an Indian former rhythmic gymnast. She represented India at international competitions and competed at two World championships, the 2009 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Japan and the 2010 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Moscow. In 2010, she was the only rhythmic gymnast from India to qualify for the individual final at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. She won the Miss Exotic Performance award at the World Cup Belarus 2010, becoming the first Indian to ever receive this award. She is also a recipient of the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Award from the government of Maharashtra.
Kshipra Joshi is a former Indian rhythmic gymnast who competed in the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships as well as in the 2010 commonwealth games for India. Kshipra now a coach at Premier rhythmic gymnastics academy. She is also recognised as an International level judge by the International Gymnastics Federation. She made and holds a Guinness World Record for 18 rotations in a '180-degree balance position' in one minute, the record was made on 21 March 2011 on the set of Guinness World Records - Ab India Todega in Mumbai. She was awarded the "Shiv Chhatrapati Krida Puraskar" in March 2011 by the Government of Maharashtra.
Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva is an Australian rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2022 Commonwealth Games clubs champion, team silver medallist, and all-around bronze medallist. She also won two bronze medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She is a four-time Australian all-around champion. She won five bronze medals at the 2022 Maccabiah Games and has competed at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships five times.
Lidiia Anatolyevna Iakovleva is a Russian-born Australian rhythmic gymnast who represented Australia at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the individual all-around. She represented Australia at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics and won a bronze medal in the mixed multi-discipline team event. She won a silver medal in the team event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She will compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics as part of Australia's rhythmic gymnastics group.
Carmel Kallemaa is an Estonian-born Canadian rhythmic gymnast. She is a Commonwealth Games champion and a Pan American Championships medalist.
Marfa Ekimova is a Russian-born British rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2022 Commonwealth Games all-around champion and the two-time British national champion.
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