Irina Baraksanova (born July 4, 1969, in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union) is a former Soviet gymnast known for her participation in international competitions during the 1980s. [1]
She initiated her gymnastics journey under the guidance of Valentina Borisova at the Spartak Club and later progressed to training in Moscow at the Central Army Sports Club with Viktor Razumovsky. [2]
Baraksanova experienced success in both junior and senior levels of gymnastics competitions. She demonstrated her early potential by securing victory in the junior USSR Championships in 1979, leading to her recognition as a candidate for the title of master of sport. [3]
Baraksanova won the all-around title at the Junior European Championships in 1984. [4] In the same year, she placed second in uneven bars and third in balance beam at the Tokyo Cup [5] and first in both vault and floor at the Moscow News. [3] [5]
Her career peaked in 1985 when she was part of the Soviet team that won gold in the team competition at the World Championships in Montreal. [4] She also secured individual honours throughout her career, with victories and medals in the uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise categories. [6]
In 1984, Baraksanova was named to the Soviet Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the Soviet-led boycott of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. [1] Although she qualified for the all-around at the 1985 World Championships, she did not compete in the event. [3]
Yelena Viktorovna Davydova is a Russian-Canadian gymnastics coach and judge who competed for the former Soviet Union. She was the women's artistic individual all-around champion at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. She's the owner and head coach at Gemini Gymnastics, a gymnastics club in Oshawa, Ontario. In July 2012, Davydova was one of the coaches of the Canadian Women's Artistic Gymnastics Team. In 2016 Davydova was head floor judge at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Yelena Lvovna Shushunova was a Soviet Russian gymnast. Shushunova was one of five women who have won all-around titles at all major competitions: Olympics, World Championships and European/Continental Championships and one of eleven women who medaled on every event at World Championships. Shushunova was renowned for pioneering complex skills as well as her explosive and dynamic tumbling and high consistency.
Jaycie Lynn Phelps is a retired American Olympic gymnast and member of the 1996 Olympic gold medal U.S. women's gymnastics team, the Magnificent Seven. She is known for her consistency and clean lines in her gymnastics.
Rozaliya Ilfatovna Galiyeva, also known as Roza Galieva, is a retired artistic gymnast who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Olympics.
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.
Daniela Viorica Silivaș-Harper is a Romanian former artistic gymnast best known for medaling in every single event at one Olympics, winning six medals at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. In doing so, she was the fourth female gymnast to achieve this, after Maria Gorokhovskaya (1952), Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská (1968). As of 2024, Silivaș is the last gymnast, male or female, to have accomplished this feat.
Fan Ye (simplified Chinese: 范晔; traditional Chinese: 范曄; pinyin: Fàn Yè; born October 23, 1986, in Baoding, Hebei, China. She is a former Chinese gymnast who is coached by Liu Guicheng and He Hua in Beijing. She admires fellow Chinese gymnast Liu Xuan and Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina for the longevity of their involvement in the sport.
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Dina Anatolyevna Kochetkova is a Russian gymnast who competed at the 1996 Olympics. Stylistically, she was considered by many to be the "last of the Soviets," performing difficult skills with elegant, clean technique. An element she pioneered, a full-twisting back handspring on beam, remains in the Code of Points as "the Kochetkova".
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Anastasia "Nastia" Valeryevna Liukin OLY is an American former artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic all-around champion, a five-time Olympic medalist, the 2005 and 2007 World champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World champion on the uneven bars. She is also a four-time all-around U.S. national champion, winning twice as a junior and twice as a senior. With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, Liukin is tied with Shannon Miller for the third-highest tally of World Championship medals among U.S. gymnasts. Liukin also tied Miller's record as the American gymnast having won the most medals in a single non-boycotted Olympic Games. In October 2011, Liukin announced that she was returning to gymnastics with the hopes of making a second Olympic team. Liukin did not make the 2012 Olympic team and retired from the sport on July 2, 2012.
Natalia Vladimirovna Yurchenko is a retired Soviet artistic gymnast, who won the women's all-around gold medal at the 1983 World Championships. Renowned for her innovative and daring gymnastics, she is best known as the originator of the Yurchenko vault family, which is a round-off back handspring entry onto the vault, and then performing a series of twists and flips off.
Sofia Ivanovna Muratova was a Soviet gymnast. She competed in the 1956 and 1960 Olympics and won eight medals.
Oksana Omelianchik is a retired Soviet gymnast and the all-around gold medalist of the 1985 World Championships. Omelianchik was most known for her enthusiastic showmanship, difficulty and originality, including pioneering back-to-back tumbling.
Olga Vasilyevna Mostepanova is a retired former Soviet gymnast. She won three gold medals at the World Championships.
Lyubov Viktorovna Burda is a retired Soviet artistic gymnast.
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Natalia Georgiyevna Kalinina, is a former artistic gymnast that competed for the Soviet Union and Ukraine. She was a member of the last Soviet world championship team to win a gold medal in 1991. She was the 1990 European champion on the uneven bars. At the 1990 Goodwill Games, she won a medal on every event with 4 golds and 2 silvers, including the all-around gold medal. She was not selected to compete for the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics. She believes that politics would only allow three gymnasts to come from one republic, and there were already three gymnasts from Ukraine selected.
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