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 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. 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, and rotations along with handling the apparatus.
Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, 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 Belarusian former rhythmic gymnast and trainer. 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 also written Tamara Yerofeeva, is a famous individual rhythmic gymnast. She was All-Around World Champion, multiple World Cup's winner, World Universiade winner and an 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 currently lives in Las Vegas, USA and performing with her solo hoops act at different shows including Cirque Du Soleil, Spiegelworld, David Saxe Productions and more. Also, she’s participating in all kinds of gala and corporate events around the world. One of her recent performances was at Fashion Costume Showcase of famous french designer Thierry Mugler in Montreal, Canada.
Mary Elise Ray is an American gymnast who represented the United States at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the 1999 World Championships. She was the head gymnastics coach at the University of Washington from 2016 to 2020.
Kristen Ann Maloney is a retired gymnast from Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, in the United States. She 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.
Stephen Raj Bhavsar is an American artistic gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and competed at 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.
Kristin Allen is a Hall of Fame American acrobatic gymnast. Kristin and her partner Michael Rodrigues made history by becoming the first American mixed pair to win a gold medal from the World Games in 2009 and the second American pair to win the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships in 2010. Domestically, the pair have won national titles in 2008 and 2010. She competed for the United States of America Gymnastics from 2001 until her retirement in August 2010 and spent five of those years on the Senior National Team.
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 former individual rhythmic gymnast. She represented the United States at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. She swept all of the events at the 2015 Pan American Games and at the 2018 Pan American Championships. She is the 2014 Youth Olympic and 2019 Summer Universiade all-around bronze medalist and the 2019 Grand Prix Final hoop bronze medalist. She is an eight-time national all-around champion, six times at the senior level and twice at the junior level (2013–14).
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 represented the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She previously represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics, finishing 12th in the qualification round for the individual all-around. At the 2023 Portimao World Challenge Cup, she became the first American to win an all-around silver medal on the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup series. She is the 2022 USA national all-around champion, a four-time national all-around silver medalist, and the 2015 junior national all-around champion.
Lili Mizuno is an American rhythmic gymnast. She is the Pan American Championships 2021 Group All-around bronze medalist and 2017 All-around silver medalist. She competed in the group all-around at the 2020 Summer Olympics, finishing eleventh in qualification.
Lisa Simes is a Canadian artistic gymnast.
Tsvetomira Filipova is a former Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast and coach of the Canadian senior national group.
United States 
Canada 
