Stella Heorhiivna Zakharova (born 12 July 1963) is a retired gymnast who competed internationally for the former Soviet Union between 1977 and 1982. She was an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist in team competitions, and won individual all-around titles at other events.
Zakharova won her first all-around championship at the 1976 All-Union School Spartakiade. That same year she placed second overall in the Junior USSR Championships. She was a consistently strong competitor through 1977-78, winning several vaulting and floor exercise event titles. A powerful tumbler, Zakharova was the first woman to incorporate three double-back somersaults into her floor routine.
Zakhrova's most successful year was 1979, during which she won individual all-around championships at the American Cup, Moscow News, and World Cup events. At the World Championships held in Fort Worth, Texas she was a member of the Soviet women's team which finished second to the Romanian squad led by an injured Nadia Comăneci. It was the first time the Soviets had failed to beat their Romanian rivals in a major team competition.
In 1980 Zakharova continued to enjoy success, winning the gold medal with her Soviet teammates at the Olympic games and capturing a second all-around title at the World Cup. That proved to be her high-water mark, as her performances began to decline from 1981 onward.
After retirement, Stella Zakharova married Dynamo Kyiv football player Viktor Khlus. The couple have a son and a daughter. Zakharova's home country Ukraine hosts an annual Stella Zakharova Cup competition in artistic gymnastics, named in her honor.
Footage of Stella Zakharova training with the Soviet national team was captured in a 1978 Soviet Gymnastics training documentary; Zakharova appears about one minute into the clip . Included in the film are teammates Elena Mukhina, Natalia Shaposhnikova and Maria Filatova.
Ludmilla Ivanovna Tourischeva is a former Russian gymnast, Ukrainian gymnast coach, all-round Olympic champion and a nine-time Olympic medalist for the Soviet Union.
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.
Kimberly Lynn Zmeskal Burdette is an American retired artistic gymnast turned gymnastics coach and the 1991 World All-Around champion. A member of the silver medal-winning U.S. team from the 1991 World Championships, she was the first American woman to win the all-around title at the World Championships, as well as the first to win a world championship medal of any color in the all-around. A three-time United States national all-around champion (1990–92), Zmeskal was also the 1992 world champion on both balance beam and floor exercise, and was a member of the bronze medal-winning U.S. team at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, the first U.S. team medal won at a fully attended Olympic Games. She also posted the highest optional all-around score in the qualification round in Barcelona.
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.
Lavinia Corina Miloșovici is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast. Also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, Miloșovici is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts and one of the most prolific female all-around medalists ever, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female Romanian gymnast ever, after Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloșovici was also the last gymnast, along with Lu Li, to ever receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition and the last to receive the benchmark score of 9.95 at the World Championships. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2011.
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.
Oana Mihaela Ban is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast. She is an Olympic gold medalist with the team and a world silver medalist on beam and with the team. Her best events were the floor and the balance beam.
Jana Lyn Bieger is an American former gymnast of German descent. She was raised in the U.S. and is a citizen, and competed only for the U.S. At the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, she won three silver medals. Bieger was an alternate on the 2008 Olympic team.
Gina Elena Gogean is a retired artistic gymnast from Romania who competed internationally in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. During her career she won an impressive number of 30 medals at Olympic Games, world championships or continental championships. Her best events were the floor exercise, the vault and the balance beam. She was also an excellent all around gymnast winning several medals on this event, the European title in 1994, a silver Olympic medal (1996) and a silver medal at the 1993 World Championships. She helped the Romanian team win three consecutive world titles and two Olympic team medals, a silver and a bronze. Gogean was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2013. Criticized for her lack of artistry and expression, Gogean nonetheless had nearly unmatched consistency, longevity, and efficiency that made her a backbone of the Romanian team in the 1990s.
Ecaterina Szabo is a former Romanian artistic gymnast who won 20 Olympic, world and continental medals.
Steliana Nistor is a Romanian former artistic gymnast. She was a key member of the Romanian team between 2006 and 2008, where she helped the Romania win team bronze medals at the 2007 World Championships and the 2008 Olympics. Individually, she is the 2007 world all-around and beam silver medallist, the 2007 and 2008 European silver medallist on the uneven bars and the 2007 bronze medallist on the balance beam. Nistor was a strong all-around competitor but her best events were balance beam and uneven bars.
Aliya Farkhatovna Mustafina is a Russian former artistic gymnast.
Larisa Andreea Iordache is a Romanian former artistic gymnast. She represented Romania at the 2012 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal with the team, and at the 2020 Olympic Games.
Valeria Vladimirovna Maksyuta is a former artistic gymnast who represented Ukraine for several years before immigrating to Israel in 2007.
Diana Yevhenivna Varinska is a retired Ukrainian artistic gymnast. She is the 2019 European Games all-around and balance beam bronze medalist. Additionally, she was a member of the team that won Ukraine's first European team title at the 2020 European Championships. She represented Ukraine at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Anastasiia Yuriivna Bachynska is a retired Ukrainian artistic gymnast. She is the 2019 European Games floor exercise champion, the 2021 European balance beam bronze medalist, and the 2018 Youth Olympic all-around and floor exercise bronze medalist. She was also a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2020 European Championships. Daughter of Yurii Bachynskyi.
Anastasiia Maksymivna Motak is a Ukrainian artistic gymnast. She is the 2020 Ukrainian National Champion and was a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2020 European Championships.
Yelyzaveta Serhiyivna Hubareva is a Ukrainian artistic gymnast. She was a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2020 European Championships.
Hanna Aliaksandrauna Traukova is a Belarusian artistic gymnast who competed at the 2020 Olympic Games.
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