Anna Rizatdinova: She is Ukraine’s grace and pride, an Olympic medalist who shines in life

Name: Anna Rizatdinova

Age: 23

Education: Deriugina School of Gymnastics

Profession: Gymnast

Did you know? Her first trainers didn’t think she would become a successful gymnast.

Anna Rizatdinova, at 23, is one of the world’s top rhythmic gymnasts. This year, one of her dreams came true when she won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio-de-Janeiro.

Like many athletes, Rizatdinova started training early, when she was 5. In 2008, she made her debut at the European Championships in Turin, where she won a team bronze in the juniors’ competition. Since then, Rizatdinova has represented Ukraine at international championships in individual and group competitions.

Rizatdinova comes from an athletic family. Her mother is a gymnastics coach based in Simferopol in Russian-occupied Crimea. After the junior championships in Italy, she caught the eye of trainers from Kyiv’s Deriugina gymnastics school. She moved to the capital to study.

Her parents stayed on the Crimean peninsula after the Russian annexation. Rizatdinova said that her parents and many of her friends in Crimea still support Ukrainian gymnasts.  She is coached by a legendary family team:  Albina Deriugina, her daughter Iryna Deriugina  and Iryna Blokhina, the daughter of Iryna Deriugina and Oleh Blokhin, a former player in Ukraine’s national soccer team.

This year, apart from her Olympic medal, Rizatdinova won bronze at the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship 2016 in Israel.

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Rizatdinova spends up to 10 hours in the gym, six days a week, practicing her routines with hoop and ball, and clubs and ribbon. However, after the bronze Olympic medal, Rizatdinova said her life changed significantly: she now has free time to go to the movies, meet with friends and so on. She is looking forward to doing more traveling as she has already been to lots of countries, “but didn’t see anything besides hotel rooms.”

She also plans to write a motivational book for children. “My story is quite unusual,” she said. “Nobody expected that I could succeed in gymnastics.”

With her charisma, Rizatdinova has won the hearts of people who don’t following rhythmic gymnastics closely. She is often referred to as “Ukrainian Grace.”

She says that she wants to inspire children to pursue gymnastics and sports in general. “I want being a gymnast in Ukraine to be considered a really cool thing,” she said.