Yanina "Yana" Farkhadovna Batyrshina (russian: Янина "Яна" Фархадовна Батыршина; born 7 October 1979) is a former individual
rhythmic gymnast
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and co ...
who competed for
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. She is the
1996 Olympics All-around silver medalist, two time (1995,1997)
World All-around bronze medalist, two-time
European (1996, 1995) All-around silver medalist, the
1998 European All-around bronze medalist and
1996 Grand Prix Final All-around champion.
She was awarded the
Medal of the Order For Merit to the Fatherland 2nd class (1997).
Personal life
Batyrshina is of
Tatar
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different and
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
descent. She studied physical education at the Kharkov Institute. She is married to Azerbaijani-Jewish businessman Timur Weinstein; they have two daughters and one son together.
Career
Batyrshina started gymnastics training at 5 years old when a rhythmic gymnast coach approached her father and told the family she was ideal gymnastics material. At 9 years of age, Batyrchina moved to Russia with then Uzbek coach
Irina Viner
Irina Alexandrovna Viner-Usmanova (russian: Ирина Александровна Винер-Усманова; born July 30, 1948) is an Uzbek-born Russian rhythmic gymnastics coach who is head coach of the Russian national team, president of the ...
, who became the Russian national team head coach.
Batyrchina burst onto the international scene in 1993, when she finished second all-around at the
European Junior Championships. She also won gold in the individual apparatus finals with rope and clubs, and silver with ball and ribbon.
In 1995, Batyrshina made her senior international breakthrough in Grand Prix events, collecting a total of 15 medals. At the
1995 World Championships, she won the bronze medal in all-around and also took home golds for the team competition and ball. Her results fluctuated in 1996, but she still managed to take the silver medal for the all-around and ball at the
1996 European Championships. At the event finals of 1996 World Championships, she won the silver medal in ribbon.
Batyrshina competed at the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
, but she had a rough start at the preliminaries. She wept bitterly after several errant catches left her sitting in 13th place in preliminaries but since the top 20 advanced to semifinals, she redeemed her poor preliminary results and set her up perfectly for finals. But during her last event exercise, ribbon, she lost focus in the midst of a simple hand-to-hand exchange and dropped the apparatus. Batyrshina scored 9.683, putting her into second place overall ahead of Ukrainian
Olena Vitrichenko
Olena Ihorivna Vitrychenko ( uk, Олена Ігорівна Вітриченко, russian: Елена Игоревна Витриченко; born 25 November 1976), also known as Elena Vitrichenko, is an Individual Ukrainian Rhythmic Gymnast. She ...
.
Batyrchina polished off her 1996 season with a win in the all-around at the
1996 Grand Prix Final (tied with
Yekaterina Serebrianskaya
Kateryna Serebrianska (born 25 October 1977 in Simferopol) is a Ukrainian former individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 1996 Olympics gold medalist, the 1995 World All-around champion, a two time (1995,1996) European All-around champion, and ...
), a huge coup considering the depth of the field. She parlayed her success into a medal-winning 1997, including several Grand Prix golds. Despite her success and desire to continuing competing through the 2000 Olympics, 1998 presented a new challenge for Batyrshina in the form of up-and-coming new Russian teammate
Alina Kabaeva
Alina Maratovna Kabaeva or Kabayeva (russian: Алина Маратовна Кабаева, ; tt-Cyrl, Әлинә Марат кызы Кабаева; born 12 May 1983) is a Russian politician, media manager and retired individual rhythmic gym ...
. Kabaeva would go on to win the
1998 European Championships, while Batyrshina would struggle with ribbon and finish third in the all-around. Batyrshina picked up three more medals in apparatus finals with a gold in rope, silver with hoop, and bronze with ribbon but, according to coach Viner, Batyrshina was beginning to feel that there was not enough room for both her and Kabaeva at the top. Batyrshina quietly retired a short time after Europeans, at 19 years of age.
After her retirement, Batyrshina began coaching. In 1999, she was briefly invited to serve as a trainer at the UNOPAR gym in
Londrina
Londrina (, literally "Little London") is a city located in the north of the state of Paraná, South Region, Brazil, and is away from the state capital, Curitiba. It is the second largest city in the state and fourth largest in the southern regi ...
, Brazil, helping prepare the Brazilian group for the
2000 Summer Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
in Sydney.
On 15 February 2015, a star-studded gala was held in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
for the 80th founding anniversary of
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coord ...
. The venue was held in the historical
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre ( rus, Мариинский театр, Mariinskiy teatr, also transcribed as Maryinsky or Mariyinsky) is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music th ...
in
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. Among those who performed at the gala were Russian former Olympic champions, Olympic medalists and World champions including: Batyrshina,
Evgenia Kanaeva
Evgeniya Olegovna Kanaeva Order For Merit to the Fatherland, OMF (russian: Евгения Олеговна Канаева; born 2 April 1990) is a Russian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the only individual rhythmic gymnast in history to wi ...
,
Yulia Barsukova
Yulia Vladimirovna Barsukova (russian: Ю́лия Влади́мировна Барсуко́ва, born 31 December 1978) is a Russian retired individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2000 Olympic champion in the All-Around, the 2000 Grand Pri ...
,
Irina Tchachina
Irina Viktorovna Tchachina (also Chashchina or Tchashchina, russian: Ирина Викторовна Чащина; born 24 April 1982) is a retired Russian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2004 Olympic silver medalist in all-around, a ...
, and
Daria Dmitrieva
Darya Andreyevna Dmitriyeva ( rus, Дарья Андреевна Дмитриева, , ˈdarʲɪ̯ə ˈdmʲitrʲɪ(ɪ̯)ɪvə; born 22 June 1993) is a Russian rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2012 Olympic all-around silver medalist, the 2010 Worl ...
.
Records
* Youngest rhythmic gymnast to win the
Grand Prix Final
The Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final (formerly Champions Series Final), often shortened to ''Grand Prix Final'' and abbreviated as ''GPF'', is a senior-level international figure skating competition. Medals are awarded in men's singles, ladies ...
all-around title (1996 Vienna) at 16 years of age.
Influence
Batyrshina is arguably one of the most popular rhythmic gymnast of her decade. Her winning style has altered the direction of rhythmic gymnastics in Russia as well as the rest of the world. Well known for her undeniable flexibility and personality, Batyrchina was also hailed for a top-notch level of difficulty and high, oversplit leaps and jumps. She included many flexibility skills in her routines, the majority of which highlighted her spectacularly elastic back.
Detailed Olympic results
See also
*
List of select Jewish gymnasts
References
* Catalano, Robin
Gymnastics Greats ''Yanina Batyrshina (RUS)''.
External links
*
Yana Batyrshinaat r-gymnastics.com
Official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batyrshina, Yana
1979 births
Living people
Russian people of Jewish descent
Russian rhythmic gymnasts
Olympic gymnasts of Russia
Gymnasts at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Olympic silver medalists for Russia
Sportspeople from Tashkent
Jewish gymnasts
Olympic medalists in gymnastics
Tatar people of Russia
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships
Recipients of the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" II class