Marina Vikentyevna Lobatch ( be, Марына Вікенцьеўна Лобач, russian: Марина Викентьевна Лобач; born 26 June 1970) is a former

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

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 coordi ...

. She is the 1988 Olympic champion, 1987 World gold medalist in hoop and 1988 European gold medalist in rope and ribbon.

Career

Lobatch started the sport in 1977 at age 7. Lobatch was among the leading Soviet gymnasts of the 1980s (along with

Tatiana Druchinina Tatiana Rudolfovna Druchinina (russian: Татьяна Рудольфовна Дручинина; born April 18, 1969) is a Russian former rhythmic gymnast who represented the Soviet Union. She is the 1987 World champion in ribbon and the 1986 ...

Galina Beloglazova Galina Beloglazova (russian: Галина Павловна Белоглазова; born June 10, 1967 Astrakhan, Soviet Union) is a Soviet individual rhythmic gymnast. She was the 1983 World All-around silver medalist and the 1984 European Al ...

, and

Dalia Kutkaitė Dalia Kutkaitė (born 11 February 1965 in Vilnius, Lithuania) is retired Lithuanian rhythmic gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union. She is the 1982 European all-around champion and the 1983 World Cup Final all-around silver medalist. She is ...

); she won gold in the hoop competition, and bronze in the rope and clubs competitions, during the 1987 World Championships. However, in the all-around event she finished behind three Bulgarian gymnasts who won gold and tied silver, leaving her in fourth tied with teammate

Anna Kotchneva Anna Kotchneva (russian: Анна Кочнева) (born January 25, 1970) is a former Soviet rhythmic gymnast. Career Kotchneva is the 1987 World Champion in clubs, (tied with Bianka Panova), the 1987 World bronze medalist in the hoop, and th ...

. In 1988, Lobatch finished 4th at the European Championships, but won gold in the rope (tied with two others) and ribbon competitions, and bronze in the clubs competition. Her biggest success was during the

1988 Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

. She received perfect tens on all of her routines during the qualifying and final rounds of the all-around competition. Her closest competitors also received perfect scores during the finals, but had not received perfect scores in the qualifying round (as a tie-breaker the qualifying scores were divided by two and added onto the final round scores). The final scores were very close, with Lobatch receiving 60.000, Adriana Dunavska receiving 59.950, and

Olexandra Tymoshenko Alexandra Alexandrovna Timoshenko, or Olexandra Olexandrivna Tymoshenko, ( uk, Олександра Олександрівна Тимошенко; born 18 February 1972) is a former Ukrainian individual rhythmic gymnast who competed for the Soviet ...

receiving 59.875. Lobatch is still the youngest Olympic Champion in rhythmic gymnastics at 18 years, 3 months and 6 days, despite never being crowned European or World All-around Champion. She retired in 1989 at the age of 19. In 1993, Lobatch went to

Lamezia Terme Lamezia Terme (), commonly called Lamezia, is an Italian city and ''comune'' of 70,452 inhabitants (2013), in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region. Geography Lamezia is located on the eastern border of the coastal plain commonly cal ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to prepare gymnasts

Larissa Lukyanenko Larisa Gennadyevna Lukyanenko ( Russian: Лариса Геннадьевна Лукьяненко, born 7 August 1973) is a former Belarusian individual rhythmic gymnast. Career Loukianenko took up rhythmic gymnastics in 1980 at age 7. She wa ...

and Tatiana Ogrizko for the ''Italia Serie A''. During training they competed for the local club ''Gascal'' in the ''Serie A''. Lobatch returned to Belarus in April 1994. In 1998 she was invited to Italy by the ''Gascal'' club, where she spent several weeks with her family. Lobatch is a coach and judge for the Belarusian Gymnastics Federation. She has been awarded the

Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples (russian: oрден Дружбы народов, translit=orden Druzhby narodov) was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military unit ...

. She is coaching

Alina Harnasko Alina Aliaksandraŭna Harnasko ( be, Аліна Аляксандраўна Гарнасько; russian: Али́на Александро́вна Горносько́; born 9 August 2001) is a Belarusian individual rhythmic gymnast and former jun ...

(2020 European All-around silver medalist).

Detailed Olympic results

Personal life

She currently lives in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

with her husband, Dmitry Bogdanov, and their daughters, Irina and Nadya.

References

External links

* 1970 births Living people People from Smalyavichy Belarusian rhythmic gymnasts Soviet rhythmic gymnasts Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic gymnasts of the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships Sportspeople from Minsk Region {{USSR-Olympic-medalist-stub