Svetlana Boginskaya

Svetlana Boginskaya
— Gymnast —
Full name	Svetlana Lioubov Boginskaya
Alternative name(s)	Svyatlana Leanidaŭna Bahinskaya (Святлана Леанідаўна Багінская)
Nickname(s)	Belarusian Swan, Goddess of Gymnastics
Country represented	Belarus
Former countries represented	Unified Team,  Soviet Union
Born	February 9, 1973 Minsk, Soviet Union
Height	157 cm (5 ft 2 in) (5'2")
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Head coach(es)	Tatiana Grosovivich
Former coach(es)	Lyubov Miromanova
Retired	1997
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 3 1 1 World Championships 5 3 1 European Championships 9 1 0 World Cup Final 1 1 1 Goodwill Games 2 1 1 Total 20 7 4 Representing  Belarus European Championships Representing  Unified Team Representing  Soviet Union Olympic Games 1988 Seoul Team 1988 Seoul Vault 1992 Barcelona Team 1988 Seoul Floor Exercise 1988 Seoul All-Around World Championships 1989 Stuttgart Team 1989 Stuttgart All-Around 1989 Stuttgart Floor Exercise 1991 Indianapolis Team 1991 Indianapolis Balance Beam 1987 Rotterdam Team 1991 Indianapolis All-Around 1992 Paris Vault 1987 Rotterdam Balance Beam European Championships 1989 Brussels All-Around 1989 Brussels Vault 1989 Brussels Floor Exercise 1990 Athens All-Around 1990 Athens Vault 1990 Athens Uneven Bars 1990 Athens Balance Beam 1990 Athens Floor Exercise 1992 Nantes Balance Beam 1996 Birmingham All-Around World Cup Final 1990 Brussels Floor Exercise 1990 Brussels All-Around 1990 Brussels Vault Goodwill Games 1990 Seattle Team 1990 Seattle Floor Exercise 1990 Seattle All-Around 1990 Seattle Balance Beam

Svetlana Lioubov Boginskaya (Belarusian: Святлана Леанідаўна Багінская), born February 9, 1973, is a former artistic gymnast for the Soviet Union and Belarus. She was called the "Belarusian Swan" and the "Goddess of Gymnastics" because of her height, balletic grace, and long body lines. Her last name derives from "boginya" (богиня), literally meaning "goddess" in Russian.

Boginskaya is known for the drama and artistry she displayed on floor exercise. She is a three-time Olympic champion, with an individual gold medal on vault from the 1988 Summer Olympics and team gold medals from the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics.

Early life and career

Boginskaya was born in Minsk. She was a figure skater for several years, but began gymnastics at age six. Two years later, she moved to Moscow to train full-time at the Round Lake Gymnastics Center. By age fourteen, she was a member of the Soviet national team.

She won her first world medal, a bronze on balance beam, at the 1987 World Championships. She went on to compete in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, where she won four medals: gold in the team competition, gold on vault, silver on floor, and bronze in the individual all-around.

Just three days after the Olympics, Boginskaya's longtime coach, Lyubov Miromanova, committed suicide. Miromanova had been a surrogate mother to Boginskaya, coaching and caring for her after she moved from Minsk to train full-time in Moscow. After her death, Boginskaya began training with Tatiana Grosovivich Under Grosovivich's tutelage, Boginskaya became world champion in 1989 and later dedicated her performance to her late mentor.

In 1990, Boginskaya became the third woman to sweep the European Championships, winning the gold medal in every individual event. (The only other gymnasts to do so were Věra Čáslavská,Larisa Latynina, and Ludmilla Tourischeva. In doing so, she defended her titles in the all-around, vault, and floor exercise, and added titles in the uneven bars and balance beam. In 1991, in a controversial finish, Boginskaya lost the gold medal in the all-around to Kim Zmeskal of the United States. However, she earned gold medals in the team and balance beam competitions.

In 1992, Boginskaya, then 19 years old, had a disappointing performance at the 1992 European Championships, falling on her final event, the floor exercise. She finished in fifth place, while her young teammate Tatiana Gutsu won the all-around title. Boginskaya won the balance beam title with a score of 9.95 and remained a favorite to win the all-around title at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

Gymnastics fans expected a duel between Boginskaya and Zmeskal at the Olympics. However, while Boginskaya won her third Olympic gold medal in the team competition, she finished fifth in the individual all-around, and Zmeskal finished tenth. Instead of the anticipated showdown between Boginskaya (who was awarded a controversially low score on the uneven bars) and Zmeskal (who faltered on all events), Tatiana Gutsu and Shannon Miller of the United States provided one of the most dramatic competitions in Olympic history.

Boginskaya retired after the 1992 Olympics but decided to make a comeback in 1995. She said that she was inspired by Katarina Witt who had made a memorable comeback of her own at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Boginskaya moved to Houston, Texas, to train with Bela Karolyi and upgraded the difficulty of her routines. In 1996, at age 23, she placed twenty-second in the all-around at the European Championships, way behind the defending world all-around champion (and future Olympic all-around champion), Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine. She then progressed to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was one of a number of "younger" gymnasts competing. She led the Belarus team to sixth place and competed in the all-around and vault finals, but won no individual medals.

Boginskaya is one of very few women in gymnastics history to have competed in three Olympic Games. Others include Larisa Latynina, Věra Čáslavská Ludmilla Tourischevaa, Sveta, Dominique Dawes, Lisa Skinner, Oksana Chusovitina, and Beth Tweddle. (Boginskaya is the only one to have competed in three Olympic Games in which compulsories were a requirement.) She is one of only two gymnasts (the other being Chusovitina) to have competed on three different national Olympic teams: the Soviet team, the Unified Team, and the Belarusian team. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2005.^[1]

After the 1992 Olympics, Boginskaya appeared alongside her compatriot Vitaly Scherbo in the music video for the song "Revolution Earth," by The B-52's.

Today, Boginskaya lives in Houston with her husband and two children. She runs two businesses: an online gymnastics apparel retailer and a summer camp for gymnasts. In 2007, she opened a pizzeria in Texas.^[2]

Trademarks

Boginskaya was noted for having much different choreography, often more artistic, than most of her competitors, especially in her floor exercise routines. Her floor routine at the 1988 Olympics was done to the music of Georges Bizet's Carmen, and her routine in the 1990–1991 season was choreographed by the Bolshoi Ballet. She was also known for dismounts in which she landed with her right foot placed slightly in front of her left.

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
1987	World Championships	2nd				3rd
1988	Olympic Games	1st	3rd	1st			2nd
1989	European Championships		1st	1st	4th	4th	1st
	World Championships	1st	1st		8th		1st
1990	European Championships		1st	1st	1st	1st	1st
	Goodwill Games	1st	2nd			3rd	1st
	World Cup Final		2nd	3rd	4th	4th	1st
1991	World Championships	1st	2nd	5th		1st	7th
1992	European Championships		5th	8th	4th	1st
	World Championships			2nd		6th
	Olympic Games	1st	5th	4th		5th
1995	World Championships	8th	16th
1996	European Championships	4th	2nd	6th	6th	4th	6th
	Olympic Games	6th	15th	5th

• Competitor for Belarus

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
1996	Olympic Games	Atlanta	Team	6	381.263
			All-Around	13	38.499	25	76.223
			Vault	5	9.712	9	19.474
			Uneven Bars			64	18.587
			Balance Beam			27	18.850
			Floor Exercise			24	19.312
	European Championships	Birmingham	Team	4	114.546
			All-Around	2	39.106	4	38.898
			Vault	6	9.662	5	9.737
			Uneven Bars	6	9.725	7	9.737
			Balance Beam	4	9.575	5	9.662
			Floor Exercise	6	9.600	3	9.762
1995	World Championships	Sabae	Team	8	375.512
			All-Around	16	38.261	14	76.461
			Vault			23	18.925
			Uneven Bars			29	19.124
			Balance Beam			20	18.975
			Floor Exercise			15	19.437

• Competitor for CIS

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
1992	Olympic Games	Barcelona	Team	1	395.666
			All-Around	5	39.673	2	79.287
			Vault	4	9.899	8	19.800
			Uneven Bars			10	19.787
			Balance Beam	5	9.862	2	19.800
			Floor Exercise	WD		1	19.900
	World Championships	Paris	Vault	2	9.943
			Vault (Semi−Final)			1	9.912
			Vault (Qualification)			1	9.900
			Balance Beam	6	9.750

• Competitor for Belarus

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
1992	European Championships	Nantes	All-Around	5	39.136
			Vault	8	9.675	2	9.937
			Uneven Bars	4	9.850	2	9.937
			Balance Beam	1	9.950	1	9.937
			Floor Exercise			44	9.325

• Competitor for Soviet Union

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
1991	World Championships	Indianapolis	Team	1	396.055
			All-Around	2	39.736	1	79.548
			Vault	5	9.850	1	19.837
			Uneven Bars	WD		1	19.912
			Balance Beam	1	9.962	2	19.887
			Floor Exercise	7	9.862	1	19.912
1990	World Cup Final	Brussels	All-Around	2	39.586
			Vault	3	9.912	1	9.937
			Uneven Bars	4	9.887	6	9.825
			Balance Beam	4	9.887	2	9.887
			Floor Exercise	1	9.962	1	9.937
	European Championships	Athens	All-Around	1	39.874
			Vault	1	9.943	1	10.000
			Uneven Bars	1	9.950	1	9.975
			Balance Beam	1	10.000	2	9.962
			Floor Exercise	1	10.000	1	9.937
1989	World Championships	Stuttgart	Team	1	396.793
			All-Around	1	39.900		79.262
			Vault				19.925
			Uneven Bars	8	9.450		19.925
			Balance Beam				19.425
			Floor Exercise	1	10.000	1	19.987

See also

• List of top Olympic gymnastics medalists
• List of top medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

References

1. "SVETLANA BOGINSKAYA". International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
2. "Olympic Champion Svetlana Boginskaya". Russian American Business. Retrieved October 14, 2008.

External links

• Svetlana Boginskaya at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
• Bio and Competition Results
• CBS Sports bio