Olga Mostepanova

Olga Mostepanova
— Gymnast —
Full name Olga Vasilyevna Mostepanova
Country represented  Soviet Union
Born (1970-01-03) 3 January 1970 (disputed)
Discipline Women's artistic gymnastics
Level Senior
Club Dinamo Moscow
Former coach(es) Anna Anikina, Vladimir Aksyonov
Medal record
Representing  Soviet Union
World Championships
1983 Budapest Team
1983 Budapest Balance Beam
1985 Montreal Team
1983 Budapest All-Around
1983 Budapest Floor Exercise
Friendship Games
1984 Olomouc Team
1984 Olomouc All-Around
1984 Olomouc Balance Beam
1984 Olomouc Floor Exercise
1984 Olomouc Vault

Olga Vasilyevna Mostepanova (Russian: Ольга Васильевна Мостепанова, born 3 January 1970) is a retired Soviet gymnast. She won three gold medals at the World Championships.

Personal life

Mostepanova's birth year has been variously reported as 1968 or 1969. She herself stated that she was born on 3 January 1970 in Moscow.[1][2]

She is married and the mother of five children.[2][3]

Gymnastics career

A native of Moscow, Mostepanova began gymnastics at the age of 5 when her mother took her to the Dinamo club for a tryout. She remained at Dinamo, where she trained under coach Anna Anikina and later Vladimir Aksyonov.[1][2] At the age of 10 she placed 7th all-around at the USSR Junior Championships and was named to the Soviet junior national team.[2]

Over the next few years Mostepanova would become known as one of the promising gymnasts of the Soviet team. She enjoyed success in various junior international events, including the 1980 Champions All meet and the 1982 Junior European Championships, where she won the balance beam title, placed second on the vault and third in the all-around.[1] She had a strong senior debut in 1983, winning two gold medals (team, balance beam) and two silvers (all-around, floor exercise) at the 1983 World Championships.[1][3]

Mostepanova was considered an excellent medal prospect for the 1984 Olympics; however, due to the Eastern Bloc boycott, she did not compete in the Games. She led the Soviet team at the Friendship Games (also known as Olomouc, after the city in which the gymnastics competition was held; or the Alternate Games), the "alternative Olympics" for countries that had participated in the boycott. Olomouc was an exceptional competition for Mostepanova. In the all-around, she became the only gymnast in history to earn 10.0 scores on all four events in a major international competition, finishing the session with a perfect mark of 40.0. She nearly achieved this feat in both the qualifying round and the team finals as well, earning 10.0s on three of her four events. In total, Mostepanova earned a total of twelve 10s in Olomouc and left with five of the six possible gold medals: team, all-around, vault, balance beam and floor exercise.[1][3]

After the Friendship Games, she continued to compete, sharing in the team gold medal at the 1985 World Championships. She qualified for the all-around, but she and teammate Irina Baraksanova were pulled from the competition by the team coaches and replaced by Oksana Omelianchik and Elena Shushunova. This would be her last major meet for the USSR.[2]

In a recent poll in Inside Gymnastics magazine, she was voted one of the "Top 10 All-Around Gymnasts of All Time".

Achievements

Year Event AA Team VT UB BB FX
1982USSR Championships3rd3rd2nd3rd2nd
USSR Cup3rd3rd2nd
1983World Championships2nd1st1st2nd
USSR Championships2nd
USSR Cup2nd1st1st
1984Friendship Games1st1st1st1st1st
USSR Championships2nd1st3rd1st
USSR Cup1st
1985World Championships1st

Sources

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 List of competitive results at Gymn-Forum
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Olga Mostepanova: I simply love children" Yevgeniy Aksyonov, Beth Squires (trans.); Sovetskiy Sport, 7 May 1998.
  3. 1 2 3 "Whatever happened to Olga Mostepanova?", gymn.ca; accessed 25 July 2015.
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