Oksana is coached mostly by Tatiana Abramova and also by Russian head coach Leonid Arkayev her best friend is Yulia Korostelyova, whom she trains with.
Oksana Lyapina was born in the small Russian Town of Armavir on the 4/28/80. She began gymnastics when she was young and after years of hard work found her way to Moscow where many of the top Russian gymnasts train.
Oksana is coached mostly by Tatiana Abramova and also by Russian head coach Leonid Arkayev her best friend is Yulia Korostelyova, whom she trains with.
Lyapina's first international competition came in 1995 when she competed in the French Telecom International, European Junior Team Championships & European Youth Olympic Games.
In these competitions she didn't take any indiviual medals - but she helped her team to the gold and finished in the top six. In these early stages of her career she showed her consistency.
Unfortunetly Oksana was one spot short of qualifying for the World Championships in 1995 and the European Championships in 1996. In both cases she became the travelling alternate and was uneeded in competition. But her main focus in 1996 was on the Olympics. This time she qualified and secured a place on the team beating out top competitior Oksana Fabrichnova who had an ailing back injury.
In Atlanta Oksana had a mixed competition. Her team won the silver medal, but she was devastated with second place because Russia was leading in compolsory competition. Oksana had good floor routines and compolsory routines but sadly she fell on her favourite event beam. But she did leave the judges and fans with one of the most original routines of the meet even with the fall. She stated it was very hard to concentrate in the Geogia Dome with all the noise.
After the Olympics she competed in Australia in the Australian Cup and finished second overall as well as picking up 3 more individual medals, here she had a beautiful floor routine to Hotel California which had beautiful choreography.
Oksana needed surgery soon after this competition (elbow?) and was out of competition for a few months. However she was able to compete at the Russian Cup on three events (no bars) here she made the beam finals too which was a great effort coming soon after her injury.
Unfortunetly due to lack of compettion in 1997 and her injury she did not compete in Lausanne for the world championships.
Oksana is a tiny character and is known for her height on her leaps and tumbling on beam. She intends to continue competing intenationally in 1998! Good Luck Oksana!
� 1997 [email protected]
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