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| A:hover {color: red; font-weight: bold} | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lilia Podkopayeva | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lilia Alexandrovna Podkopayeva was the last monster of gymnastics who had at the same time the titles of European, World and Olympic all around Champion. And this, for a recently independent Ukraine. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lilia was born on the 15th of August, 1978, in Donetsk, exUSSR. A lot of family problems when she was very young left her living a close relationship with her grandmother, the one who, inspired by a poster with a photo of a gymnast while traveling on a train, first took 5-year old Lilia to a gymnasium. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| She showed a great potencial, and won the first competition she entered in - at the age of 6. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| In 1991 Lilia was invited to train with the USSR team - a great achievement as this nation was a huge power in gymnastics. But the USSR broke up, and Lilia rested in the Ukrainian National Team, coached by Oleg Ostapenko and Galina Lossinskaya - a woman that Podkopayeva admired and loved, considering her as a second mother, due to her action not only in the technical improvement of her pupils but also on their developement as persons. For example, it was Galina who developed their love for books and museums. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By then Lilia was already training in the Dinamo Kiev with the National Team in 1993, at the age of 14, she entered in her first World Championships. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next year, a more experienced Podkopayeva was in Stockholm competing in the European Championships. She was only 15, fighting against names like Milosovici and Gutsu. But she contributed to her Team's Bronze medal; and she surprised everyone winning a Gold medal on Floor - it must have been a pleasure for Svetlana Dubova, her coreographer, to see her work rewarded like that, for a long time... after all, in important International events such as World, Olympic or European Championships, Lilia won nonetheless 9 Gold medals - most of them on Floor , by far her best piece, where she presented a new E-skill in the 1995 Worlds, a double front tuck with 1/2 twist. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| She continued to amaze, winning several titles - including the all around Worlds in 1995, the European in 1996 and, in the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, the big one - the Olympic. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| She used her ;Podkopayeva skill on Floor, her Podkopyeva on Vault (E skill, SV 9.9, a Yurchenko-1/2 on-front pike 1/2), lots of dificulty and a ballet performance that provided her the extra points for artistry . She was 18, 1.46 m tall and had 39 kg of weight. Just the ideal gymnast. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indeed, she won also the Floor title and a Silver on Beam, becoming the first gymnast since her compatriot Ludmila Turisheva to be World and Olympic champion, the first since legendary Nadia Comaneci to win an apparatus medal after winning the all around Olympic title, the first ever to be European, World and Olympic champion, and the first Ukrainian to win several medals in an Olympic edition. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Later, she received a flat and a car from the Ukrainian president, became considered as a national hero, and retired in 1998. She planned to study and graduate in Law but took Sports Studies instead. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| With her life-long coach Lossinskaya she moved to the USA and both now coach at the Gemini Gymnastics. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lilia speaks Russian, Ukrainian and English; even though she said she wouldn't leave her country for a long time, she lives in Oldsmar, Florida, since 1999. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| She is the biggest successor that Larissa Latynina and Ludmila Turisheva could ever hope for; a high caliber gymnast, she also knows how to attract young kids to her sport, and possibly elevate Ukrayne's name even higher in the elite competition world. | ||||||||||||||||||||||