Svetlana Khorkina

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Olympic medal record
Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Gold	1996 Atlanta	Uneven bars
Gold	2000 Sydney	Uneven bars
Silver	1996 Atlanta	Team competition
Silver	2000 Sydney	Team competition
Silver	2000 Sydney	Floor exercise
Silver	2004 Athens	All-around
Bronze	2004 Athens	Team competition

Svetlana Vasil'ievna Khorkina (Russian: Светлана Васильевна Хоркина, born January 19, 1979 in Belgorod, Russia) is by far Russia's most successful female gymnast since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Not only is she the winner of several world championship and Olympic medals, she is famous (or infamous) for her attitude: she posed for the Russian edition of Playboy; she rejoiced in being considered the ultimate gymnastic diva; at the 2000 Olympics she refused to re-attempt her vaults in the All-Around competition (having fallen on her first attempt) after it became clear that the apparatus had been set at the wrong height.

At 1.65 m (5'5"), she was unusually tall for her sport. Known for her long, elegant lines, she was discouraged from gymnastics because of her height, but with the help of her lifelong coach Boris Pilkin, she created new moves to accommodate her height and exploit her strengths. She has an unprecedented 6 moves named after her in the Artistic Gymnastics Code of Points, more than any other gymnast. Her best apparatus was the uneven bars, where she put her long legs and graceful lines to good use. Khorkina has received some criticism however for her lack of difficulty on floor, vault and beam and for poor form.

Contents 1 Early career 2 1996 Olympics 3 1997-2000 4 2000 Olympic Games 5 2001-2004 6 2004 Olympic Games 7 Life Outside Gymnastics and Controversy 8 Competitive Highlights 9 Major achievements 9.1 Original Skills 10 External links

[edit] Early career

Khorkina won her first international medals at the 1994 World Championships in Brisbane: a silver medal on vault for a Yurchenko half-on, pike Curevo-off skill; and a silver on uneven bars (her routine included a Markelov release, which is now named for her). Khorkina also competed at the Goodwill Games and Team World Championships that year. Khorkina's first All-Around win came at the 1995 European Cup, where she also won medals on vault, uneven bars and in the floor exercise. She was expected to be a top contender for All-Around gold at the World Championships later that year. She omitted a triple twist in the floor exercise and scored low, but solid performances on beam and vault and a stellar routine on the unevens helped her to a silver medal behind gold medallist Lilia Podkopayeva.

[edit] 1996 Olympics

Khorkina was considered to be a top contender for the All-Around gold going into the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. However, the competition proved to be a disappointment both for her and for the Russian team. After winning the compulsories, the Russians finished second in the team competition. In the All-Around, Khorkina performed solidly on floor, beam and vault, but dropped out of contention for a medal when she fell from the uneven bars on a clear underswing half, a transition from the low to the high bar named for her; she finished in 15th place. Later she won the gold in the individual competition on uneven bars; the silver co-medallists were Bi Wenjing and Amy Chow.

[edit] 1997-2000

Khorkina became the one to watch, with long lean lines and top acrobatic and execution skills. Her physicial glamor of blonde hair and blue eyes competed with her emotional ambitions and intensely patriotic but forthright personality.

Like her compatriot Aleksei Nemov, Khorkina's performances over the next four years were uneven. Khorkina might perform solidly or accede to the pressure that felled many other gymnasts. Scoring was a hot topic. In 1997 Worlds/European Championships, changes in the Code of Points were expected to negatively affect Khorkina, but she won the All-Around gold.

In the two years after winning the world title, Khorkina tempered excellence with occasional inconsistency. Yet her skills were difficult and innovative in all events, especially on the uneven bars and balance beam. On the bars, she continued to dominate; she was soon nicknamed the Queen of the Bars.

Khorkina won the European All-Around title in 1998, but faltered during the All-Around in the Goodwill Games. She entered the 1999 World Championships as a favorite, yet finished well out of the medals.

The Russian team as a whole couldn't stick a gold medal performance and to make things worse, the Russian team lost the gold medal when Khorkina stepped off the beam in the final performance of the last rotation. She continued her winning streak on bars, however, winning her 4th consecutive world title.

[edit] 2000 Olympic Games

Khorkina showed up at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in Sydney, Australia as the favorite for the All-Around title. After preliminaries, she held a large lead on the pack. She unveiled a very difficult vault that had never been seen before - not even in practice. She stuck the vault - a Khorkina II - in the team competition. She also performed well in the floor exercise and uneven bars, qualifying to both event finals. She also qualified to the Balance Beam final, but was unable to compete in the final as she was the third highest Russian in qualifications - only two gymnasts per country may compete in the event finals.

Before the All-Around competition began, the vault was accidentally set 5cm (2 inches) too low - highly significant in a sport where the success of an element rests on spatial awareness and very small margins. A number of gymnasts made uncharacteristic errors, including Annika Reeder, who was too injured to continue. Khorkina complained about the vault to an Australian official after the warm-up but was ignored. It wasn't until Australian Allana Slater echoed Khorkina's sentiments in the next rotation that the error was corrected. Khorkina had been in the lead after the first rotation, but came to the mis-measured vault in the second and crashed on her first attempt. She then fell in her uneven bars routine. Shortly afterwards, she was formally informed that the height of the vault had been corrected, but it was too late. Those affected were allowed to perform their vaults again - but their scores on the other apparatus would stand. Khorkina declined the opportunity and finished 10th.

The initial winner, Andreea Răducan of Romania was stripped of her medal after a positive drug test; she had used a banned cold medicine. Her teammate Simona Amânar was officially named the 2000 Olympic All-Around champion. In several interviews following the Olympics, Khorkina referred to the incident as a "black spot in my soul".

Khorkina won the individual competition on uneven bars to retain her Olympic title. She also won a silver on floor behind teammate Elena Zamolodchikova.

[edit] 2001-2004

Khorkina stayed competitive as she aimed for a spot in a third Olympic Games. She appeared at the 2001 World Championships and won the All-Around title as well as the vault, and continued her winning streak on the uneven bars. With 5 consecutive World titles and 2 Olympic titles, Khorkina was now the most accomplished gymnast ever, male or female, on a single apparatus. From 1995 to 2001, she had won every World and Olympic title on the bars.

Khorkina won the European All-Around title in 2002. She beat Verona van de Leur of the Netherlands despite crashing her vault. Many including commentator and former USA Olympic gymnast Bart Connor felt, that Van De Leur should have won, and that Khorkina only won due to favouritism from judges. She admitted in 2003, as gymnastics took its toll on her body, that she had begun to "feel her age", but vowed to return to the Olympics for a third time. It has been suggested that the toll inacted on Svetlana's body had more to do with anorexia than with age, due to the obvious emaciation she displayed at the 2004 Olympics. At the 2003 World Championships in Anaheim, California she became World All-Around champion for a third time, a feat that had never been accomplished by any woman.

[edit] 2004 Olympic Games

Khorkina went into the 2004 Athens Olympics as one of the favorites. In the All-Around competition, she won silver behind the American Carly Patterson, after a poor performance on beam and poor tumbling on floor. In a press conference after the medal ceremony Khorkina claimed that Patterson only won because she was American before stating that this was only a joke and that she, Khorkina was still the Olympic champion. However in a later interview with a Russian newspaper, Izvestia, Khorkina claimed that Patterson's win was 'fixed' and that it had been decided in advance.

Interview

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MOSCOW -- Russia's Svetlana Khorkina, who was second to American Carly Patterson in the women's all-round gymnastics competition, has accused the judges of robbing her of the gold medal and said "everything was decided in advance."

"I'm just furious," Khorkina, who had been favorite for the coveted title, was quoted as saying in the daily Izvestia. "I knew well in advance, even before I stepped on the stage for my first event, that I was going to lose.

"Everything was decided in advance. I had no illusions about this when the judges gave me 9.462 for the vault after conferring with one another at length.

"I practically did everything right, still they just set me up and fleeced me," she said in the interview published on Saturday.

Asked why she felt she was marked down by the judges, Khorkina said: "You better ask them. I think it's because I'm from Russia, not from America!"

When Khorkina won her silver medal on Thursday, she showed no outward signs of disappointment and said: "I think it's the best day of my life."

The Russian was also favorite for the all-round title four years ago in Sydney, where her hopes were dashed after she crashed to her knees from the vault. It was later discovered the horse had been set five centimeters too short.

She said she was hoping Sydney's experience would cause the judges to be more sympathetic to her plight in Athens -- her third and last Olympics.

Khorkina did not think Patterson was a deserving winner.

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Khorkina fell from the Uneven Bars during the Event Finals finishing last. She once again caused controversy by walking out of the Olympic arena before the compeition was over showing what many considered to be poor sportsmanship.

[edit] Life Outside Gymnastics and Controversy

Khorkina has enjoyed almost as much attention for her activities outside the gym. She caused a scandal by posing nude for the Russian version of Playboy in November 1997. She refused to apologise for this. She has aspirations to become an actress, and has appeared on the American talk show The Rosie O'Donnell Show and taken to the stage as Brenda Venus, Henry Miller's last love, in a Sergei Vinogradov production. She claimed that she did not have the patience to coach. She is currently focused on motherhood: she gave birth to her first child, a son named Svyatoslav, on July 21, 2005 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, thus giving her child American citizenship. Since December 2004 she has been vice-president of the Russian artistic gymnastics federation. She has been a member of the political party of United Russia since 2003. On March 12, 2007 in her native city of Belgorod, the sport complex of the Belgorod State Uiversity is opened. The complex was named after Svetlana. Front of the complex there is a statue of her as well.

[edit] Competitive Highlights

Major events
	Russian Championships					European Championships						World Championships						Olympic Games
Years	AA	UB	B	V	F	AA	UB	B	V	F	Team	AA	UB	B	V	F	Team	AA	UB	B	V	F	Team
1993	1	1	1	2	3	-						-						-
1994	-					2	1	5	5	8	2	9	2	-	2	8	3	-
1995	1	-	-	-	-	-						2	1	-	5	-	4	-
1996	-					6	1	-	4	-	2	-	1	-	-	-	-	15	1	-	-	-	2
1997	-					-						1	1	2	8	2	2	-
1998	-					1	1	-	-	1	2	-						-
1999	-					-						12	1	-	-	3	2	-
2000	-					1	1	1	-	-	1	-						10	1	-	-	2	2
2001	-					-						1	1	-	1	3	2	-
2002	-					1	1	2	-	5	1	-	7	4	-	-	-	-
2003	-					-						1	-	-	-	-	6	-
2004	-					4	1	3	-	7	3	-						2	8	-	-	-	3

[edit] Major achievements

• Gold medal, uneven bars, 1996 Summer Olympics, Atlanta
• Gold medal, uneven bars, 2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney
• Silver medal, team competition, 1996 Summer Olympics, Atlanta
• Silver medal, team competition, 2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney
• Silver medal, floor, 2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney
• Silver medal, all-around, 2004 Summer Olympics, Athens
• Bronze medal, team competition, 2004 Summer Olympics, Athens

• At the European Championships, she won uneven bars six times (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004-record) and the all-around three times (1998, 2000, 2002 -- a record tie with Nadia Comaneci). From 1994 to 2004, she collected 20 medals: 13 gold, 5 silver, and 2 bronze. Both wins and medals are all time records.
• Svetlana is 9-time World Champion: five uneven bars (1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001), three all-around (1997, 2001, 2003 -- a record for a male or female gymnast), and one vault (2001).

[edit] Original Skills

Sventlana has an unprecendented 8 skills in the Code of Points, at least one on each apparatus. To put this in perspective, most gymnasts are lucky to get just one skill named after them. Not since gymnastics greats like Olga Korbut and Nadia Comăneci has one gymnast been so innovative.

Skills named after Svetlana Khorkina

Vault: Khorkina I Round off-half on-piked Cuervo

Khorkina II Round off Half on-tucked rudi (this was a phenomenally difficult skill for Sveta due to her height and as she got older she seldom practiced it because of the wear and tear on her body from falling on that skill. Nevertheless she managed to hit this skill in competition with some success, most notably at the 2003 World Championships and the 2004 Olympics.

Uneven Bars: Khorkina I Front giant to hop release and regrasp the bars in the hect position. Also known as a Markelov in the men's code of points.

Khorkina II Shaposhnikova with a half twist

Khorkina/Chow Stalder-Kim pirouette

Beam:Khorkina Gainer full-twisting back flip Khorkina II Gainer 2 1/2 twist dismount.

Floor Exercise: Khorkina Jump 1 1/2 turn in horizontal to prone.

[edit] External links

• Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique profile for Svetlana Khorkina
• Sveta's Page the unofficial Svetlana Khorkina website
• Svetlana Khorkina Style and Beauty Page, in Russian