Yulia Barsukova
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Women's Rhythmic Gymnastics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Sydney 2000 | All-Around | |
Yulia Barsukova (Russian: Ю́лия Влади́мировна Барсуко́ва, born December 31, 1978 in Moscow, Russia) is a Russian Individual Rhythmic Gymnast. At five years old, she started figure skating in the Izmaylovo District of Moscow were she lived. One day, when she was eight years old, she was passing a sports club, and in the window, she saw girls practicing Rhythmic Gymnastics. Pretty soon, her father signed her up for Rhythmic Gymnastics. And after three years she moved to a Tagansky District high school's Rhythmic Gymnastics department.
A nationally famous coach of the school Vera Silaeva, who had trained many great gymnasts, coached Barsukova until she was sixteen. And then, literally taking her by the hand, she took Barsukova to the famous Russian Head Coach, Irina Viner. But the head coach of the national team, did not like Yulia at first: "The girl has 'no face' and doesn't smile at all." Viner gave up only after the pressure of the choreographer of the Russian National team, Veronica Shatkova, Who kept saying that: "It is stupid to let this ballerina from God go away."
Since then, Barsukova competed at international competitions in all corners of the globe, and she repeatedly received awards for choreographical qualities. She received an unofficial title of Miss Bolshoi Theater. This happened during an evening dedicated to the 15th anniversary of magazine Ballet where Barsukova performed along with the stars of the famous theater. Her "Dying Swan" ball routine, brought a lot of applause from famous dancers, most of whom gave her a standing ovation.
Since her emergence in major competitions as a second member of the Russian team, she has won many titles. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics after a fumble with Hoop by then World Champion, Alina Kabaeva, Barsukova took home the gold despite a missed foot-catch at the end of her rope routine. She also won the rope final in both the 1999 (9.933) and 2000 (9.983)European Championships. Now she's participating in the project of 1 Russian Channel "Stars on ice".
"Yulia is very emotional. What I mean, is that after her performances something remains in your soul. Other gymnasts finish performing, and you can't remember what they did. I remember my coach used to say to me: "Go and do the routine in such a way, so that you are remembered, so that people would not take it that you dropped or didn't drop the apparatus." This is the way Yulia performs. She is an artist."
Galina Shugurova
[edit] External links
| Olympic champions in rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around |
|---|
| 1984: Lori Fung | 1988: Marina Lobatch | 1992: Alexandra Timoshenko | 1996: Ekaterina Serebrianskaya | 2000: Yulia Barsukova | 2004: Alina Kabaeva |
