Svetlana Boginskaya

Svetlana Leonidovna Boginskaya (Belarusian: Святлана Леанідаўна Багінская; born February 9, 1973) is a Soviet/Unified Team/Belarusian gymnast. She was called the "Belarusian Swan" and the "Goddess of Gymnastics" because of her height, balletic grace, and long lines. Her last name derives from "boginya" ("богиня") literally meaning "goddess" in Russian. She is especially renowned for the drama and artistry she displayed on floor exercise. Boginskaya is a three-time Olympic Champion, winning an individual gold medal in Vault at the 1988, and team golds in 1988 and 1992.

Career

Boginskaya was born in Minsk. She was a figure skater for several years, but began gymnastics at age six. Two years later, she moved from Minsk to train full-time at the Moscow Round Lake Gymnastics Center. By age fourteen she was a member of the Soviet national team. She won her first medal, a bronze for balance beam, during the 1987 World Championships. She became one of the best gymnasts on the Soviet team and was expected to place very well at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. She finished the games with four medals - team gold, gold on Vault, silver on the Floor and the All-Around bronze.

However, the joy from her success would be short-lived. Boginskaya's long-time coach Lyubov Miromanova committed suicide just three days after the Olympics. Miromanova had been a surrogate mother to her, as she coached and cared for Boginskaya since she moved from Minsk to train full-time in Moscow. Boginskaya has always been reluctant to discuss this devastating time in her life. To this day, the reason for Miromanova's suicide remains a mystery.

Boginskaya pressed on, and began training with a new coach, Ludmilla Popkovich. Under her tutelage, Boginskaya became World Champion in 1989 and later dedicated her performance to her late mentor.

In 1990, Boginskaya became only the third woman to sweep the European Championships (after Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia in 1965 and 1967, and Ludmilla Tourischeva of the USSR in 1973), winning the gold medal in every individual event. In doing so, she defended her titles in the All-Around, Vault, and Floor Exercise, and added titles in the Uneven Bars and Balance Beam. In 1991, in a controversial finish, Boginskaya fell short of defending her world title, losing the gold medal to Kim Zmeskal of the United States. However, she earned gold medals in the Team and Balance Beam competitions.

In 1992, Boginskaya, then 19 years old, had a disappointing performance at the 1992 European Championships, falling on her final event, the floor exercise. She finished in fifth place, while her young teammate Tatiana Gutsu won the all-around title. Nevertheless, she won the balance beam title with a score 9.95, and remained a favorite to win the all-around title at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

Gymnastics fans anticipated a duel between Boginskaya and her nemesis, American Kim Zmeskal. However, while Boginskaya won her third Olympic gold medal in the team competition, she finished fifth in the Individual All-Around. Zmeskal finished twelfth. Instead of the anticipated showdown between Boginskaya (who was awarded a controversially low score on the uneven bars) and Zmeskal (who faltered on floor and beam in the all-around), Tatiana Gutsu and Shannon Miller provided one of the most dramatic competitions in Olympic history.

Boginskaya retired after the 1992 Olympics, but decided to make a comeback in 1995. She said that she was inspired by Katarina Witt who had made a memorable comeback of her own at the 1994 Winter Olympics. She moved to Houston, Texas to train with Béla Károlyi^[1] and upgraded her difficulty. In 1996 the 23-year-old Boginskaya nearly won the European All-Around Title, placing second behind then defending World All-Around Champion (and future Olympic All-Around Champion) Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine. She then progressed to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta where she was one of a number of 'older' gymnasts competing. Boginskaya led her Belarus team to sixth place and competed in the all-around and vault finals, though medals were not forthcoming.

Svetlana Boginskaya is one of very few women in gymnastics history to have competed in three Olympic games. Others include Larisa Latynina, Věra Čáslavská, Ludmilla Tourischeva, Svetlana Khorkina, Dominique Dawes, Lisa Skinner, Oksana Chusovitina and Beth Tweddle. (It should be noted, however, that Boginskaya is the only one of the three-time Olympic participants in recent history to have competed when Compulsories were a requirement at each Olympic Game she participated in). She is one of only two gymnasts (the other being Oksana Chusovitina) to compete on three different Olympic teams: Soviet Union, Unified Team, and Belarus. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2005.^[2]

After the 1992 Olympics, Boginskaya appeared alongside compatriot Vitaly Scherbo in the music video, "Revolution Earth," by The B-52's.

Today Boginskaya lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and two children. She runs two businesses, an online gymnastics apparel retailer and a summer camp for gymnastics students, but she also considers herself a stay-at-home mother. In 2007 she started up a new pizza place in Katy, Texas.^[3]

Trademarks

Boginskaya was noted for having more artistic and wildly different choreography than most of her competitors, especially on her floor exercise routines. Her floor routine at the Seoul Olympics was done to the music of Bizet's Carmen and her routine from the 1990-1991 season was choregraphed by the Bolshoi Ballet. She is admired for her elegant dramatic style especially since it came at a time when most gymnasts did cutesy dancing.

Another of her trademarks included dismounts in which she would land with her right foot placed slightly in front of her left.

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
1987	World Championships	2nd				3rd
1988	Olympic Games	1st	3rd	1st			2nd
1989	European Championships		1st	1st	4th	4th	1st
1989	World Championships	1st	1st		8th		1st
1990	European Championships		1st	1st	1st	1st	1st
	Goodwill Games	1st	2nd			3rd	1st
	World Cup Final		2nd	3rd	4th	4th	1st
1991	World Championships	1st	2nd	5th		1st	7th
1992	European Championships		5th	8th	4th	1st
	World Championships			2nd		6th
	Olympic Games	1st	5th	4th		5th
1995	World Championships	8th	16th
1996	European Championships	4th	2nd	6th	6th	4th	6th
1996	Olympic Games	6th	15th	5th

Competitor for Belarus

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
1996	Olympic Games	Atlanta	Team	6	381.263
			All-Around	13	38.499	25	76.223
			Vault	5	9.712	9	19.474
			Uneven Bars			64	18.587
			Balance Beam			27	18.850
			Floor Exercise			24	19.312
	European Championships	Birmingham	Team	4	114.546
			All-Around	2	39.106	4	38.898
			Vault	6	9.662	5	9.737
			Uneven Bars	6	9.725	7	9.737
			Balance Beam	4	9.575	5	9.662
			Floor Exercise	6	9.600	3	9.762
1995	World Championships	Sabae	Team	8	375.512
			All-Around	16	38.261	14	76.461
			Vault			23	18.925
			Uneven Bars			29	19.124
			Balance Beam			20	18.975
			Floor Exercise			15	19.437

Competitor for CIS

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
1992	Olympic Games	Barcelona	Team	1	395.666
			All-Around	5	39.673	2	79.287
			Vault	4	9.899	8	19.800
			Uneven Bars			10	19.787
			Balance Beam	5	9.862	2	19.800
			Floor Exercise	WD		1	19.900
	World Championships	Paris	Vault	2	9.943
			Vault (Semi−Final)			1	9.912
			Vault (Qualification)			1	9.900
			Balance Beam	6	9.750

Competitor for Belarus

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
1992	European Championships	Nantes	All-Around	5	39.136
			Vault	8	9.675	2	9.937
			Uneven Bars	4	9.850	2	9.937
			Balance Beam	1	9.950	1	9.937
			Floor Exercise			44	9.325

Competitor for Soviet Union

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
1991	World Championships	Indianapolis	Team	1	396.055
			All-Around	2	39.736	1	79.548
			Vault	5	9.850	1	19.837
			Uneven Bars	WD		1	19.912
			Balance Beam	1	9.962	2	19.887
			Floor Exercise	7	9.862	1	19.912
1990	World Cup Final	Brussels	All-Around	2	39.586
			Vault	3	9.912	1	9.937
			Uneven Bars	4	9.887	6	9.825
			Balance Beam	4	9.887	2	9.887
			Floor Exercise	1	9.962	1	9.937
	European Championships	Athens	All-Around	1	39.874
			Vault	1	9.943	1	10.000
			Uneven Bars	1	9.950	1	9.975
			Balance Beam	1	10.000	2	9.962
			Floor Exercise	1	10.000	1	9.937
1989	World Championships	Stuttgart	Team	1	396.793
			All-Around	1	39.900		79.262
			Vault				19.925
			Uneven Bars	8	9.450		19.925
			Balance Beam				19.425
			Floor Exercise	1	10.000	1	19.987