Catalina Ponor
Encyclopedia
Cătălina Ponor is a gymnast from Constanţa
, Romania
. After beginning training with the national team in 2002, Ponor won several medals with the Romanian team, along with individual balance beam and floor exercise medals. Almost unknown until late 2003, Ponor has made several important achievements in her career as a gymnast. Her career highlights include the 2004 Summer Olympics
and the 2004 European Gymnastics Championships, both of which she was a triple gold medalist, and the 2003 World Championships
, where she was a triple silver medalist.
Following the Olympic games, Ponor has become involved in controversies, but has also triumphed at several competitions. After winning a gold medal at the 2006 European Championships, Ponor decided to retire because of injuries. Despite this, she resumed training and was planning to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics
. In December 2007, she announced her retirement from the sport due to health reasons. She resumed training in 2011 and made a successful comeback at the Romanian National Championships.
, the location of the training facility for the Romanian National Gymnastics Team. National team coaches Octavian Belu
and Mariana Bitang had discovered her while watching her train in Constanţa
. Her first coaches, from "Farul" Sport Club, were Matei Stanei and Gabriela Dosoftei. The next year Ponor was selected for the team for the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
in Anaheim, U.S., where she won a silver medal with the Romanian team, as well as individual silver medals on balance beam and floor. In the European Championships, Catalina won the gold in the event final, while her teammate Alexandra Eremia won the silver.
In 2004, Ponor followed up her result at the World Championships with even higher finishes at the European Championships in Amsterdam
. Ponor won three gold medals at the event: team, balance beam, and floor exercise.
in Athens
, Greece, she won gold in every event she entered, unprecedented in Olympic gymnastics. She was part of an immensely successful Romanian women's gymnastics team (four golds, one silver and one bronze in six events) that also included Oana Ban
, Monica Roşu
, Silvia Stroescu
, Daniela Sofronie and Alexandra Eremia
. Though the team members were less experienced than most of their rivals, the Romanians hit every routine to take the team gold by a comfortable margin. World champions USA were second, and the Russians, led by Svetlana Khorkina
, took the bronze.
Ponor scored 9.787 to win beam, the highest women's score of the entire Olympics, where she beat all-around champion Carly Patterson
on her best apparatus. Her teammate Alexandra Eremia was third. Ponor followed this with a 9.750 to easily win floor, in a final where many gymnasts faltered. This performance earned her a place in the record books: no female gymnast had won three gold medals in the same Olympics since her compatriot Daniela Silivaş
in 1988. Others to have achieved this honor include Nadia Comăneci
, Ecaterina Szabo
, Nelli Kim, Olga Korbut
and Larisa Latynina.(http://www.gymn-forum.com/results.html) Ponor was also the only gymnast in that Olympic Games to use the difficult full-in dismount from beam. Though once a reasonably common sight in the mid '90s, it had virtually disappeared after the 2000 Olympics. Previously Ponor had dismounted with the more common double pike, but she upgraded for the Olympics.
, where she won gold on beam and silver on floor. That year, Ponor remained undefeated on the beam in major competitions.
In August of that year, Ponor and teammates Florica Leonida
and Alexandra Eremia
left training camp and went to a party at a Bucharest
night club. Consequently, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation opted to dissolve the team and sent Ponor and her teammates back to their home clubs to train. Ponor returned to her home club, "Farul" Constanţa, to train again with her first coaches, Matei Stanei and Gabriela Dosoftei.
However, 2005 also brought some triumphs. At the 2005 European Championships, Ponor again won the gold on the balance beam, easily beating the competition. With her new routine including two handstands, a double spin, and a tumbling line including five different skills landed perfectly. But the Olympic champion failed to medal on the floor, as she went out of bounds on one of her tumbling passes and finished in fourth place. Ponor was distraught at this and was seen crying afterwards.
In November 2005 at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
in Melbourne
, Ponor was one of only two Romanian female gymnasts selected by the Romanian Gymnastics Federation to compete (the other being Florica Leonida). After an uncharacteristic wobble on the balance beam, Ponor took home only a bronze medal. She did not qualify to floor finals and did not compete on vault or bars.
The Romanian gymnastics team had a new coach for 2006, Nicolae Forminte. However, Ponor stated that she did not want to train with Forminte. Instead, she continued to train with Matei Stanei and Gabi Paun, only one of her coaches, before joining the Romanian National Team. Ponor competed at the European Championships that year. Additionally, she announced that she would retire after that competition, citing lingering knee problems as the reason that she could no longer continue in the sport. Despite her injury, she had managed some upgrades. In the beam final, she became the first gymnast ever to successfully perform a five-element tumbling series in a major competition, and in doing so retained her title. Ponor was the first athlete ever to win three consecutive European beam titles (the great Věra Čáslavská
also won three, though not consecutively). She also showed a new floor routine, with unusual flexibility elements that she had not performed before, and more dance and musical interpretation than other gymnasts have typically shown under the new code—most now need to use four or five passes. The Romanians also took team silver, a remarkable comeback considering the state of the program only six months before, but a disappointment to them since the team would have won were it not for a fall on the last piece of apparatus.
Ponor has expressed an interest in trying for the 2008 Olympic team, but after a bout of illness she was not present at the 2007 European Championships. Ponor has made significant advances on her marquee events, beam and floor. She competed in the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
(her first international competition since 2006 European Gymnastics Championships. In the team preliminaries, she competed on vault, beam and floor. She, along with compatriot Steliana Nistor
, qualified for the balance beam event final in second place with a score of 16.250 just behind top qualifier Li Shanshan
of China
. In the team finals, she competed only on vault and beam. Her 15.000 score on vault was the highest score ever given to a 1.5 twisting Yurchenko in the new code of points. She and her teammates won the bronze, moving ahead of Russia after one of their gymnasts received a zero for running into the vault. She had the third score in the beam final, but the bronze medal was not awarded since two gymnasts (Steliana Nistor
and Li Shanshan
) tied for the silver medal.
As of October 2007, Ponor resumed training in the national team led by Forminte. In December 2007, she announced her retirement from the sport.
(the 2010 World champion on this event). She also won the gold on vault and the silver on floor.
Ponor made it to the final Romanian team that would go to the World Championships, however, Catalina did not achive good results neither in the Beam nor on the Floor Exercices. In the qualifications, Catalina scored 15.166 on the Beam moving to the final at the 5th place, however in the final events due to a mistake made, she came in 7th place.
Vault: Double-twisting Yurchenko
Uneven Bars: Jump to handstand
on low bar; toe shoot to high bar, kip, cast to handstand; giant 1/2, Jaeger release, kip, cast to handstand; giant 1/2, Ling, Bi, straddle back to low bar; stoop to high bar; giant, double pike dismount.
Balance Beam: Scale; Onodi
, back handspring, one-armed back handspring, layout stepout; switch leap, Kochetkova
; front aerial, back handspring, two foot back layout; full turn; Omelianchik
to split and straddle handstand; Round-off, double pike dismount (also capable of a round-off to full in dismount, used this in Olympics)
Floor Exercise: Triple turn, Popa; round-off-back-handspring- pike-full in; round-off-back-handspring-2.5 twist to a front layout; round-off-back-handspring-triple twist; cat leap double, cat leap 1.5; tuck double; round-off-back-handspring-piked double back.
2006
Vault: 1.5 twisting Yurchenko
Balance Beam: Press to split handstand mount; Onodi, front aerial, Kotchetkova, back handspring, 2 foot back layout; Wolf jump, split leap; 2¼ turn; switch leap, Omelianchik to split and straddle handstand; Round-off, double pike dismount
Floor Exercise: Triple turn; round-off, back handspring, piked-full in; round-off, back handspring, 2½ twist to punch front layout; double high Arabesque turn; full-twisting switch leap; ring leap; round-off, back handspring, double pike; switch leap, straddle jump; round-off, back handspring, double twist.
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. After beginning training with the national team in 2002, Ponor won several medals with the Romanian team, along with individual balance beam and floor exercise medals. Almost unknown until late 2003, Ponor has made several important achievements in her career as a gymnast. Her career highlights include the 2004 Summer Olympics
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
and the 2004 European Gymnastics Championships, both of which she was a triple gold medalist, and the 2003 World Championships
2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 37th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Anaheim, California, United States, in 2003.Tie-breakers were not used at this competition...
, where she was a triple silver medalist.
Following the Olympic games, Ponor has become involved in controversies, but has also triumphed at several competitions. After winning a gold medal at the 2006 European Championships, Ponor decided to retire because of injuries. Despite this, she resumed training and was planning to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
. In December 2007, she announced her retirement from the sport due to health reasons. She resumed training in 2011 and made a successful comeback at the Romanian National Championships.
Early career (2002–2004)
In 2002 Ponor was selected to move to DevaDeva, Romania
Deva is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, on the left bank of the Mureș River. It is the capital of Hunedoara County.-Name:...
, the location of the training facility for the Romanian National Gymnastics Team. National team coaches Octavian Belu
Octavian Belu
Octavian Ioan Atanase Bellu is the current head of the Romanian national women's artistic gymnastics team. He was the main coach with interruptions, between 1990 and 2005 and returned as head of the national team in 2010...
and Mariana Bitang had discovered her while watching her train in Constanţa
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
. Her first coaches, from "Farul" Sport Club, were Matei Stanei and Gabriela Dosoftei. The next year Ponor was selected for the team for the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 37th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Anaheim, California, United States, in 2003.Tie-breakers were not used at this competition...
in Anaheim, U.S., where she won a silver medal with the Romanian team, as well as individual silver medals on balance beam and floor. In the European Championships, Catalina won the gold in the event final, while her teammate Alexandra Eremia won the silver.
In 2004, Ponor followed up her result at the World Championships with even higher finishes at the European Championships in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. Ponor won three gold medals at the event: team, balance beam, and floor exercise.
2004 Summer Olympics
Ponor later competed at the European Championships and captured three gold medals on the same events (team, balance beam and floor exercise). At the Olympic GamesOlympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece, she won gold in every event she entered, unprecedented in Olympic gymnastics. She was part of an immensely successful Romanian women's gymnastics team (four golds, one silver and one bronze in six events) that also included Oana Ban
Oana Ban
Oana Mihaela Ban is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast. She is an Olympic gold medalist with the team and a world silver medalist on beam and with the team...
, Monica Roşu
Monica Rosu
Monica Roşu is an artistic gymnast from Romania. During her career she won two Olympic gold medals , a silver medal with the team at world championships and two gold continental medals ....
, Silvia Stroescu
Silvia Stroescu
Silvia Alexandra Stroescu is a Romanian artistic gymnast. She is an Olympic, world, and European gold medalist with the team. A skill on the floor exercise is named after her; "Stroescu" is a stretched forward salto with 2½ twists.-Early life and career:She was one of the most successful junior...
, Daniela Sofronie and Alexandra Eremia
Alexandra Eremia
Alexandra Georgiana Eremia is a Romanian artistic gymnast. Her best apparatus was the balance beam on which she had an interesting routine starting with her trademark split mount. She is an Olympic and a European gold medalist with the team. Individually, she won several medals on beam in...
. Though the team members were less experienced than most of their rivals, the Romanians hit every routine to take the team gold by a comfortable margin. World champions USA were second, and the Russians, led by Svetlana Khorkina
Svetlana Khorkina
Svetlana Vasilyevna Khorkina is a popular Russian gymnast and seven-time Olympic medalist, who is now a deputy at the Russian State Duma. With an unprecedented nine gold, eight silver, and three bronze World Championships medals, she is one of the most successful female gymnasts of her era and has...
, took the bronze.
Ponor scored 9.787 to win beam, the highest women's score of the entire Olympics, where she beat all-around champion Carly Patterson
Carly Patterson
Carly Rae Patterson is an American singer and former gymnast. She is the 2004 Olympic All-Around Champion and a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame...
on her best apparatus. Her teammate Alexandra Eremia was third. Ponor followed this with a 9.750 to easily win floor, in a final where many gymnasts faltered. This performance earned her a place in the record books: no female gymnast had won three gold medals in the same Olympics since her compatriot Daniela Silivaş
Daniela Silivas
Viorica Daniela Silivaş-Harper , best known as Daniela Silivaş, is a Romanian gymnast who is most famous for winning six medals in women's artistic gymnastics at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea...
in 1988. Others to have achieved this honor include Nadia Comăneci
Nadia Comaneci
Nadia Elena Comăneci is a Romanian gymnast, winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the first female gymnast ever to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. She is also the winner of two gold medals at the 1980 Summer...
, Ecaterina Szabo
Ecaterina Szabo
Ecaterina Szabo is an ethnic Hungarian former artistic gymnast from Romania who won 20 Olympic, world and continental medals...
, Nelli Kim, Olga Korbut
Olga Korbut
Olga Valentinovna Korbut , also known as the Sparrow from Minsk, is a Belarusian, Soviet-born gymnast who won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympics, in which she competed in 1972 and 1976 for the USSR team....
and Larisa Latynina.(http://www.gymn-forum.com/results.html) Ponor was also the only gymnast in that Olympic Games to use the difficult full-in dismount from beam. Though once a reasonably common sight in the mid '90s, it had virtually disappeared after the 2000 Olympics. Previously Ponor had dismounted with the more common double pike, but she upgraded for the Olympics.
Post-Athens (2004–2006)
Following her Olympic success, Ponor competed in various exhibitions and in more minor competitions, such as the Glasgow Grand Prix. She crowned a successful year at the 2004 World Cup Final in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, where she won gold on beam and silver on floor. That year, Ponor remained undefeated on the beam in major competitions.
In August of that year, Ponor and teammates Florica Leonida
Florica Leonida
Florica Leonida is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast. She is a silver world medalist and a silver European medalist with the team. She was a successful junior gymnast winning gold on beam and three silver medals at the 2002 Junior European Championships.-References:...
and Alexandra Eremia
Alexandra Eremia
Alexandra Georgiana Eremia is a Romanian artistic gymnast. Her best apparatus was the balance beam on which she had an interesting routine starting with her trademark split mount. She is an Olympic and a European gold medalist with the team. Individually, she won several medals on beam in...
left training camp and went to a party at a Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
night club. Consequently, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation opted to dissolve the team and sent Ponor and her teammates back to their home clubs to train. Ponor returned to her home club, "Farul" Constanţa, to train again with her first coaches, Matei Stanei and Gabriela Dosoftei.
However, 2005 also brought some triumphs. At the 2005 European Championships, Ponor again won the gold on the balance beam, easily beating the competition. With her new routine including two handstands, a double spin, and a tumbling line including five different skills landed perfectly. But the Olympic champion failed to medal on the floor, as she went out of bounds on one of her tumbling passes and finished in fourth place. Ponor was distraught at this and was seen crying afterwards.
In November 2005 at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 38th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia from the 21st to the 27th November 2005. Only the all-around and event finals were contested at this meet...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Ponor was one of only two Romanian female gymnasts selected by the Romanian Gymnastics Federation to compete (the other being Florica Leonida). After an uncharacteristic wobble on the balance beam, Ponor took home only a bronze medal. She did not qualify to floor finals and did not compete on vault or bars.
The Romanian gymnastics team had a new coach for 2006, Nicolae Forminte. However, Ponor stated that she did not want to train with Forminte. Instead, she continued to train with Matei Stanei and Gabi Paun, only one of her coaches, before joining the Romanian National Team. Ponor competed at the European Championships that year. Additionally, she announced that she would retire after that competition, citing lingering knee problems as the reason that she could no longer continue in the sport. Despite her injury, she had managed some upgrades. In the beam final, she became the first gymnast ever to successfully perform a five-element tumbling series in a major competition, and in doing so retained her title. Ponor was the first athlete ever to win three consecutive European beam titles (the great Věra Čáslavská
Vera Cáslavská
Věra Čáslavská is a Czech gymnast. Blonde, cheerful and possessing impressive stage presence, she was generally popular with the public and won a total of 22 international titles...
also won three, though not consecutively). She also showed a new floor routine, with unusual flexibility elements that she had not performed before, and more dance and musical interpretation than other gymnasts have typically shown under the new code—most now need to use four or five passes. The Romanians also took team silver, a remarkable comeback considering the state of the program only six months before, but a disappointment to them since the team would have won were it not for a fall on the last piece of apparatus.
Aborted Comeback (2007)
Ponor resumed training with her coach, Matei Stanei, in 2007 after returning from Japan. Stanei has noted that Ponor is completely certain of her decision to return to gymnastics. When asked about Ponor's decision to return to gymnastics, the Romanian gymnastics team's coach Forminte commented: "She hasn't trained with me for Euros and it's not my problem. If she wants to return, very good. There will always be a place for another gymnast in Romania. Even though all the gymnasts who have recently retired would come back, there still wouldn't be too many gymnasts in the country. At this moment however, I'm not the selector to say if she's prepared or not to come back."Ponor has expressed an interest in trying for the 2008 Olympic team, but after a bout of illness she was not present at the 2007 European Championships. Ponor has made significant advances on her marquee events, beam and floor. She competed in the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 40th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany, from 1 to 9 September 2007.Oldest and youngest competitors- Men :- Women :- Finals :- Qualifications :- Floor :...
(her first international competition since 2006 European Gymnastics Championships. In the team preliminaries, she competed on vault, beam and floor. She, along with compatriot Steliana Nistor
Steliana Nistor
Steliana Nistor is a Romanian gymnast. She is an Olympic and a world bronze medalist with the team. Individually, she is a world all around and beam silver medalist and a multiple European medalist on beam and uneven bars. Her best events were the uneven bars, the beam and the all around...
, qualified for the balance beam event final in second place with a score of 16.250 just behind top qualifier Li Shanshan
Li Shanshan
Li Shanshan is a Chinese gymnast who is especially strong on balance beam. She was a member of the Chinese silver medal-winning team at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, where she also medalled on the balance beam...
of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. In the team finals, she competed only on vault and beam. Her 15.000 score on vault was the highest score ever given to a 1.5 twisting Yurchenko in the new code of points. She and her teammates won the bronze, moving ahead of Russia after one of their gymnasts received a zero for running into the vault. She had the third score in the beam final, but the bronze medal was not awarded since two gymnasts (Steliana Nistor
Steliana Nistor
Steliana Nistor is a Romanian gymnast. She is an Olympic and a world bronze medalist with the team. Individually, she is a world all around and beam silver medalist and a multiple European medalist on beam and uneven bars. Her best events were the uneven bars, the beam and the all around...
and Li Shanshan
Li Shanshan
Li Shanshan is a Chinese gymnast who is especially strong on balance beam. She was a member of the Chinese silver medal-winning team at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, where she also medalled on the balance beam...
) tied for the silver medal.
As of October 2007, Ponor resumed training in the national team led by Forminte. In December 2007, she announced her retirement from the sport.
Comeback (2011)
In April 2011 Ponor resumed training with coaches Octavian Bellu and Mariana Bitang (who returned in 2010 as main coaches of the national Romanian team). Her first competition, after an absence of almost four years, was the Romanian National Championships in August. Here, she tied for gold on beam with Ana PorgrasAna Porgras
Ana Porgras is a Romanian artistic gymnast. She won the uneven bars bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships and the balance beam gold medal at the 2010 World Championships in Rotterdam. Porgras is considered to be one of the most artistic gymnasts of her generation, reminiscent of the Eastern...
(the 2010 World champion on this event). She also won the gold on vault and the silver on floor.
Ponor made it to the final Romanian team that would go to the World Championships, however, Catalina did not achive good results neither in the Beam nor on the Floor Exercices. In the qualifications, Catalina scored 15.166 on the Beam moving to the final at the 5th place, however in the final events due to a mistake made, she came in 7th place.
Routines
2004Vault: Double-twisting Yurchenko
Yurchenko (vault)
Yurchenko is the name of both a specific vault and a vault family in artistic gymnastics. The Yurchenko was named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, who originated the vault in the early 1980s....
Uneven Bars: Jump to handstand
Handstand
A handstand is the act of supporting the body in a stable, inverted vertical position by balancing on the hands. In a basic handstand the body is held straight with arms and legs fully extended, with hands spaced approximately shoulder-width apart...
on low bar; toe shoot to high bar, kip, cast to handstand; giant 1/2, Jaeger release, kip, cast to handstand; giant 1/2, Ling, Bi, straddle back to low bar; stoop to high bar; giant, double pike dismount.
Balance Beam: Scale; Onodi
Henrietta Ónodi
Henrietta Ónodi is an Olympic gold winner Hungarian gymnast who competed at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics....
, back handspring, one-armed back handspring, layout stepout; switch leap, Kochetkova
Dina Kotchetkova
Dina Anatolyevna Kochetkova is a Russian gymnast who competed at the 1996 Olympics. Stylistically, Dina was considered by many to be the "last of the Soviets," performing difficult skills with elegant, clean technique...
; front aerial, back handspring, two foot back layout; full turn; Omelianchik
Oksana Omelianchik
-Early life and career:Omelianchik was born on January 2, 1970 or December 31, 1969 in Ulan-Ude, USSR). She was originally a figure skater, and participated in her first skating meet at the age of 6. She began gymnastics on the recommendation of her skating choreographer, who believed she had...
to split and straddle handstand; Round-off, double pike dismount (also capable of a round-off to full in dismount, used this in Olympics)
Floor Exercise: Triple turn, Popa; round-off-back-handspring- pike-full in; round-off-back-handspring-2.5 twist to a front layout; round-off-back-handspring-triple twist; cat leap double, cat leap 1.5; tuck double; round-off-back-handspring-piked double back.
2006
Vault: 1.5 twisting Yurchenko
Balance Beam: Press to split handstand mount; Onodi, front aerial, Kotchetkova, back handspring, 2 foot back layout; Wolf jump, split leap; 2¼ turn; switch leap, Omelianchik to split and straddle handstand; Round-off, double pike dismount
Floor Exercise: Triple turn; round-off, back handspring, piked-full in; round-off, back handspring, 2½ twist to punch front layout; double high Arabesque turn; full-twisting switch leap; ring leap; round-off, back handspring, double pike; switch leap, straddle jump; round-off, back handspring, double twist.
Floor exercise music
- 2003: "Bronx Machine"
- 2004: "Gia" by Despina VandiDespina VandiDespina Malea , known by her stage name Despina Vandi , is a Greek singer. Born in Tübingen near Stuttgart, West Germany, Vandi's family returned to Kavala, Greece when she was six years old and she later enrolled at the University of Thessaloniki, but eventually dropped out to begin a career in...
- 2005: "Harem"
- 2006: "The Underground" from the soundtrack to The Truman ShowThe Truman ShowThe Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
and a piece of Greek panflute music - 2007: Edvin Marton-Dark Angel
- 2011: "Rise" Safri Duo