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Alina Kabayeva Profile |
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Birth Date: May 12, 1983
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Birth Place: Tashkent, Uzbekistan
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Birth Name: Alina Kabayeva
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Biography |
Alina Kabaeva Russian: Алина Маратовна Кабаева Alina
Maratovna Kabaeva (born May 12, 1983 in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan) is an individual rhythmic gymnast from Russia.
She is known for her extreme natural flexibility. She stands
at 1.67m (5'6) and weighs 48kg (106lbs). Alina is Russia's
most successful rhythmic gymnast to date, and is also one of
the most decorated gymnasts in the history of rhythmic
gymnastics.
Alina took up Rhythmic Gymnastics in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in
1987 at age 4. Her first coach was A. Malkina. Her father
was a professional football (soccer) player and the family
was always following him to different places in Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan and Russia. At first many coaches did not like
her because they thought that she was too "heavy" and "ugly"
to be a rhythmic gymnast, none of them seemed to consider
her a gymnast of any particular talent. In her young teens
she moved to Russia, there her mother took her to the
Russian head coach Irina Viner, who liked her from the
start.
She stayed with Viner and from then on claimed title after
title. All efforts of Viner and Alina paid off. She made her
international debut in 1996. In 1998 at age 15 Alina took
out the European Championships in Portugal, her victory
considered by many to be completely "out of the blue". Back
then she was the youngest member of the Russian squad and
she was competing alongside internationally recognised
teammates, like Amina Zaripova. In 1999 Alina became
European Champion for the second consecutive time and stole
the World title in Osaka, Japan. She went on winning a total
of 5 all-around titles at the European Championships and
added another World title in 2003 in Budapest, Hungary.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, no one doubted her taking the
All-Around gold until, on her second performance, the most
unexpected thing happened. Alina dropped her hoop and ran to
retrieve it outside the competition area. She took home the
bronze with the final score of 39.466 (Rope 9.925, Hoop
9.641, Ball 9.950, Ribbon 9.950).
In 2001 at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, she
won the gold for the Ball, Clubs and Rope, and the silver in
the Individual All-Around and Hoop. Alina and her teammate
Irina Tchachina tested positive to a banned diuretic (furosemide)
and were stripped of their medals.
Irina Viner, Russian Head Coach and who also served as the
Vice President of the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical
Committee, said her gymnasts had been taking a food
supplement called 'Hyper' which contained mild diuretics.
Which according to Viner the gymnasts were taking for
pre-menstrual syndrome. When the supply ran out shortly
before the Goodwill Games, the team physiotherapist
restocked at a local pharmacy. According to Viner, the
supplement sold there was fake and contained furosemide. The
commission requested that the Goodwill Games organizing
committee nullify Kabaeva and Tchachina's results. The FIG
also nullified their results from the World Championships in
Madrid, as such Ukraine's Tamara Yerofeeva was declared the
2001 World Champion.
At the 2004 Athens Olympics she took home the gold with a
score of 108.400 (Hoop 26.800, Ball 27.350, Clubs 27.150,
Ribbon 27.100), the Silver medal went to her teammate Irina
Tchachina.
During October 2004 Alina announced her retirement from the
sport. However in June 2005 Russian head coach Irina Viner
announced a possible comeback. Alina made her comeback at an
Italy-Russia friendly competition in Genoa, 10th September,
2005. On March 5th 2006, Alina was placed first at the
Gazprom Moscow Grand Prix, with fellow Russians Vera Sessina
and Olga Kapranova placing second and third. |
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Other
Information |
Is Uzbek/Russian
2000 Olympic rhythmic all-around bronze medalist
2004 Olympic rhythmic all-around champ. |
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