Aliya Mustafina, Olympic Gold Medalist
Aliya Mustafina is a Russian artistic gymnast, 2012 Olympic gold medalist as well as the 2010 World Individual All-Around Champion. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she has won four medals, including the silver in the team all-around, the bronze in the individual all-around final, the gold in the uneven bars final, and the bronze in the floor final. Also she is a three-time world champion and a five-time European champion. By the way, she is a multiple winner of the World and European championships, Honored Master of Sports of Russia. In 2012 Mustafina was recognized as Sportswoman of the Year in Russia.
Pretty girl was born on September 30, 1994 in Yegoryevsk, Russia. Her father was the bronze medalist at 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal in Greece-Roman wrestling, as well as coach of CSKA sports school. And her mother worked as a physics teacher. The girl’s younger sister Nailya Mustafina is also engaged in gymnastics and she is a master of sports. But after the injury the girl left professional sports, participating in amateur competitions.
At the age of six Aliya was brought to the sports section by her father. The girl began winning children’s and then junior competitions. She won five gold medals at the Students Games III.
In September 2007, Mustafina took part in Junior International Championships in Yokohama and won five silver medals.
At the Russian Championships in 2009 Aliya won gold in the women’s artistic individual all-around.
Then, at the European Championships 2010 in Birmingham, Mustafina won gold and was two-time silver medalist.
And at the 2010 World Cup the young athlete won gold medal. She became the second Russian gymnast, world champion in the individual all-around after Svetlana Khorkina.
In 2011 Aliya became the all-around silver medalist at the World Cup in Jacksonville.
You know, Mustafina has sustained two injuries over the course of her career only to come back stronger in both cases.
In March 2012, the gymnast competed at the Russian National Championships in Penza. Then, in May of the same year, she competed at the European Championships in Brussels, Belgium. At the end of July, she competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom.
In 2012 Aliya graduated from school and entered the Russian State University of Oil and Gas.
You know, in 2016, at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro Mustafina, exhausted by injuries and years of hard training, put a beautiful point in her own Olympic career, winning three medals: gold on bars, silver in the team all-around and bronze in the personal all-around.
In 2014 the gymnast won three bronze medals at the World Championships in Nanning, China.
At the 2014 European Championships in Sofia she won three medals: silver for the performance on the uneven bars and two bronze for the team performance and performance on the balance beam.
Later, in 2016, Mustafina won three medals at the European Championships in Bern: two gold medals and one bronze.
Personal life
On November 3, 2016 Aliya married bobsledder Alexei Zaitsev. In June 2017, their daughter was born. The couple divorced in 2018.
Her official site: www.aliyamustafina.ru