Alina Kabaeva - Athletic Career

Athletic Career

Kabaeva, the daughter of a Tatar father and Russian mother, was born in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, in the Soviet Union. She started rhythmic gymnastics there at the age of 3 with coach Margarita Samuilovna. Her father Marat Kabayev was a professional football (soccer) player and the family was constantly following him to different places in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. At first, many coaches did not like Alina because they considered her "too heavy" and "ugly" to be a rhythmic gymnast, none of them seemed to consider her a rhythmic gymnast of any particular talent. In her young teens she moved to Russia, where her mother took her to the Russian head coach Irina Viner, who liked her from the start.

She stayed with Viner and made her international debut in 1996. In 1998 the 15-year-old Kabaeva won the European Championships in Portugal. At the time she was the youngest member of the Russian squad, competing alongside internationally recognized teammates, like Amina Zaripova. In 1999 Kabaeva became European Champion for the second consecutive time and won the World title in Osaka, Japan. She went on to win 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, Kabaeva was expected to claim gold in all-around, but, due to an error in an otherwise exceptional performance—she dropped her hoop and ran to retrieve it outside the competition area – took home the bronze with the final score of 39.466 (Rope 9.925, Hoop 9.641, Ball 9.950, Ribbon 9.950) while fellow Russian teammate Yulia Barsukova won the Olympics Gold medal.

At the 2001 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, she won the gold for the ball, clubs and rope, and silver in the Individual All-Around and hoop. However, Kabaeva and her teammate Irina Tchachina tested positive to a banned diuretic (furosemide) and were stripped of their medals.

Irina Viner, the Russian head coach, who also served as the Vice President of the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Committee at the time, 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 the Goodwill Games organizing committee to nullify Kabaeva and Tchachina's results. The FIG also nullified their results from the World Championships in Madrid, causing Ukraine's Tamara Yerofeeva to be declared the 2001 World Champion.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics Kabaeva took home the gold medal in the individual all-around for rhythmic gymnastics 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. Some days before the games she converted to Eastern Orthodoxy from Islam.

In October 2004, Kabaeva announced her retirement from the sport. However, in June 2005, the Russian head coach Irina Viner announced a possible comeback. Kabaeva resumed her sport career at an Italy-Russia friendly competition in Genoa, on 10 September 2005. On March 5, 2006, She won the Gazprom Moscow Grand Prix, with fellow Russians Vera Sessina and Olga Kapranova taking the second and third places.