Career
She started her sports career at the age of 6 in her home town, Omsk. The young Irina was taken to a sports school by her grandfather, a devoted amateur sportsman. The day before Irina had watched the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships on TV and was duly impressed. Her family had also insisted on taking up swimming. Thus young Irina's days were filled with music lessons, swim training and rhythmic gymnastics. At age 11 she had to make a choice, and she chose gymnastics. Since she was 5 she was being coached under the guidance of Vera Efremovna Shtelbaums and Vera's daughter Elena Arais.
Irina's first victory was at age 8 at the Omskaya oblast championship; by age 12 she was already on Russia's national team and routinely travelled to Moscow to take part in the training camps. As a junior, she took first place at a very prestigious tournament, the CIS Spatakiada, and won the Russian women's championships twice in a row.
In August 1999 Irina began training at the Olympic Preparatory School under the guidance of famed coach Irina Viner, and around the same time she won the World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
In 2001 she won the gold in the hoop and individual all-around (she also won the silver in the ball, clubs and rope) at the 2001 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Madrid, Spain, yet Irina and her teammate Alina Kabaeva tested positive to a banned diuretic and were stripped of their medals.
Read more about this topic: Irina Tchachina
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