Kateryna Serebrianskaya (born 25 October 1977 in Simferopol

Simferopol

-Russian Empire and Civil War:The city was renamed Simferopol in 1784 after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate to the Russian Empire by Catherine II of Russia. The name Simferopol is derived from the Greek, Συμφερόπολις , translated as "the city of usefulness." In 1802, Simferopol became the...

) is a former Individual Rhythmic Gymnast

Rhythmic gymnastics

Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which individuals or teams of competitors manipulate one or two pieces of apparatus: rope, clubs, hoop, ball, ribbon and Free . An individual athlete only manipulates 1 apparatus at a time...

. She was born in Simferopol, in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 - in present day Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. She started gymnastics in 1982 at age 4, her mother Liubov was her coach, at the Gratsia club in Simferopol. After that she went to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

, to train at the Deriugins School

Deriugins School

The Deriugina School, also known as the Deriugins' School is a rhythmic gymnastics club in Kiev, Ukraine. It is run by the mother and daughter team of Albina Deriugina, who is the head coach, and Irina Deriugina, who acts as the assistant coach....

. Kateryna retired from Rhythmic Gymnastics in 1998. She is 178 cm / 5.8 ft in height.

Career

Kateryna tied Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

's Maria Petrova

Maria Petrova (rhythmic gymnast)

Maria Petrova is a Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast. She shares the world record for the most individual world all-around rhythmic gymnastics titles of all time and has never placed lower than seventh in any competition in her entire career.-Career:Petrova began her training at the age of five at...

 for the all-round title at the 1995 world championships

1995 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships

XIX World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships were held in Viena, the capital of Austria, September 20–24, 1995.-Individual All-Around:-Individual Ball:-Individual Rope:-Individual Clubs:-Individual Ribbon:-Team All-Around:-Groups All-Around:...

 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. She also won several individual apparatus titles : rope in the 1993 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Alicante, Spain; hoop (tied with Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

ian Larissa Lukyanenko & Bulgarian Maria Petrova), ball (tied with Ukrainian teammate Olena Vitrychenko), clubs and ribbon in the 1994 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Paris, France; ball (tied with Russians Yanina Batyrchina and Amina Zaripova

Amina Zaripova

Amina Zaripova is a retired rhythmic gymnast with Tatar roots. She competed for Russia. Her older sister, Venera Zaripova, is also a retired rhythmic gymnast. Her husband is Alexei Kortnev, lead singer of Neschastny Sluchai.-External links:...

) in the 1995 Worlds in Vienna, Austria; and again in 1996 in Hungary. She also won the 1996 European all-round title, together with the team gold, and gold on rope, ball and ribbon finals.

In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, she dazzled the audience with her technically brilliant routines, and although she had a slight fumble with the ribbon before her final toss, her technical brilliance and clean execution assured her of the gold medal. She was comfortably leading her closest rival, Russia's Yanina Batyrchina by 0.150 points going into that ribbon routine, and the latter was up first and dropped the ribbon.

In addition, Serebrianskaya, Kabayeva, Olexandra Tymoshenko and Yevgeniya Kanayeva were the only rhythmic gymnast to win a World, European and Olympic championships in their entire career.

In 1997, she had a gargantuan task of defending both her European and World Championships all-round titles, being the reigning European, World and Olympic all-round champion like her fellow Ukrainian female artistic gymnastics counterpart, Lilia Podkopayeva

Lilia Podkopayeva

Lilia Alexandrivna Podkopayeva ; born August 15, 1978 in Donetsk) is a retired Ukrainian gymnast who became the 1996 Olympic all-around champion, the 1995 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships all-around champion and the 1996 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships all-around champion...

. In the 1997 European Championships in Greece, she dropped a club right at the end of her all-round clubs routine (9.825), but scores of 9.950 on both the rope and ribbon, and a 9.912 on hoop gave her an accumulated score of 29.637, hence the bronze medal by a mere 0.012 ahead of French competitor, Eva Serrano

Eva Serrano

Eva Serrano was an individual rhythmic gymnast. She started gymnastics at age seven. She retired in December 2000.-External links:*...

. In the apparatus finals, she managed to win the gold in the rope event with a perfect 10.000, and took silver in the clubs and ribbon events. She did not compete in the 1997 World Championships due to an illness suffered by her mother. In her final major competition, the 1998 European Championships, she merely made it into each of the apparatus final events, but won the gold in the hoop final (9.950), a silver with rope (9.933) and a bronze with ribbon (9.933), and actually tied with the same score as two of her fellow competitors, Evgenia Pavlina

Evgenia Pavlina

Evgenia Pavlina is a former Belarussian rhythmic gymnast who competed as an individual. She was born in Minsk, Belarus.-External links:...

 of Belarus and Yanina Batyrchina of Russia, but was placed 3rd due to the new tie-breaker scoring system. She placed a creditable 6th (lost in the tie-breaker to Belarusian, Yulia Raskina

Yulia Raskina

Yulia Raskina is a former Individual rhythmic gymnast who won the All-Around Silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She is Jewish....

) in the all-round final.

Records

1. Serebrianskaya became the first female rhythmic gymnast to hold the European, World, and Olympic all-round titles at the same time. This record was tied by Alina Kabayeva at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

2. She was the first gymnast who has won gold medals in all of apparatus in a World Championship(5 apparatus, rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon). Evgenia Kanaeva tied this record in 2011.

3. She levels with Evgenia Kanaeva and Lilia Ignatova in ball: all of them have won 3 gold medals in the World Championships.