Russia’s Anastasia Bliznyuk is a unique athlete. She is the only gymnast in history to win medals at three different Olympic Games.
Bliznyuk started doing rhythmic gymnastics at the age of five. At age of 11, she was accepted into Irina Viner’s Olympic Training Center.
“I love and deeply respect Irina Aleksandrovna. She has done so much for me. She simply gave me a chance to prove myself,” Anastasia said.
Bliznyuk made her Olympic debut in London in 2012. She competed together with Uliana Donskova, Ksenia Dudkina, Alina Makarenko, Anastasia Nazarenko and Karolina Sevastyanova. The Russian team claimed gold in the group all-around event.
But at the time, Bliznyuk was not yet a world champion, and she added that title to her name only in 2013.
Anastasia participated in her second Olympics in Rio de Janeiro four years later. She became a two-time Olympic champion together with her teammates Vera Biryukova, Anastasiia Maksimova, Anastasiia Tatareva and Maria Tolkacheva.
At her third Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, Bliznyuk was a member of Russia’s silver medal-winning team along with Anastasiia Tatareva, Anastasiia Maksimova, Angelina Shkatova and Alisa Tishchenko.
Bliznyuk now works as a coach for the Chinese rhythmic gymnastics team in the group event. However, she doesn’t have plans to retire, and dreams of taking part in one more Olympics. “After the Tokyo Games I was sure that I would finish my sporting career. But now, I’m trying to train. We know that gymnastics is a high-injury sport and we have fierce competition inside the team, but I see that I can continue to compete. Why not? I will try to make one more attempt,” the 28-year-old said.