Rhythmic Gymnastics Veterans. USSR’s First Master of Sports Liliya Nazmutdinova

USSR’s first Master of Sports in rhythmic gymnastics. 15-time USSR champion. Republican and All-Union categories judge. Russia’s Honored Worker of Physical Culture, Tatarstan’s Honored Worker of Physical Culture

Liliya Nazmutdinova was born on June 13, 1936 in Sverdlovsk. Her parents were musical and drama theater actors, so starting as a young child, the future gymnast was surrounded by the atmosphere of art and creativity.

When Liliya turned 10 years old, she joined a rhythmic gymnastics club. It was by the way, her cherished dream was to become a ballerina, but no ballet studios were open for enrollment. Nazmutdinova’s first coach was Elizaveta Oblygina. She was the founder of rhythmic gymnastics in the Ural region, USSR’s first Honored coach. At that time, there were no tournaments in the Sverdlovsk region  - the sport was much too young. The girls trained without knowing what was ahead. But it was up to the coach to captivate and motivate the athletes.

The Sverdlovsk championship took place in 1951 and Nazmutdinova took third place. She was noticed by the RSFSR national team coach Tatyana Vavich. After the tournament, the famous mentor invited Liliya to join her team. And 1952 was a very successful year for Nazmutdinova. She won the RSFSR and the USSR championships. A year later she became the absolute champion of the RSFSR among adults, and also joined the USSR national team, where she remained until the end of her career.

In 1954, the Masters of Sports program was approved for the first time. An athlete had to score at least 54 points in the hexathlon total to earn that title. And Nazmutdinova was already the only one who was able to achieve this task at the 1955 RSFSR Championship She scored 56.4 points and became the first in the Soviet Union to become a Master of Sports in rhythmic gymnastics. Liliya also became the absolute champion of the USSR and the RSFSR. In total, during her career she won the USSR champion title 15 times. And in 1965, at the World Championships, she won bronze in object exercises and became fifth in the all-around.

Liliya Nazmutdinova retired from performing in 1974, and in the final years of performing, she took up coaching. She worked, for example, with her sister, 1971 world champion Alfiya Nazmutdinova, and was the first mentor of the 1996 Olympic bronze medalist in the team of Yulia Ivanova.

Liliya’s two other sisters are also gymnasts. Roza Nazmutdinova became the USSR's Master of Sports, champion of the USSR and winner of the country's Cup. Ilmira Nazmutdinova is USSR’s Master of Sports and a bronze medalist of the national championship in group exercises.

Liliya Nazmutdinova was awarded the Sports Valor insignia of the Sverdlovsk region. In 1992, she was awarded the title of Russia’s Honored Worker of Physical Culture and in 2003 - Tatarstan’s Honored Worker of Physical Culture.

The champion passed away on September 18, 2018.

Currently, there is an athletic school in Yekaterinburg named Liliya.