"Rhythmic Gymnastics Veterans". Soviet and Russian coach Galina Kuvykina

The Soviet and Russian coach. She worked with athletes in the Volgograd Region and then in Portugal and Mexico. She participated in training of bronze medalist of 1996 Olympics Olga Shtyrenko.

Galina P. Kuvykina was born on March 21, 1954 in Volgograd. Her sports career began with figure skating. However, this kind of sports was not developing at all in the city at that time. The coach left and the group dissolved. 

Then Galina, who was already 13, decided to try out for rhythmic gymnastics. The girl went to a section being the closest to her home. This was the Barricades sports club. 

Nadezhda A. Frolova became the Kuvykina’s coach. Despite the fact that Galina started training fairly late, she qualified for the Category 1. The girl was very diligent and had a real love for work. When the time has come to choose the trade, Kuvykina matriculated in the Volgograd Institute of Physical Culture. 

Coaching became the lifework for Galina. She devoted almost 40 years to it. Galina Kuvykina started coaching in 1976 in the Children’s and Youth Sports School No. 3 of the city of Tomsk, where she relocated for some time. In 1980s she returned to the Barricades sports club — she trained gymnasts of the Volgograd Region’s team. 

Participation in training of Russian national team gymnast Olga Shtyrenko became an important part of Galina Kuvykina’s work. The native of Volgograd became the seven-time European champion, the five-time world champion, and the Bronze medalist of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta in group exercises (together with Irina Dzyuba, now the coach in the Alina Kabaeva Sky Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy, Evgenia Bochkareva, Angelina Yushkova, and Elena Krivoshei). 

It is interesting that Galina Kuvykina did not work in her homeland only. She also made a contribution to development of rhythmic gymnastics in Portugal: a group of girls for practicing was formed under her guidance in the sports club of the city of Coimbra in 1990s. This club is now among the leaders in the country. Galina also trained the Mexican national team in early 2000s. 

In 2005, the coach returned to Russia to work where her path had begun — in the Zenit sports club municipal budgetary institution, the ex-Barricades sports club. She fostered many vivid athletes that were Volgograd Region’s team members during the next thirteen years. 

Galina Kuvykina passed away on October 4, 2015. A school of gymnastics in St. Petersburg bears her name at present.