Elena Zamolodchikova

Elena Mikhailovna Zamolodchikova (Елена Михайловна Замолодчикова; born 19 September 1982) is a Russian former artistic gymnast and four-time Olympic medallist.

Zamolodchikova was born on 19 September 1982 in Moscow.

Her father, Mikhail Alexandrovich, was a member of the Soviet Army and was one of the first Chernobyl liquidators, and her mother, Irina Nikolaevna, was a teacher.

She began gymnastics at the age of six.

She wanted to start gymnastics after watching a competition on television.

She briefly quit gymnastics after being diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, but this diagnosis was refuted by another doctor, and she returned to training.

Zamolodchikova joined the Russian junior national team in 1996 and competed at the 1996 Junior European Championships.

There, the Russian team won the gold medal, and Zamolodchikova won the silver medal on vault.

Zamolodchikova began age-eligible for senior competition in 1998.

She won a silver medal with the Russian team at the 1998 European Championships.

Individually, she finished fourth on vault.

At the 1998 World Youth Games in Moscow, she won the all-around title.

In 1999, Zamolodchikova participated in her first World Championships.

She won the gold on the vault, silver with the Russian team, and bronze in the all-around.

Following the World Championships, she competed at the Glasgow Grand Prix and won the gold medal on the vault.

She won another gold medal on vault at the Stuttgart Grand Prix.

Zamolodchikova began the Olympic season at the Montreux World Cup where she won the gold medal on the vault.

Despite her father's recent death, she chose to still compete at the European Championships.

There, she led her team to the gold medal and earned individual silvers in the all-around and vault finals and a bronze on the balance beam.

She is the 2000 Olympic champion on vault and floor exercise, and she is a two-time World champion on vault (1999, 2002).

She is a two-time World Cup Final vault champion (2000, 2002) and a two-time European champion with the Russian team (2000, 2002).

Zamolodchikova was selected as a member of the Russian gymnastics team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney alongside Svetlana Khorkina, Yekaterina Lobaznyuk, Elena Produnova, Anastasiya Kolesnikova, and Anna Chepeleva.

The team finished in first place during the qualification round.

In the team final, several major mistakes, including Zamolodchikova's fall off the balance beam, cost them the gold medal, and they won silver behind Romania.

After two apparatuses in the all-around final, Zamolodchikova was in first place with her stronger exercises still to go.

However, she lost her chance of an all-around medal after a fall during her floor exercise rotation.

On a night when many gymnasts made uncharacteristic errors, she eventually finished sixth.

Zamolodchikova did not initially qualify for the vault final due to the two-per-country rule.

However, on the day of the final, Khorkina gave up her spot to Zamolodchikova.

Khorkina stated that she felt Zamolodchikova would have a better chance at winning the gold medal, and Zamolodchikova did ultimately win the gold medal with an average score of 9.712.

In the floor exercise final, she beat Khorkina by 0.038 points to win her second Olympic gold medal.

After the Olympic Games, Zamolodchikova competed at the World Cup final and won gold on the vault and silver on the floor exercise.

Then at the Stuttgart World Cup, she won gold on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise, and she tied with Jana Komrsková for silver on uneven bars.

Zamolodchikova won the all-around title at the 2001 American Cup.

Then at the Paris World Cup, she won gold on vault and floor exerciser and silver on balance beam behind Sun Xiaojiao.

She won another vault gold medal at the Cottbus World Cup in addition to a silver on uneven bars behind teammate Svetlana Khorkina.

She was a member of the Russian team that won gold at the European Team Championships.

At the 2001 Goodwill Games, she won the all-around bronze medal behind Sabina Cojocar and Svetlana Khorkina.

She also competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics where she won a bronze medal with the Russian team.

In 2015, she was inducted in the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.