Melitina Staniouta

Melitina Dmitryevna Staniouta (Меліціна Дзмітрыеўна Станюта, Мелитина Дмитриевна Станюта; born 15 November 1993) is a Belarusian retired individual rhythmic gymnast.

Staniouta first took up the sport of rhythmic gymnastics in 1998.

In 2005, she started to train with former Belarusian rhythmic gymnast Larissa Loukianenko, and she was included in the national team.

Staniouta won a number of junior medals, including at the 2008 European Junior Championships winning the silver medal in ribbon and rope.

2009-2012

In 2009, Staniouta debuted as a senior and won two medals at the 2009 World Championships in Mie.

She won bronze in the rope event at the Rhythmic Gymnastics FIG World Cup Series in Pesaro 2009 and All-around at the 2009 Grand Prix Final in Berlin.

At the 2009 World Cup Series' last stage, she won the bronze medal in All-around, a silver medal for rope, and bronze medals for hoop, ball and ribbon in the finals.

Staniouta repeated her success in 2010 and won the bronze medal in the All-around at the World Cup Series' last stage.

She was also the all around bronze medalist and won a bronze in rope finals at the 2010 World Championships, she broke her foot during competition but continued to compete.

Following the event she had an iron pin put into her foot and missed several months of competition.

She also suffered a broken finger, leg and collarbone in 2010.

In 2011, Staniouta continued to struggled with injuries throughout the World Cup and Grand Prix season.

In 2012, Staniouta competed at the 2012 European Championships and finished 6th in All-around.

At the World Cup series in Minsk, she won bronze medals in hoop, clubs and ribbon final ahead of fellow Belarusian Liubov Charkashyna.

She competed in her first Olympics in 2012 London and finished 12th at the qualifications but did not advance to the Top 10 finals.

2013

Staniouta returned to competition in the 2013 season under the new Code of Points system in rhythmic gymnastics.

She won the silver medal in all-around at the first World Cup series held in Tartu, Estonia.

At the Thiais Grand Prix, Staniouta won bronze medal in clubs, hoop and ribbon finals.

At the second World Cup series of the season held in Lisbon, Portugal, Staniouta won the silver medal in ribbon and bronze in clubs final.

She won her first World Cup all-around gold medal at the 2013 Irina Deleanu Cup, edging out Ukrainian Alina Maksymenko (silver) and Russian Daria Svatkovskaya (bronze).

Staniouta won the 2013 World Cup Pesaro in all-around beating Russians Maria Titova and Daria Svatkovskaya for the gold, she won three gold medals at the event finals in ball, clubs and ribbon.

At the 2013 Corbeil-Essonnes World Cup, Staniouta won the silver in All-around, she won another silver medal in ball and bronze in clubs final.

She competed in home crowd at the 2013 Minsk World Cup where she won bronze in all-around, she was able to win two gold medals in the event finals in clubs and ribbon.

Staniouta then competed at the 2013 European Championships in Vienna, Austria and together with her teammates ( Katsiaryna Halkina and Arina Charopa) won the Team bronze medal.

She won bronze in hoop and clubs final.

Staniouta competed at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan where she won silver in hoop behind Margarita Mamun.

Staniouta won 2 gold medals (clubs and ball) at the 2013 World Games in Cali beating Ukrainians Rizatdinova and Maksymenko.

At the 2013 World Cup series in St.Petersburg, Russia, Staniouta won the silver in all-around ahead of Russian Yana Kudryavtseva and won bronze medals in hoop, clubs final.

She is a three-time (2015, 2013, 2010) World all-around bronze medalist, the 2015 European Games all-around bronze medalist, the 2014 European Championships all-around silver medalist, and 2009 Grand Prix Final all-around bronze medalist.

Melitina is the great-granddaughter of Belarusian actress Stefaniya Staniouta.

Staniouta speaks Belarusian, Russian, English and French.

In 2020 via her Instagram account, she expressed criticism of the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko and documented police brutality against Belarusian citizens during peaceful anti-government protests.

She was one of 400 Belarusian athletes to publicly criticize the election results of the 2020 presidential election in Belarus.

Due to her political activism, she fled her home in Minsk.

In early 2022, she went to Kyiv, where she lived in exile before the Ukraine-Russian invasion.

She has criticized the Ukraine-Russian invasion on social media.

She resides Rueil-Malmaison, a suburb of Paris where she coaches rhythmic gymnastics.