Biography of the Month
Yelena Nikolayevna Grosheva was born in the Russian city of Yaroslavl (2
hours from Moscow) On April 12, 1979. She began Gymnastics when she was
5 and was told nearly immediately that she had talent, especially in the
areas where power and artistry are required.
Grosheva admits her favourite event is floor because it looks beautiful,
she also enjoys uneven bars. Ever since 1984 she has risen through the
Russian ranks dramatically until she was chosen to be part of the
Russian training system at round lake in 1992.
Grosheva competed in the Junior European champs with some panache in
1994, but she had a few problems on some events including floor
exersize. However here she threw her very difficult full twisting back
somersault on beam, which has rarely been seen since!
The very same year (1994) Grosheva was chosen to compete in the World
championships in Brisbane, Australia. Grosheva performed extremely well
here as a newcomer, unfortunetly her 2 more experienced team-mates Dina
Kotchetkova and Svetlana Khorkina took most of the honours in the event
finals. However she did finish a pleasing 12th place overall with a
great bar exersize.
Later that same year, a busy one for Grosheva she competed in the
Goodwill Games in St Petersburg, Russia. This was one of Yelena's best
meets! She helped her team to win GOLD over team Romania by a huge
amount. Yelena also made it into the all around finals ahead of her tall
team-mate Svetlana Khorkina. Grosheva threw 4 excellent routines in the
final, finishing 3rd ahead of 1996 Olympic Champion Liliya Podkopayeva!!
Adding to the busy year were the world team championship in Dortmund,
Germany Here Yelena and her team won the bronze medal, Grosheva competed
well on all events except for a fall from beam.
1995 was a slower year for Yelena, she was hampered by a few injury
problems but competed in a few meets here and there. By the end of the
year she was ready for the world championships in Sabae, Japan. At this
meet Yelena competed well in the team event, but unfortunetly some of
her team-mates had problems. Sadly Russia missed the bronze medal by a
tiny margin, finishing 4th, The dissapointment was visable with the
team, especially Yelena who cried in devastation. But the Russian team
did qualify for the Olympic Games in Atlanta.
The selection process was hard Grosheva admitted, she had always dreamed
of the Olympics, plus she had a few injury problems. After placing
second at the Russian Championship (behind only Rozalia Galiyeva)she was
guaranteed a place on the team. So she had made the team of 7 for
Atlanta!!
Atlanta was a long competition for the gymnasts spread out over many
days, Yelena had a problem on her fist event - bar. She slipped on a
recatch and fell, apart from this obvious error she finished well on all
other events including a 9.8 vault (bettered only by team-mate
Galiyeva's 9.837). And she scored the teams highest score on floor
exersize. The second day did not run so smoothly for the Russian team
however, Falls and wobbled allowed the USA team to pass them, but they
still finished a pleasing 2nd place thanks to their great compolsory
effort. Grosheva also performed well enough to compete in the vault and
floor finals. In the vault she finished 7th (one vault was good - the
other took a BIG step) And was replaced on floor because of her
lingering injury :^(
After the Olympics Yelena returned to Yaroslavl to catch up with family
and friends, had a quick rest and competed in the DTB cup late 1996. She
performed well on the floor and vault events here.
Awhile later she competed in the Cup of Buratino here she finished 3rd.
Recently she having just recovered from an injury that kept her out of
competition this year, competed in the world championship in Laussane,
Switzerland. Unfortunetly because of her injury she did not compete in
all 4 events, so she could not qualify for the finals. But her teams
competition effort was good enough for the silver (behind Romania -
again). Grosheva hasn't competed since the recent world championships so
hopefully we will see her in some competitions soon!!
Grosheva is famous for her "peter-pan like hair style. She is also known
for her classy salute which is so precise and her very feminine style.
Grosheva always looks as though she is concentrating very hard while
performing.
Yelena likes to listen to Nirvana and be a normal teenager when she is
not training and says the worst thing about gymnastics now is the new
code of points!!! She wants gymnastics to focus more on dance and
expression than on the big tricks that lead to serious injuries. Go
Yelena!!
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