Gymnasts from Ukraine
Women
Viktoria Karpenko
As of yet, I have only seen her in one competition - the team competition at the 1996 Junior European Championships. Sompe people on the gymnastics mailing list who have also seen her compete are picking her as a favourite for this year's World Championships. From the coverage I saw, I wasn't all that impressed. If I wasn't looking for her specifically I don't think she would have stood out. I'll have to wait until I see more to comment further.
Tatiana Lyssenko
Tatiana is one of my all time favourite gymnasts. I absolutely love her style. Her 1993 floor exercise is one of my all time favourites. She was never exceptional as far as difficulty or originality go, but she was good and her style, to me, made up for inferiorities in those departments. Like many gymnasts, she was one of the best in the world for years but never managed to win an all-around title at Worlds or Olympics. She did, however, win the gold medal on the balance beam at the 1992 Olympic Games.
Liliya Podkopayeva
What can I say about Lilya that hasn't already been said? She's wonderful. I think she's one of the best gymnasts in the world today. A lot of people say that she was overscored and didn't deserve to win the 95 worlds or the Olympics. I don't think so. Lilya is a rare combination of artistery, power, excitement, originality and consistency. At the Olympics, few of the other gymnasts showed all of those qualities.
Men
Gregory Misutin
Gregory is another great Ukranian gymnast who has been around for a long time. He won the world all around title in 1991!!! He's still great. I absoutely love his handspring double front vault. It's awesome. There are only a few gymnasts in the world who even attempt this vault and Gregory does it very well.
Rustam Sharipov
Rustam rocks. I absolutely love his parallel bar routine (I can't believe Jair Lynch actually thought he could beat Rustam). He's also great on high bar. I love what he siad after he won the paralell bars at the 96 Worlds. He said that his wife "presented" him with a baby and his routine was dedicated to his son. It was so cute.
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