Olga Mostepanova (USSR)
1983 World B Champion
1984 Olomouc
AA Champion
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Medal Total World Championships: 3 Gold, 2 Silver |
Olga was born in Moscow on January 3, 1969 (Soviet authorities changed her birth year to 1968 so she could compete in the senior ranks early). When she was six, Olga's mother heard a radio ad asking for little girls to try out at Dinamo Moscow, and since Olga was a very active kid her mother brought her there. She trained there for her entire career with coach Vladimir Aksyonov, who also coached Elvira Saadi. At her first major international senior competition - the 1983 World Championships - she won gold on the balance beam and added three more medals to her collection: silver in the all-around and on the floor, and another gold with her team. Olga made gymnastics history at the 1984 CSSR Spartakiade (the "Olympics" for the Soviet bloc nations that
boycotted the LA Games) by receiving 10.0 in each of her routines in the AA competition for a perfect score of 40.0. After this competition, she was awarded the Merited Master of Sport title. Olga took part in a few domestic competitions after the 1985 World Championships (where she and teammate Irina Baraksanova had qualified for the all-around finals but were replaced with Elena Shushunova and Oksana Omelyanchik who tied for the AA title) and retired in 1987. Today, she lives in Moscow and works as a trainer to beginning gymnasts at Dinamo, is divorced, and has 5
children.
