CATCHING UP WITH…
Yekaterina
LOBAZNYUK
Training the next generation
twisting front) as a new third pass. “After Sydney we wanted to
update my routines, as I was getting older and was ready for something more mature,” she recalls. “We started to add new skills to my
program, as well, and I was growing as a gymnast with the goal of
competing in Athens (’04 Olympics).”
Fate had other plans. Landing a vault at the Russian championships in April 2001, Lobaznyuk injured her right ACL. She competed on bars and beam at the ’02 Russian Cup, and then resumed
training on all four events. “I felt a lot of pain in my knee and I was
worried I would re-injure my knee, and I felt it was unstable,”
Lobaznyuk recalls. She and her coaches decided she should retire.
ELIEEN LANGSLE Y/IG
Wanting to work with her mother (who was already at Omega) and
raise her son, Alexei, in Canada, Lobaznyuk moved to British
Columbia after finishing her university studies in Moscow in 2006.
(Her sister, Yevgenia, a former rhythmic gymnast, is a fitness trainer
in Moscow; her father, Vladimir, stayed in Russia to assist his parents.)
Atriple medalist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Russia’s Yekaterina Lobaznyuk possessed a rare combination: a pixyish
quality of performance and a polished quality of technique.
Although a serious knee injury in 2001 effectively ended her
career, Lobaznyuk has reconciled with thoughts of the further success and adulation she may have enjoyed.
“At first it was very hard to make peace,
because I put all of my life into gymnastics,” says
Lobaznyuk, now 25 and coaching at Omega
Gymnastics Academy in Coquitlam, British
Columbia, Canada. “But with any sport it is hard
to predict what will happen, especially at this level
of gymnastics. I always knew this, as any high-performance athlete does.”
In Sydney, Lobaznyuk won two silvers (team,
beam) and a bronze (vault), and placed fourth all-around. “I find it hard to choose which medal is
most important,” says Lobaznyuk, who was
coached by Valeri Dianov and her mother, Lyudmila Lobaznyuk.
“We had to work equally hard for all of them.” She vaulted a double-twisting Tsukahara and a double-twisting Yurchenko. Her beam routine featured a standing Arabian late in the set. On floor Lobaznyuk
tumbled a double layout; whip, 21⁄2 twist, punch front, stag jump;
double-twisting front, punch layout front step-out; and triple twist.
Lobaznyuk’s style was creative and powerful, but she credits
Dianov and her mother for basing her performances on precision
and extension. “I had talented coaches to teach me proper technique, and we practiced hard for many hours like robots, without
thinking,” Lobaznyuk says. “My skills became ingrained in my head
and my muscles just knew what to do.“
Following Sydney, Lobaznyuk’s transformation was already apparent on floor, where she ditched her cute “Hava Nagila” floor routine
for a sophisticated, contemporary one that included a randi ( 21⁄2-
Lobaznyuk says she has the same goals for 2-year-old Alexei and
the young gymnasts she trains, as did her coaches. “I will encourage
Alexei to at least learn basic gymnastics, which will help him to build
a good foundation for any sport he chooses,” she says. “My students
are still young and we are just playing gymnastics. I want to teach
them good basics, but it is more important they have fun and love
what they are doing.”
Even if Lobaznyuk’s gymnasts do not reach her level of fame and
achievement, she says gymnastics will make them resilient in any
challenge. “I think all people who are involved with sports grow up
faster than normal and learn how to be
strong,” she says. “In life they will always
know how to fight and work toward their
goals, whatever they are.” —John Crumlish
cs, which will
to build a good
n for any sport
hooses.”
Lobaznyuk (lower left)
with son Alexei, mother
Lyudmila (center) and
sister Yevgenia
