Stella Zakharova

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Stella Zakharova
Women's artistic gymnastics
Medal record
Representing  Soviet Union
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1980 Moscow Team
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1981 Moscow Team
Silver medal – second place 1979 Fort Worth Team
Silver medal – second place 1979 Fort Worth Vault
Silver medal – second place 1981 Moscow Vault
World Cup Final
Gold medal – first place 1979 Tokyo All-Around
Gold medal – first place 1980 Toronto All-Around
Gold medal – first place 1980 Toronto Vault
Silver medal – second place 1979 Tokyo Vault
Silver medal – second place 1979 Tokyo Floor Exercise
Silver medal – second place 1980 Toronto Floor Exercise
Bronze medal – third place 1979 Tokyo Uneven Bars

Stella Heorhiivna Zakharova (born 12 July 1963) is a retired

gymnast who competed internationally for the former Soviet Union
between 1977 and 1982. She was an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist in team competitions, and won individual all-around titles at other events.

Zakharova won her first all-around championship at the 1976 All-Union School Spartakiade. That same year she placed second overall in the Junior

USSR
Championships. She was a consistently strong competitor through 1977-78, winning several vaulting and floor exercise event titles. A powerful tumbler, Zakharova was the first woman to incorporate three double-back somersaults into her floor routine.

Zakhrova's most successful year was 1979, during which she won individual all-around championships at the American Cup,

Moscow News, and World Cup events. At the World Championships held in Fort Worth, Texas she was a member of the Soviet women's team which finished second to the Romanian squad led by an injured Nadia Comăneci
. It was the first time the Soviets had failed to beat their Romanian rivals in a major team competition.

In 1980 Zakharova continued to enjoy success, winning the gold medal with her Soviet teammates at the

Olympic games
and capturing a second all-around title at the World Cup. That proved to be her high-water mark, as her performances began to decline from 1981 onward.

After retirement, Stella Zakharova married Dynamo Kyiv football player Viktor Khlus. The couple have a son and a daughter. Zakharova's home country Ukraine hosts an annual Stella Zakharova Cup competition in artistic gymnastics, named in her honor.

Footage of Stella Zakharova training with the Soviet national team was captured in a 1978 Soviet Gymnastics training documentary; Zakharova appears about one minute into the clip [1]. Included in the film are teammates Elena Mukhina, Natalia Shaposhnikova and Maria Filatova.

External links

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