Elena Piskun
| Elena Piskun | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Yelena Mikhaylovna Piskun | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Lena | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented |  Belarus | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | February 2, 1978 Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Hometown | Bobruisk, Belarus | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 0 in (1.52 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Level | Senior international elite | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Head coach(es) | Valery Kolodinsky | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Elena (or Yelena) Mikhaylovna "Lena" Piskun (Елена Михайловна "Лена" Пискун; born February 2, 1978)[1] is a Belarusian former artistic gymnast who won two World Championship gold medals in the 1990s and competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Personal
Piskun was born in Minsk, Belarus, in 1978.[1] Her father works in a tire factory, and her mother is a bookkeeper. She has a younger brother, Viktor.[2] She is 5 feet 0 inches (1.52 m) tall and weighs 86 pounds (39 kg).[1]
Career
Piskun started gymnastics at the age of six and was coached by Valery Kolodinsky during her career. The gym in her hometown of Bobruisk was small, so she traveled to Minsk to train before major competitions.[2]
At the 1993 World Championships in Birmingham, England, Piskun first got the attention by winning the the gold medal on vault.[3], performing a then rare double-twisting Yurchenko. She made herself a name with her difficulty, also performing a full-twisting back summersault on beam [4], and a Def release on the uneven bars [5]. She placed 7th in the all-around competition and fourth in the floor exercices final [6].
In April 1994, she competed at the Individual World Championships in Brisbane, Australia, and finished fifth on vault with a score of 9.725 and fifth on floor exercise with a score of 9.675. She was also 10th in the all-around.
At the World Championship Team Finals in Dortmund, Germany, in November, Piskun helped the Belarus team to a sixth place finish.[7] That year, she first performed a combinaison with two and a half twist and puch front layout on floor, which would become popular with the new code of points in 2001. [8]
In 1995, Piskun placed 3rd in the all-around at the European Cup in Rome [9]. She also finished second on the balance beam, and fourth on vault and bars.
At the 1995 World Championships in Sabae, Japan, she was 10th in the all-around with a score of 38.53.[10], but unfortunately didn't qualified for any event finals. Belarusian team finished 8th, despite the return to competition of Svetlana Boguinskaya.
In April, she competed at the World Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and won a gold medal on uneven bars with a score of 9.787.[11], a medal shared with Russian great Svetlana Khorkina. Piskun performed there a new dismount, a double lay-out with full twist in the second lay-out. Later that year, Piskun finished third on balance beam, sixth on the uneven bars and eighth on floor exercise at the 1996 European Championships.[2]
At that year's Summer Olympics, Piskun helped Belarus finish sixth in the team competition, and she was also 12th in the individual all-around with a score of 38.649.[1].
At the 1997 World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland, she finished 30th in the all-around with a score of 35.474.[12] She retired from competitive gymnastics after.
Piskun has since moved to the United States and is working as a coach at Northwind Gymnastics [13]
References
- ^ a b c d "Lena Piskun". sports-reference.com. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
- ^ a b c Gutman, Dan (1998). Gymnastics. Penguin.
- ^ "Men's and Women's World Championships Results". usagym.org. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
- ^ "Elena Piskun 1993 Worlds AA B ". Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ^ "7th AA BLR Elena Piskun UB 1993 World Gymnastics Championships 9 487". Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ^ "Whatever Happened to Elena Piskun?". Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ^ "1994 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships". usagym.org. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
- ^ "Elena Piskun 1994 Birmingham Classic AA FX". Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ^ "Gymn Forum: Elena Piskun"
- ^ "31st World Championships ‐ Artistic Gymnastics". usagym.org. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
- ^ "1996 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships". usagym.org. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
- ^ "33rd World Championships Artistic Gymnastics". usagym.org. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
- ^ "Northwind Gymnastics homepage". usagym.org. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
