Dmitri Vladimirovich Bilosertschew

Dmitri Wladimirowitsch Bilosertschew medal table
Dmitri Bilosertschew at the 1987 World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam
Apparatus gymnastics
Soviet Union , Russia
Olympic Summer Games
gold	1988 Seoul	team
gold	1988 Seoul	Pommel horse
gold	1988 Seoul	Rings
bronze	1988 Seoul	All-around
Gymnastics World Championships
gold	1983 Budapest	All-around
gold	1983 Budapest	Pommel horse
gold	1983 Budapest	Horizontal bar
gold	1983 Budapest	Rings
silver	1983 Budapest	ground
silver	1983 Budapest	team
gold	1987 Rotterdam	All-around
gold	1987 Rotterdam	Pommel horse
gold	1987 Rotterdam	Horizontal bar
gold	1987 Rotterdam	team
silver	1987 Rotterdam	Ingots
silver	1987 Rotterdam	Rings
European gymnastics championships
gold	1983 Varna	All-around
gold	1983 Varna	Horizontal bar
gold	1983 Varna	Rings
gold	1983 Varna	Leap
gold	1985 Oslo	All-around
gold	1985 Oslo	Ingots
gold	1985 Oslo	ground
gold	1985 Oslo	Pommel horse
gold	1985 Oslo	Horizontal bar
gold	1985 Oslo	Rings
silver	1985 Oslo	Leap

Dmitry Bilozerchev ( Russian Дмитрий Владимирович Билозерчев * 22. December 1966 in Moscow ) is a retired Soviet and Russian gymnast . At the age of 16, he won his first all-around world title in Budapest in 1983 . In the course of his career he won three gold medals at the Olympic Games, eight gold medals at world championships and ten gold medals at European championships, making him one of the most successful gymnasts of the 1980s.

Life and athletic career

Athletic career

While Bilozertchev's father would have liked to see his son become a hockey player , his mother introduced him to artistic gymnastics at the age of six. Nine years later, Bilozertchev won his first international medals. At the Junior European Championships in 1982 he was an outstanding participant and won the all-around , on the ground , on the pommel horse , on the rings , in the jump and on parallel bars . On the horizontal bar he won the silver medal. The following year he started with the Soviet national team of seniors at the European Gymnastics Championships in Varna . He also became the most successful gymnast in his first appearance at international senior championships. He won the gold medal in the all around on the horizontal bar, on the rings and in the jump. He finished sixth in the floor finals. A short time later he also started at the Gymnastics World Championships in Budapest . With a lead of almost one point, Bilosertschew became world champion in the all-around competition. At that time he was 16 years and eleven months old, which made him the youngest all-around world champion of all time. This mark was only beaten in 2001 by the Chinese Jing Feng , who was a month younger than Bilozertschew when he won. Bilosertschew also won on the pommel horse, on the horizontal bar and on the rings. On the ground and with the Russian team, he won the silver medal. In the jump he took sixth place. Due to the boycott of the socialist states , Bilozertschew could not take part in the 1984 Summer Olympics . Instead, he started in the friendship competitions held in parallel and won five competitions, including the individual all-around.

A year later, Bilosertschew won six of seven possible titles at the European Championships in Oslo . He defended his European championship title in all-around, on the horizontal bar and on the rings. He also won the gold medals on the pommel horse, on the parallel bars and on the ground. In the jump, however, he had to admit defeat to the GDR gymnast Sylvio Kroll and thus could not defend his title in 1983. Ten days before the 1985 World Gymnastics Championships , Bilosertschew had a serious car accident while under the influence of alcohol. The athlete, who had only recently had his driver's license and was on his way back from his engagement party to the training camp, lost control of the car on a wet road. His left leg broke into more than 40 pieces in the accident. The fracture was so complicated that an amputation could not be ruled out. Doctors saved his leg by inserting a steel rod from his knee to his heel. After he managed to save his leg, Bilosertschew fought his way back into the gymnastics elite, mainly thanks to the support of his wife Svetlana. At the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam in 1987 , he made a comeback that was considered impossible. He again fought for the world title in the all-around competition, on the pommel horse and on the horizontal bar. With the Russian team he was also able to win the world title. He also won the silver medal on rings and bars. So Bilosertschew traveled as the favorite to win the all-around at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul . But in the team competition, which is the first part of the individual all-around competition, he had a mishap on the horizontal bar. Despite an outstanding final round (59.75 points), he was unable to make up the points lost as a result of this in the course of the competition. He won the bronze medal behind his compatriots Vladimir Artyomov and Valery Lyukin . With the Soviet team, on the pommel horse and on the rings, he was able to win the gold medal.

After the Olympic Games, there were differences between Bilosertschew and the Soviet Gymnastics Federation. In 1989 he and his teammate Vladimir Gogoladze were kicked out of the national team after a two-day drinking bout. Bilosertschew then had to end his active career.

After the sporting career

After being kicked out of the Soviet team, Bilozertchev fell into a hole and began to drink more often. After a friend died from the effects of alcohol abuse, he changed his life in 1991. Together with his wife Olga (née Dubrovskaya) and their son Alexy, born in 1990, he went to the USA in 1993 . Bilosertschew started there in 1994 after a six-year break in competition at the Reese's International Cup in Baltimore . In the all-around competition he took second place behind Andreas Wecker . Also in the following year he was runner-up in this competition and a year later he won the title.

Together with his second wife Olga, a former gymnast and choreographer for the Russian national team, he has been working as a gymnastics trainer in Oregon since 1995 . In 2001 the couple opened the United Sports Academy in Beaverton . In 2003, Bilozertschew was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame . From 2005 he worked as an assistant coach at Ohio State University and lived with his family in Columbus . Furthermore, Bilosertschew trained his son Alexy there until 2009, who in 2007 won the junior title in the all-around competition at the US championships. His daughter Alisa is also a talented gymnast.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. Chronicle IV. Seoul 1988 - Atlanta 1996. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-328-00830-6 .

Web links

• Dmitri Bilosertschew in the database of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (English)
• Dmitri Bilosertschew in the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (English)
• Dmitri Bilosertschew in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Biography and competition results
• Biography of Dmitry Bilozertschew at Ohio State University
• Report on Dmitri Bilozertschew from 1988 in The New York Times
• Report on Dmitri Bilozertchev from 2003 in The Portland Tribune

Individual evidence

1. ↑ One month younger than Dimitri Bilozertschew. In: Berliner Zeitung . November 3, 2001, accessed July 10, 2015 . 
2. ↑ www.gymn-forum.net, Alternate Games
3. ^ New York Times , THE SEOUL OLYMPICS: Gymnastics; GOLDEN FINALE FOR SOVIET MEN (September 25, 1988)
4. ↑ Time , Gym Shorts (September 19, 1988)
5. ^ New York Times , SPORTS PEOPLE: GYMNASTICS; Soviet Team Expels 2 (August 3, 1989)
6. ↑ www.villagevoice.com, Golden Moments (September 19, 2000)
7. ↑ Briefly reported. In: Berliner Zeitung . January 26, 1994, accessed July 10, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Reese's International Gymnastics Cup ( Memento of April 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (January 27, 1996)
9. ↑ Homepage of the United Sports Academy
10. ↑ Alexy Bilozertchev Leaves Ohio State , accessed September 4, 2012 (English)
11. ↑ gymblog.wordpress.com, Bilozertchev: The US's new secret agent? (August 28, 2007)
12. ↑ Profile of Alexy Bilozertchev at the US Gymnastics Federation  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )