Sofja Ivanovna Muratova

Sofja Ivanovna Muratova medal table
do gymnastics
Soviet Union
Olympic Summer Games
gold	1956 Melbourne	Team all-around
gold	1960 Rome	Team all-around
silver	1960 Rome	Individual all-around
silver	1960 Rome	Leap
bronze	1956 Melbourne	Group gymnastics
bronze	1956 Melbourne	Individual all-around
bronze	1956 Melbourne	Uneven bars
bronze	1960 Rome	Balance beam
World championships in apparatus gymnastics
gold	1954 Rome	Team all-around
gold	1958 Moscow	Team all-around
gold	1962 Prague	Team all-around
silver	1958 Moscow	Leap
silver	1958 Moscow	Balance beam

Sofja Ivanovna Muratova ( Russian Софья Ивановна Муратова ; born July 13, 1929 in Leningrad , † September 25, 2006 in Moscow ) was a Soviet gymnast. She went to the Dynamo Moscow club and took part in two Olympic Games.

Life

In 1941 Muratova's family was evacuated due to the Leningrad blockade , but her mother died while trying to escape. In 1943 Muratova enrolled in a children's sports school and began doing gymnastics. Just three months later, she took part in the Russian SFSR girls' championships . In 1944 she moved to Moscow and worked there under the coach Igor Shuravlyov.

Sofja Muratowa was married to the Soviet gymnast Valentin Muratow , who outlived her by a few days.

Career

Muratova on a Soviet postage stamp (1956)

Muratova celebrated her first success in 1945 when she won the USSR Youth Championships. Four years later she gained international experience at the nation duel between Hungary and the Soviet Union in Budapest, which she won with her team.

She was unable to compete in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki due to illness. So she made her Olympic debut at the 1956 Games in Melbourne , where she won one gold and three bronze medals. In preparation for the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome , Muratova was injured again and many experts considered her participation extremely unlikely. Just three months before the start of the competition, she underwent an operation by the doctor and speed skater Soja Mironova . She soaked up in time and defended the team all-round title with her team. She also won two silver and one bronze medal.

She also successfully took part in world championships in apparatus gymnastics . At the 1954 tournament in Rome, however, she had to give up early. She won the gold medal with her team in the team all-around competition, but then broke her arm while warming up for another competition. In the following eight years Muratova managed to defend the title won in Rome twice in a row.

In 1965 Muratova retired from active sport and worked as a trainer until 1999.

Soviet tournaments

Sofja Muratowa won a total of 20 gold, 14 silver and ten bronze medals at national level. She was the only gymnast in the history of the Soviet Union who could win the individual all-around five times. Muratowa's weakness was the rings and this is the only discipline in which she could never win a gold medal in a national comparison.

year	event	Individual all-around	Leap	Uneven bars	Balance beam	Floor exercise	Ring gymnastics
1949	championship		gold			silver
1950	championship		gold		gold	silver
1951	championship	bronze
1954	championship	gold		gold	silver		silver
1955	championship	gold		gold	bronze	gold
	Cup	gold
1956	championship	silver		gold	bronze
1957	championship	gold	gold	gold	gold	silver
1958	championship	silver	gold	bronze		bronze
1959	championship	silver	gold	silver
1960	championship	gold		bronze	gold
1962	championship	silver
1963	championship	gold	bronze	bronze	silver
	Cup	silver		silver	bronze
1964	championship			silver	bronze
	Cup	gold

Honors

• 1957: Order of the Red Labor Banner

Web links

• Sofja Ivanovna Muratova in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )