54 Facts About Yelena Davydova

Yelena Viktorovna Davydova is a Russian-Canadian gymnastics coach and judge who competed for the former Soviet Union.

Yelena Davydova was the women's artistic individual all-around champion at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

In July 2012, Davydova was one of the coaches of the Canadian Women's Artistic Gymnastics Team.

In 2016 Yelena Davydova was head floor judge at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Yelena Davydova was born in Voronezh, 500 kilometres south of Moscow, to Victor, a mechanic, and Tamara, an employee at the Leningrad Optical and Mechanical Works.

Yelena Davydova became interested in gymnastics at age six after seeing on television the famous Soviet Olympic gold medallists Larisa Petrik and Natalia Kuchinskaya.

Yelena Davydova wanted to be enrolled in Spartak Gymnastics school, but was turned away for having the wrong physique.

Yelena Davydova asked his wife, Ina, a gymnastics coach at the school, to train Davydova in her group.

Yuri Shtukman, the administrator at the school, did not like this initiative by his new training staff and reprimanded the Korshunovs; however he allowed Yelena Davydova to stay in the school.

Yelena Davydova has a brother, Yuri, who is 12 years her junior.

At the 1975 USSR Junior Championships Yelena Davydova finished 3rd AA and won golds on vault and bars.

In March 1976 Yelena Davydova achieved second place all-around at the USSR championships, in her first try as a senior.

Yelena Davydova won the gold on bars and a silver on floor.

At the inaugural American Cup, Yelena Davydova performed a side somersault on the beam, the first woman ever to do so.

Yelena Davydova dominated event finals, winning three gold and a bronze on floor.

Yelena Davydova subsequently performed her beam routine on the Blue Peter show.

In December 1976, Yelena Davydova finished third AA at the Chunichi Cup in Japan, and won a gold on vault and a bronze on floor at the Tokyo Cup.

Yelena Davydova was the only woman in the competition to perform a front somersault vault.

Yelena Davydova tied for first AA with Kische and Kraker of East Germany.

In 1977 Yelena Davydova again won the gold medal on bars at the USSR Cup, scoring a perfect 10.

In September 1977 Yelena Davydova appeared on the front cover of a new magazine with an emphasis on young gymnasts, entitled Gymnastics World.

Yelena Davydova was one of the four "Mighty Mites" featured in that issue.

Yelena Davydova was a member of the USSR Display Team, along with Kim, Korbut, Grosdova, Filatova and Gorbik that performed in Great Britain.

Yelena Davydova suffered a serious injury when a bone detached itself from her knee.

Yelena Davydova achieved a silver AA at the Spartakiade of Russian Federation Sports Schools meet, and bronze AA at the USSR Cup, being the top scorer on both beam and bars.

Shortly after, Yelena Davydova won the AA title at the prestigious Chunichi Cup in Japan defeating Maxi Gnauck.

Yelena Davydova won gold on the bars and vault at the Tokyo Cup.

At the 1979 Coca-Cola International in England, Yelena Davydova won a gold on floor and but lost gold on bars, after her coach blocked the line of vision of one of the judges, and she suffered the mandatory 0.3 deduction.

Yelena Davydova finished second AA at the Simo Sappien memorial tournament in Finland.

Yelena Davydova was unable to attend the 1979 World Championships in Fort Worth, US, because of influenza.

At the 1980 Moscow News Tournament Yelena Davydova performed a full-on, full off vault.

Yelena Davydova won a gold and 3 silver at the Moscow News Tournament.

Yelena Davydova had finished joint 6th at the 1976 USSR Cup but that turned out to be insufficient to be placed on the team.

Yelena Davydova won the all-around and scored a 10 on floor.

The Soviet team won team gold and Yelena Davydova went on to win the all-around gold medal, and silver on the balance beam.

Yelena Davydova won the AA title and was top scorer on vault, bars, floor and joint top scorer on beam.

At the 1981 USSR Championships, Yelena Davydova won the All-Around title plus golds on floor and vault and bronze on bars.

Yelena Davydova participated in the 1981 World Championships, her last major international event.

Yelena Davydova suffered a serious neck injury in pre-competition warm up but still finished 3rd all-around with a fall and was the only gymnast from any nation to make all 4 event finals.

Yelena Davydova won silver on floor and bronze on bars.

Yelena Davydova remained on the Soviet display team until 1984 but retired from competitive gymnastics in late 1982.

Yelena Davydova was competing on vault at the Rome gymnastics Grand Prix in 82 when she injured her ankle.

Yelena Davydova was part of the Saint Petersburg delegation that had bidden unsuccessfully to host the 2004 Olympic Games.

On 11 May 2007 Yelena Davydova was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Yelena Davydova began her coaching career with the Leningrad Olympic reserve college and was a coach with the Soviet national gymnastics team.

Yelena Davydova now owns Gemini Gymnastics, a high performance gymnastics club in Oshawa, Ontario where she has been a coach since immigrating to Canada, and Head Coach since 1999.

Yelena Davydova was beam coach for the Canadian women's team at the 1995 World Championships and one of the Canadian women's team coaches at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Yelena Davydova was twice named Gymnastics Canada Gymnastique coach of the year.

In October 2005 Yelena Davydova was chosen for the Coaching Association of Canada's Women in Coaching National Team Coaching Apprenticeship Program.

Yelena Davydova coached Canadian gymnast Ava Stewart at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Yelena Davydova became a gymnastics judge in 2005 and is the only Olympic all-around champion to do so.

Yelena Davydova was named as head judge for the women's floor events at the Olympics.

Yelena Davydova has two eponymous skills listed in the Code of Points.

Yelena Davydova married boxing coach Pavel Filatov on 1 June 1983.