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A Google search of Anna Pavlova will produce a myriad of results for Anna Pavlova…the ballerina. Anna Pavlova the gymnast could be considered somewhat of a ballerina, but her name is not yet as famous. Anna is a technician and dancer, a reminder of what gymnastics used to be.
Anna was born on September 6, 1987 in Moscow, Russia and is coached by her mother, Nataliya, at the Dynamo Club. She began gymnastics at age five. Her international debut was the 2000 Junior European Championships, where she won a gold medal on the uneven bars. Even though she was too young to compete internationally as a senior, she won the 2002 Russian National Championships. She went on to win gold medals in the team, vault and all-around at the Junior European Championships.
The 2003 World Championships was Anna’s first major international meet as a senior. Her Russian team performed poorly and finished sixth. Anna qualified for the all-around and floor finals, but did not medal.
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In 2004, Anna again won the Russian Championships. She made the Russian Olympic team and had high hopes for an Olympic all-around medal. She helped her team get back on the medal podium with the bronze. Anna hit her routines in the all-around, but just missed out on the all-around bronze medal to China’s Zhang Nan. She claimed an individual medal in the vault finals, winning the bronze.
After winning the all-around silver at the 2005 European Championships, Anna appeared at the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne and failed to medal. She won a bronze medal with her team at the 2006 World Championships, but again did not win any individual medals. She committed costly errors in the all-around and finished 19th. She qualified for vault and beam finals, where she finished 5th and 4th, respectively.
Anna admires Russian gymnasts Svetlana Khorkina, Yelena Zamolodchikova and Yekaterina Lobaznyuk. She enjoys cooking and mathematics and hopes to pursue a career as a gymnastics coach. With any luck, Anna will instill her elegant style into her future students. And perhaps one day, a Google search will produce more results for Anna Pavlova the gymnast than Anna Pavlova the ballerina.
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