Every once in a while in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) you get a situation where two gymnasts who are commonly associated with different generations are actually the same age. What typically happens is one achieved breakout success at a young age, whereas the other bounced around at the start of her senior career only to achieve breakout success in her later years. Other times it comes down to age limits creating a major wedge between gymnasts born before and after December 31st of a particular year.

Dominique Moceanu and Vanessa Atler

Dominique Moceanu is best known for being a key member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team whereas Vanessa Atler was the biggest American star of the 2000 Olympic quad. For a pair of gymnasts who were the defining faces of two different Olympic cycles, they were actually born just four months apart.

Vanessa Atler missed out on the 1996 age cut-off by six weeks. Not only did that six-week gap cost Atler both the 1995 World Championships and the 1996 Olympics. The age limit was then raised starting in 1997 causing Atler to miss the 1997 World Championships as well. And in one final stroke of misfortune, 1998 was the last time the World Championships weren’t held in a non-Olympic year. Atler’s first Group-1 competition was the 1999 World Championships.

Note: Group-1 = World Championships or Olympics

Despite the four month age difference, the two gymnasts made their respective debuts at the World Championships four years apart. By the time Atler had risen to the top of the American program, four years of high level competition had taken its toll on Moceanu and her window was rapidly closing. Atler and Moceanu never competed in a Group-1 competition together. But they did compete as teammates at the 1998 Goodwill Games.

Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian

This is the only example in this article where the two gymnasts in question actually served as teammates in a Group-1 competition. The point of this article is to talk about gymnasts who are associated with different quads, but were actually very close in age. 2012 Olympian Kyla Ross and 2016 Olympian Madison Kocian are a perfect example of this trend.

Whereas fans today are largely aware that both gymnasts participated at the 2014 World Championships, in time it will become an interesting factoid for young fans decades from now who were too young to witness the 2010s firsthand. Kyla and Madison will be remembered for two different Olympics even though they were born just eight and a half months apart.

Lilia Podkopayeva and Mohini Bhardwaj / Annia Hatch

Most gymnerds will recognize the names Mohini Bhardwaj and Annia Hatch due to their placement on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team. But what is not as widely known is their role in 1990s gymnastics. Mohini and Annia hadn’t competed at even the 2000 U.S. Championships let alone the 2000 U.S. Trails which gives the appearance that they were gymnasts who first came of age in the 2001-2004 Olympic quad. But that is far from how things actually went down.

In the case of Mohini, after spending most of her 1990s elite-level career with only limited success, she joined the college ranks starting in 1998 as a member of the UCLA team. Mohini then rejoined the elite level ranks. This time she was far more successful and her hard work culminated in an Olympic medal.

Annia Hatch first appeared in international competition in the 1980s. No really, the 1980s. That wasn’t a typo.

Annia first competed for Cuba under the name Annia Portuondo. As a member of a small communist WAG program, Annia’s novice and junior level careers were very different from that of her American contemporaries. Annia first competed in a notable international competition at around the age of 10. By the time she was 11 years old she had competed in both China and the Soviet Union.

Annia has the distinction of competing directly against memorable 1980s gymnasts such as Chen Cuiting, Fan Di, Elena Shevchenko, and Olga Strazheva. All of which were effectively retired before the 1991 World Championships. The 1990s were bittersweet for Annia. She had established herself as a capable gymnast and even won a bronze medal on vault at the 1996 World Championships. But Annia was unable to attend the Olympics due to her country not participating in key Olympic qualification events.

Annia moved to the United States in 1997, gained American citizenship in 2001, and gained her release from the Cuban WAG program in 2003. The most impressive part of this story is that after seven years of not competing internationally, Annia rejoined the international ranks as if no time had passed. She won two medals at the 2004 Olympics.

But behind the 2004 American Olympian is the story of the Cuban gymnast with a different last name who made her debut at the 1993 World Championships as a first-year senior. Another notable first-year senior at that competition was future Olympic Champion Lilia Podkopayeva. It is hard to imagine Lilia on a 2004 Olympic team as her career ended all the way back in 1997. But Lilia’s 1978 birth year is the same as two members of the American team in Athens.

Kathy Johnson and Svetlana Grozdova

Kathy Johnson and Svetlana Grozdova each went to a single Olympics. But their appearance in an Olympic games came three Olympic cycles apart. For a 1976 Olympic medalist and a 1984 Olympic medalist, it would surprise you to learn they were actually born in the same year.

Grozdova’s career goes all the way back to the 1974 World Championships where she served as an alternate. Like most gymnasts with a 1959 birth year, Grozdova’s career came to an end as she hit the typical retirement age in the late 1970s. So where was Kathy Johnson in all of this?

Kathy had a very unusual career. She started gymnastics at the age of 12 which was a very advanced age for the sport. Kathy did not place high enough at the 1976 U.S. Olympic trials to earn a spot on the American team, but not because of a lack of talent. Kathy was simply too new to the sport and lacked the experience to put up the results that were truly indicative of her talent.

Following the 1976 Olympics Kathy began to shine. Despite her strong results, Johnson missed the 1980 Olympics due to a boycott and would instead make her debut on the Olympic stage in 1984. It can’t be overstated just how much talent it takes for one of the oldest members of the 1980 American program to successfully come back for 1984.

It came eight years after Svetlana Grozdova had appeared in her first and only Olympics. For Grozdova, she had stopped receiving international assignments in 1977 as her career started to fade. For Kathy, it was in 1977 that she became a top member of the American program and started receiving international assignments of her own. For this reason, I could find no record of Svetlana Grozdova and Kathy Johnson ever competing against each other in a gymnastics competition.

Alexandra Marinescu and Elena Zamolodchikova/Vanessa Atler/Maria Olaru

Remember at the beginning of this article where I used Vanessa Atler as an example as to how having the wrong birth year in the mid-1990s could cost a gymnast four years of high level competition? This particular section is what happens when an age falsification scandal is thrown into that equation.

The 1997-2000 Olympic cycle featured a number of high profile gymnasts. Among them were Atler, Viktoria Karpenko, and Elena Produnova. All three of them missed the 1996 Olympics and are most commonly associated with the following Olympic quad. It is not that the trio are the same age as Alexandra Marinescu which makes their relation so intriguing. It is that Alexandra is younger than all three of them.

Alexandra was a high profile gymnast and a media favorite of the 1996 Olympics. But her participation in 1995, 1996, and 1997 were all marked by an age falsification scandal. It creates an unusual situation where three fan favorites of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials and/or Olympics were actually older than one of the gymnasts from the previous Olympics.

Alexandra’s career reads very much like that of Dominique Moceanu, she was thrown into high level competition at a very young age which lead to her premature retirement. By the time gymnasts who shared her 1982 birth year such as Atler, Maria Olaru, and Elena Zamolodchikova had become eligible for a World Championships, Alexandra was effectively retired from the sport.

Dominique Moceanu and Viktoria Kapenko

To continue the point from the previous example, we need to talk more about Viktoria Kapenko and Elena Produnova.

Both gymnasts had actually competed at the 1995 World Championships. But neither had an impactful role and both would miss the 1996 Olympics. Their involvement in the 1993-1996 Olympic quad is something that is not as widely known due to their lack of success at the senior level in those years. Coupled with powerful performances in the following years, the 1997-2000 quad would define their respective careers. Which is why many might not realize that there are two high profile 1996 Olympians who were younger than both Karpenko and Produnova.

The first was the previously mentioned Marinescu which occurred thanks to an age falsification scandal. But Moceanu’s birth year was legitimate and she is six months younger than Karpenko, and 19 months younger than Produnova.

Not only is Moceanu younger than a number of famous European gymnasts from the 2000 Olympics, remember what I said about Mohini Bhardwaj and Annia Hatch? Dominique Moceanu is younger than both of them by about three years. Moceanu is also younger than three members of the 2000 American Olympic team.* These strange age facts regarding Moceanu provide insight as to why she attempted a comeback in the 2005-2008 Olympic quad.

*Kristen Maloney, Amy Chow, and Dominique Dawes

Elena Naimushina and Natalia Yurchenko

Elena Naimushina made her debut at the 1979 World Championships and left the sport shortly after the 1980 Olympics. Natalia Yurchenko didn’t make her debut at the Group-1 level until three years later when she won the All-Around at the 1983 World Championships. On paper Yurchenko appears to be the quintessential 1980s gymnast who participated in high level competition all the way to the end of 1986.

But as you can tell where this is going, Naimushina and Yurchenko are actually very close in age. How close? They were born only two months apart. In the case of Naimushina, it is yet another heartbreaking example of a gymnast who participated in Group-1 competition at a very young age and was burned out of the sport shortly afterwards.

In the case of Yurchenko, a deeper analysis of her career reveals she was as much a 1970s gymnast as she was a 1980s gymnast. Yurchenko can be found in virtually every Soviet documentary featuring training footage from the 1977-1980 Olympic quad. As well as countless team pictures. Yurchenko was involved in ten different competitions prior to 1980. Most notably, she was an alternate at both the European Championships and the World Championships in 1979.

Yurchenko’s official 1983 debut is somewhat misleading as to when her career truly started. Naimushina and Yurchenko never appeared in a starting lineup together, but they trained together at national team camps for almost the entirety of Naimushina’s career.