Total Medals:
Olympics:
Worlds:
Euros:
Appearances:,,,

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If you were to list the most successful gymnasts in WAG history, Lilia Podkopayeva would certainly be among them. Some gymnasts are successful because of their longevity, others are notable for being extremely dominant in a short period of time. For Lilia Podkopayeva, the latter was true. In 1995 Lilia won the AA at the World Championships and repeated her success by winning the Olympic AA in 1996.

In doing so Lilia became the first WAG to hold both titles simultaneously since Ludmilla Turischeva did it in 1974. It wouldn’t happen again until Simone Biles in 2016. Lilia was one of the few gymnasts who was on the losing end of the USSR breakup. Lilia would instead compete for Ukraine, a country that was unable to challenge traditional powers such as Russia, the United States, Romania, and China for a team medal. As a result, Lilia missed out on a team medal on three different occasions.

But competing for Ukraine had its perks. Her victory at the 1996 Olympics would prove monumental for a country that wasn’t an Olympic power. Lilia became a national heroine and a symbol of pride for a newly independent nation that had known mostly foreign rule for the last 1,000 years.

Olympics & World Championships:

Results:

1992
Massilia Gym Cup: 10th-AA

1993
Hungarian International: 1st-AA
European Cup: 2nd-AA 2nd-VT, 3rd-BB
World Championships: 16th-AA, 8th-VT

1994
DTB Cup: 1st-VT, 4th-BB, 2nd-FX
World Championships: 6th-AA, 2nd-BB
European Championships: 3rd-Team, 5th-AA, 3rd-VT, 6th-UB, 2nd-BB, 1st-FX
Dortmund World Team Championships: 5th-Team
Goodwill Games: 3rd-Team, 4th-AA, 1st-VT, 2nd-FX

1995
Cottbus International: 1st-VT, 7th-UB, 7th-BB, 1st-FX
DTB Cup: 3rd-VT, 5th-UB 1st-BB, 6th-FX
European Cup: 4th-AA, 2nd-VT, 1st-UB, 1st-BB, 3rd-FX
Kosice Cup: 1st-AA
Swiss Cup: 1st-VT, 2nd-UB, 1st-BB, 2nd-FX
World Championships: 5th-Team, 1st-AA, 1st-VT, 2nd-UB, 2nd-BB

1996
European Championships: 1st-AA, 3rd-VT, 1st-UB, 1st-FX
Olympic Games 5th-Team, 1st-AA, 5th-UB, 2nd-BB, 1st-FX

Gallery:

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Results are taken from Score for Score, The Gymternet, GymnasticGreats, My Meet Scores, Gymn-Forum, the official websites of various national gymnastics federations, newspaper clippings, classic gymnastics magazines, and in some cases, were provided by the gymnasts themselves. An explanation for the meaning of these symbols can be found here.