Amina Zaripova

Amina Vasilovna Zaripova (Russian: Амина Василовна Зарипова; Tatar: Әминә Васил кызы Зарипова, born 10 August 1976) is a retired Russian individual rhythmic gymnast who now works as an elite coach. She is the 1994 World all-around silver medalist, 1993 World all-around bronze medalist and a two-time (1996, 1994) European all-around bronze medalist. She finished fourth at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.^[1]

Amina Zaripova
Zaripova at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.
Personal information
Born	(1976-08-10) 10 August 1976 (age 49)[1] Chirchik, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union[1]
Height	176 cm (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Gymnastics career
Discipline	Rhythmic gymnastics
Country represented	Russia
Gym	Olympic Village
Head coach(es)	Irina Viner
Retired	Yes
Medal record International gymnastics competitions Event 1st 2nd 3rd World Championships 5 4 3 European Championships 3 0 6 Grand Prix Final 0 0 1 Summer Universiade 1 2 1 Goodwill Games 3 1 1 Total 12 7 12 Representing  Russia Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships 1995 Vienna Ball 1995 Vienna Clubs 1995 Vienna Team 1996 Budapest Clubs 1997 Berlin Team 1994 Paris All-around 1994 Paris Ribbon 1995 Vienna Ribbon 1996 Budapest Ball 1993 Alicante All-around 1993 Alicante Team 1994 Paris Clubs European Championships 1994 Thessaloniki Ball 1994 Thessaloniki Clubs 1996 Asker Clubs 1992 Stuttgart Team 1994 Thessaloniki All-around 1994 Thessaloniki Hoop 1994 Thessaloniki Ribbon 1996 Asker All-around 1998 Porto Team Junior European Championships 1991 Lisbon Team 1991 Lisbon All-around 1991 Lisbon Clubs European Cup Final 1995 Telford Ribbon 1995 Telford Clubs 1993 Málaga Hoop 1993 Málaga Clubs 1995 Telford Rope Grand Prix Final 1994 Vienna All-around Summer Universiade 1997 Sicily Clubs 1997 Sicily Rope 1997 Sicily Ribbon 1997 Sicily All-round Goodwill Games 1994 St.Petersburg All-round 1994 St.Petersburg Ball 1994 St.Petersburg Hoop 1994 St.Petersburg Clubs 1994 St.Petersburg Ribbon

Personal life

Amina Zaripova is of Tatar descent. She is married to Alexei Kortnev, lead singer of Neschastny Sluchai, with whom she has two sons, Arseniy and Afanasiy, and two daughters, Aksiniya and Agafiya.^[2] She speaks Russian and English.^[3]

Gymnastics career

Zaripova studied ballet until the age of ten, when she caught the eye of then-Uzbek head coach Irina Viner. When Viner relocated to Moscow to become the Russian head coach, Zaripova followed.^[4] Early in her career, she was called the second Zaripova, as she shares a last name with Viner's first international gymnast, Venera Zaripova.^[2]

At the 1991 European Junior Championships, Zaripova won her first set of medals—gold for the team event and bronze in the all-around and clubs final.

After the death of Oxana Kostina, Zaripova became the leader of the Russian national team. Zaripova, along with Julia Rosliakova and Inessa Gizikova, won bronze in the team event at the 1993 World Championships. Individually, she also won bronze in the all-around. The following year, she placed second at Corbeil-Essonnes International and third at the 1994 European Championships. There she earned four medals in the apparatus finals, gold with ball and clubs and bronze with hoop and ribbon. She also won three titles at the 1994 Goodwill Games in the all-around and with hoop and ball, as well as a silver medal (clubs) and a bronze medal (ribbon).

At that year's World Championships, Zaripova placed second in the all-around.^[5] She also came in third with clubs and second with ribbon. She was the lead gymnast going into the final apparatus of the all-around, but a mistake in her final routine cost her the gold medal, which went to the reigning World champion, Maria Petrova.

In the following years, she was overshadowed by rising Russian stars Yanina Batyrchina and Natalia Lipkovskaya. At the 1995 World Championships, Batyrchina won the bronze medal, while Zaripova finished fourth.^[5] Zaripova finished 4th in the all-around at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, narrowly losing to both Ukrainian Olena Vitrychenko and her teammate Yanina Batyrchina, who controversially held on for silver after she made a mistake in her final routine. She finished less than a tenth of a point behind both the silver and bronze medalists.^[1]

At the end of 1996, Zaripova underwent surgery to repair a torn left Achilles tendon. She returned to competition in 1997, and her first major competition was the 1997 Summer Universiade, where she won bronze.^[6] In October, she won gold in the team event at the 1997 World Championships, and she placed fourth in the all-around qualifications, though she did not enter the final due to the two-per-country rule.^[5] She was also part of the Russian team that won the bronze at the 1998 European Championships.

She retired in the fall of 1998 and returned to training four months later.^[5] Zaripova's final event was the Schmiden International in March 1999, where she won the all-around as well as a gold medal for her ball exercise and silver for hoop.^[7] In an interview around this time, Zaripova mentioned that she thought that "When judges give marks, sometimes the marks aren't true" and the difficulty of competing against younger gymnasts.^[5]

Gymnastics technique

Zaripova was known for her extreme flexibility, which she called a "gift from God" rather than something she had trained to achieve.^[4][5]

Coaching career

Zaripova was invited by the Greek Gymnastics Federation to coach their team. She helped prepare the team for the 1999 World Championships, but she ended up returning to Russia shortly afterwards. In addition to publishing her own rhythmic gymnastics magazine, she worked as a coach in Moscow.^[2] She gave up coaching for a time after the birth of her fourth child to spend more time with her children.^[3]

At the end of 2023, she was asked to coach in China. Zaripova accepted the offer and became the head of the national individual team, on the stipulation that she could take her athletes to compete abroad, as Chinese gymnasts rarely performed either within China or at international competitions.^[3]

In December 2025, it was announced that she would join the Fabriano Gymnastics club in Italy to coach, among others, World champion Sofia Raffaeli.^[8]

Notable trainees include:

• Margarita Mamun – 2016 Olympic champion, twice all-around World silver medalist and three-time Russian National all-around champion.
• Daria Trubnikova – 2018 Youth Olympics Champion, 2018 European Junior clubs champion and 2019 Grand Prix Final all-around gold medalist.
• Maria Sergeeva – 2018 Grand Prix Final all-around bronze medalist and 2016 European Junior hoop champion.
• Yana Lukonina – 2010 World team gold medalist and 2010 Russian National all-around bronze medalist.
• Wang Qi - 2025 Junior World silver medalist with ball, two-time Asian Junior all-around champion.
• Zihan Wang

Detailed Olympic results

Year	Competition description	Location	Music [9]	Apparatus	Score-Final	Score-Qualifying
1996	Olympics	Atlanta		All-around	39.265	38.748
			Kitri, Entrance, Coda music from Don Quixote by Leon Minkus	Ribbon	9.832	9.750
			Theme from Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin	Rope	9.783	9.716
			At the Circus / Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia music from Spartacus by Aram Khatchaturian	Ball	9.866	9.699
			Ole Guapa by Malando	Clubs	9.783	9.583

See also

• Nationality changes in gymnastics