Svetlana Baitova

Baitova competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal with the Soviet team. Individually, she finished 13th in the team competition but did not qualify for the all-around final (top 36) as she was the fourth ranked Soviet and the limit was three gymnasts per nation. Her best Individual result was seventh on the balance beam, but again she did not advance to the apparatus final (top 8), as she was the third Soviet (two gymnasts per nation was the limit for the apparatus finals). Her other results were ninth (uneven bars), 14th (vault) and 31st (floor).[1] In 1988, she had not yet recovered from a hand fracture she received in 1987. Nevertheless, she was included on the team owing to her strong performance at the Olympic trials.[2]

Baitova won a team silver medal and finished fourth in the all-around final at the 1987 World Championships. She also finished fourth in three of the four event finals; vault, uneven bars and floor exercise. She won a team gold medal the 1989 World Championships;[3][4]

Baitova was the first gymnast to successfully perform in competition the double-twisting Yurchenko (DTY) vault, so it is named after her in the Code of Points. She also has an eponymous balance beam mount.[5]

She retired in 1990 and since 1991 works as gymnastics coach in Mogilev. In 1990, she married and gave birth to son Alex, but remarried later.[2][4] In 2002, she was hired to coach in Qatar on a five-year contract, but returned after 11 months because she could not tolerate the hot climate.[2]