Evgeniya Kanaeva

About Evgeniya Kanaeva

Evgeniya Olegovna Kanaeva OMF (Russian: Евгения Олеговна Канаева; born 2 April 1990) is a Russian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the only individual rhythmic gymnast in history to win two Olympic all-around gold medals, winning at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she finished with 3.75 points ahead of silver medalist Inna Zhukova, and at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she also became the oldest gymnast to win the Olympic gold. On 4 July 2013, Kanaeva received the International Fair Play Award for "Sport and Life".

Kanaeva holds the record for most World titles with seventeen and thirteen European titles. Kanaeva shares the record for most individual world all-around titles with Maria Petrova (1995 tied with Ekaterina Serebrianskaya), Maria Gigova (1971 tied with Galima Shugurova) and fellow Russian gymnasts Yana Kudryavtseva and Dina Averina, and Kanaeva is the one of only three gymnasts to have won all three titles without being tied, impossible due to the tie breaking system even though she never was tied for a title.

At the 2009 World Championship in Mie, Japan, Kanaeva became the first rhythmic gymnast to win all six titles. She repeated the feat at the 2011 World Championship in Montpellier, France, equaling her own record.

In 2009, Kanaeva was awarded the title Merited Master of Sports in Russia. After the 2012 Summer Olympics, on 15 August at the Grand Kremlin Palace, Kanaeva, along with fellow Olympic gold medalists, was awarded the Merit for the Fatherland IV Degree. Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the honors.

Kanaeva is the only gymnast to receive a perfect score under the 30-point judging system, having done so twice: in the 2011 Grand Prix Final in Brno and in the 2012 Grand Prix in Vorarlberg.