Gymnasts from 28 countries will take part in the 13th DOBRO World Cup from 9 to 12 June in Osijek. Among them are representatives of some of the world’s largest gymnastics forces. Apart from Croatia, there are also representatives from Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, South Africa, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and the USA. Among them are some of the world’s best gymnasts. We bring you a list with the most basic information about the biggest international stars of the DOBRO World Cup 2022.
Pauline Schäfer (Germany)
For a long time, Germany did not have a dominant star in women’s gymnastics. Almost from the time when the legendary Oksana Chusovitina performed under the German flag. The new generation of German gymnasts is led by Pauline Schafer. Her strongest device is the beam on which she won a set of medals at the world championships. Gold in Montreal in 2017, silver last year in Kitakyush, Japan and bronze in 2015 in Glasgow. She is also a participant in the Olympics, and at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, she was part of the German national team that advanced to the finals in the team competition for the first time since German unification.
Goksu Uctas Sanli (Turkey)
Turkey is becoming more and more prominent on the European and world gymnastics map, thanks to the former great Slovenian gymnast Aljaž Pegan. In the women’s competition, Goksu Uctas stands out as a very experienced 32-year-old gymnast who was supposed to compete at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. She should have, because she suffered a serious injury on the eve of the Games, which almost ended her career. She was unlucky with injuries, in 2012 she qualified for the Olympic Games in London as the first Turkish gymnast at the Games, but she got injured again in training, so in London she performed only on the beam. The new injury happened in 2013 after which she announced the end of her career. She married gymnast Ozgun Sanli with whom she gave birth to a daughter. However, 11 months after giving birth, she returned to the equipment and in 2020 she entered the history of Turkish gymnastics when she won a silver medal at home in Mersin at the European Championships on the Floor.
Teja Belak (Slovenia)
For the 28-year-old Slovenian, 2022 is a return year for gymnastics after giving birth to a son last year. Her husband Žiga Šilc, also a gymnast in previous years, also came to Osijek. Osijek will not be her first competition after giving birth. She competed this year at the World Cups in Cairo and Baku. Participant in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. She achieved the greatest result at the European Games in Minsk in 2019, when she won a gold medal in the high jump. She participated in Osijek for the first time in 2011, and in 2019 she took gold in sports arena Gradsi Vrt.
Artem Dolgopyat (Israel)
We can say that he feels at home in Osijek. The Olympic champion on the ground floor from Tokyo doesn’t just come to the DOBRO World Cup almost every year. This winter, for example, together with his colleagues from the Israeli national team, he did part of the preparations in Osijek. In the Sokol Center, not in the City Garden, where he has won two gold medals so far. The Olympic gold from Tokyo is his biggest success in his career, in which he has two more silver medals from the world championships (2017 and 2019) and four medals at the European championships, including the gold medal from Mersin in 2020. This sympathetic Israeli, one of the students of the famous coach Sergei Vaisburg, will receive additional support from the Osijek audience due to another fact. Dolgopyat was born in Dnipropetrovsk (June 16, 1997) in Ukraine, from where he emigrated to Israel at the age of 12.
Igor Radivilov (Ukraine)
Born in today’s devastated Mariupol, he is a member of Spartak Donetsk. A great bronze medalist at the London Olympics, he is a two-time world runner-up (2017 and 2019), and won as many as 11 medals at European Championships, four of which were gold, including in the team competition at the European Championships in Mersin, Ukraine. Petro Pakhnyuk, who we will also see in Osijek, also played for the national team at that time. The Ukrainians also participated in the team competition last year at the Tokyo Olympics. His “Radivilov” Vault is one of the most difficult. The triple forward turn somersault was awarded the highest weight rating – 7.0. Due to the risk of injury, the element was later completely removed from the scoring regulations. Radivilov will not perform in Osijek for the first time. He often knew how to participate together with his wife Angelyn Kysla Radivilov. They won medals in Osijek, and Igor will defend his gold in the Vault.
Ferhat Arican (Turkey)
Another Olympic medalist. Last year in Tokyo, he was third in the Parallel bars, making him the first Turkish gymnast to win an Olympic medal. He also has five medals from the European Championships, twice winning gold in Mersin in 2020 and Basel in 2021, and as a member of the national team he won silver at the European Championships hosted by Turkey in Mersin.
Ibrahim Colak (Turkey)
Turkish “lord of the rings”. World champion from Stuttgart 2019 and European champion on hoops from Mersin next year. . He is only 165 centimeters tall, and he became a member of the Turkish national team in 2012 at the age of only 17. With the team in 2020, he won silver at the European Championships in Mersin.
Ahmet Onder (Turkey)
Another member of the Turkish national team that won silver in the team competition at home in Mersin. His biggest single result is second place at the 2019 World Lunch Championships in Stuttgart. world runner-up; 2. in Europe with a team; 2. at the European Games on the crossbar; 3 medals at the Mediterranean Games.
Adem Asil (Turkey)
Born in Egypt at the age of 23, the youngest member of the current Turkish national team. Apart from the silver in the team competition, his most valuable result is the bronze medal from last year’s European Championship in Basel.
Andrey Medvedev (Israel)
Like many gifted gymnasts of Jewish descent born in the countries of the former USSR, Andrey Medvedev moved with his parents to Israel at the age of 12, where he was taken over by gymnastics coach Sergei Vaisburg. He won bronze last year at the World Championships in Kitakyushu, and also won two silver medals at the European Championships in Szczecin (2019) and Basel (2021).
Alexander Myakinin (Israel)
Unlike his colleagues from the Israeli national team, we did not manage to get to know him even better in Osijek, although he is an exceptionally high-quality gymnast. He proved it in Mersin in 2020 when he won the European bronze medal.
Caio Souza (Brazil)
In earlier years, the best Brazilian gymnasts, world and Olympic champions, winners of medals at major competitions used to come to Osijek. This year, they are led by Cajo Souza, already an experienced 29-year-old finalist at the Tokyo Olympics. He has a few more World Cup finals, but his home ground is the Continental Games. He won eight gold medals at the Pan American Championships.
Tyson Bull (Australia)
Gymnasts from “Down under” are also coming to Osijek, and the most famous is Tyson Bull. An interesting name and surname, a combination of icons that marked the sport of the 1990s, he participated in the Olympic Games in Tokyo and took fifth place in the hurdles.
