Seda Gurgenovna Tutkhalyan (, ; born 15 July 1999) is a Russian artistic gymnast. She is the 2014 Youth Olympic Games Individual All-around champion and a

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Team silver medalist.

Personal life

Tutkhalyan was born July 15, 1999, in

Gyumri Gyumri (, ) is an urban municipal community and the List of cities and towns in Armenia, second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th centur ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

, and moved to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

early in childhood. Her father, Gurgen Tutkhalyan, was a four-time world champion for the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in sambo martial arts, and her older brother, Vaik, currently competes for

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

in the same sport.

Junior career

2013 was Tutkhalyan's breakout year. At the Russian Junior Championships, she won team, all-around, vault, and uneven bars gold, floor exercise bronze, and placed seventh on balance beam. Later, at the Olympic Hopes competition, she won gold with her team and on vault, and silver in the all-around and on floor exercise. Her international debut came that winter, at the

Gymnasiade The Gymnasiade, or World Gymnasiade, or World School Sport Games, or ISF World School Sport Games is an international multi-sport event which is organised by the International School Sport Federation (ISF). It is the largest event among many oth ...

in Brazil, where she won team gold, floor exercise bronze, and placed fourth on beam, fifth in the all-around and on vault, and eighth on bars. In 2014, she competed at the Russian Championships in April, winning vault gold, team, all-around, and uneven bars silver, and placing fifth on beam and sixth on floor. She competed at the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

, she won gold with her team and placed fourth on vault, seventh in the all-around and on balance beam, and eighth on floor exercise. In early July, she competed at the Student Spartakiada, winning team, all-around, and vault gold, uneven bars bronze, and placed fourth on floor. She was then selected to represent

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, China; there, she won the all-around and uneven bars, silver on floor exercise, and placed fifth on vault.

Senior career

Tutkhalyan became a senior elite gymnast in 2015. At her senior debut at the Russian National Championships in early March, she won three bronze medals, for all-around, vault and balance beam. In June, Tutkhalyan was named to the Russian team for the

2015 European Games The 1st European Games (), also known as the 2015 European Games or Baku 2015 (), were the inaugural edition of the European Games, an international multi-sport event for athletes representing the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of the Europe ...

in Baku, with Aliya Mustafina and

Viktoria Komova Viktoria Aleksandrovna Komova (; born 30 January 1995) is a retired Russians, Russian artistic gymnast. She is a two-time Olympic medalist, having won silver medals in the all-around and team events at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012 Olympics. S ...

. Tutkhalyan won the gold medal with the team, and posted the second-highest all-around score in qualification, 57.332. However, the highest score was by her teammate Mustafina and only one gymnast per country could advance to the final at these games. Tutkhalyan did qualify for the vault final in second place with a score of 14.466 for two vaults, and for the balance beam final in first place with a score of 14.600. Tutkhalyan was named to the Russian team for the

2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was the 46th edition of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The competition was held from 23 October – 1 November 2015 at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, United Kingdom, and is the first time ...

. She helped her team to a 4th-place finish and individually qualified to the all-around and balance beam finals. In the all-around final, she placed 15th, and in the balance beam final, she placed 6th. In 1–10 April 2016; Tutkhalyan competed at the

2016 Russian Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2016 Russian Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held in Penza, Russia between 28 March - 10 April 2016. Medalists European Championships Selection Meldonium Incident On Saturday, April 2, new national champion Nikolai Kuksen ...

taking silver in all-around, team and won gold in vault finals. On 30 April – 1 May, she competed at the Osijek World Cup where she won silver in uneven bars and bronze in balance beam finals. She was named to the team at the

and contributed to the Russian team's gold medal finish; however, she did not make any individual finals.

2016 Olympics

Tutkhalyan was named to the Russian Olympic team after

Ksenia Afanasyeva Ksenia Dmitrievna Afanasyeva (; born 13 September 1991) is a retired Russian artistic gymnast who competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She is the 2011 world champion on Floor (gymnastics), floor exercise, the 2013 ...

's health problems relegated the latter gymnast to alternate and later forced her retirement from gymnastics. In qualifications, Tutkhalyan competed the all-around and qualified in 4th place to the all-around final with a score of 58.207. In the team final, she contributed a beam score of 14.766 and a floor score of 13.766 to the Russian team's silver medal finish. In the all-around final, competing in the top group, Tutkhalyan began well with a vault score of 14.866 and a bars score of 15.033, and it appeared at that point that Seda would challenge her teammate Aliya Mustafina for a surprise bronze medal. However, these hopes began to dissipate on the beam, when she fell on her double-pike dismount after a mostly clean routine, receiving a score of 13.800, and multiple falls on floor, her last apparatus, left her with 10.966 on that event and a total all-around score of 54.665 for 22nd place. She had not made any event finals, although she was second reserve for the vault final.

Competitive history

International Scores

References

External links

*
Seda Tutkhalyan
at sportgymrus.ru * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tutkhalyan, Seda 1999 births Living people Sportspeople from Gyumri Russian sportspeople of Armenian descent Armenian emigrants to Russia Russian female artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics Gymnasts at the 2015 European Games European Games medalists in gymnastics European Games gold medalists for Russia European Games silver medalists for Russia Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Russia Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Russia Olympic medalists in gymnastics Youth Olympic gold medalists for Russia European champions in gymnastics 21st-century Russian sportswomen