Marina Nekrasova (; born 19 April 1995) is a Russian-born artistic gymnast who has represented Azerbaijan since 2013. She is the

2019 Summer Universiade The 2019 Summer Universiade (), officially known as the XXX Summer Universiade () and also known as Naples 2019, or Napoli 2019, was held in Naples, Italy, between 3 and 14 July 2019. It was initially scheduled for Brasília, Brazil in July 201 ...

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosur ...

champion. At the

2017 Islamic Solidarity Games The 4th Islamic Solidarity Games () was a multinational, multi-sport event that was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from May 12 to 22, 2017. Previously, the event was held in Saudi Arabia in 2005 and Indonesia in 2013. The second event, originally sch ...

, she won gold in the team event and silver medals on the vault and

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The bal ...

. She is also a three-time World Challenge Cup vault champion. She competed at the

2020 Olympic Games The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, making her the first woman artistic gymnast to represent Azerbaijan at the Olympic Games.

Personal life

Nekrasova was born on 19 April 1995 in

Voronezh Voronezh ( ; , ) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects wes ...

along with her twin sister Tamara. They both began gymnastics when they were three years old. She graduated from the Voronezh State Institute of Physical Education in 2016.

Career

2013

Nekrasova finished sixteenth in the all-around at the Russian Championships. Then at the Russian Cup, she won the bronze medal with the

Central Federal District The Central Federal District ( rus, Центральный федеральный округ, p=tsɨnˈtralʲnɨj fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnɨj ˈokrʊk) is one of the federal districts of Russia, eight federal districts of Russia. Geographically, the di ...

team. Individually, she finished twelfth in the all-around and fifth on vault. At the end of 2013, Azerbaijan began rebuilding its national gymnastics team in preparation 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 ...

, and Nekrasova was invited to join the team alongside

Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova. (born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova; – 23 January 1931) was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating ...

Yulia Inshina Yulia Andreyevna Inshina (, born 15 April 1995) is a Russian-born Azerbaijani artistic gymnast. She has been known for her consistent and reliable work, especially on balance beam. A competitor for Russia for several years, she began to represent ...

, and Maria Smirnova. Her first competition for Azerbaijan was the Voronin Cup where she won the all-around bronze medal behind

Alena Vasilyeva Alena is a feminine given name. It may be either derived from the name Helene or as a diminutive form of ' Magdalena'. In the Balkans, this particular spelling of the name is predominantly found among the peoples of the former Yugoslav nation ...

and Pavlova. She also won the silver medal on the balance beam behind Vasilyeva, and she finished fifth on the

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

and fourth on the

floor exercise In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, considered an apparatus. The floor exercise (English abbreviation FX) is the event performed on the floor, in both women's and men's artistic gymnastics (WAG and MAG). The same flo ...

2014

Nekrasova's first competition of the 2014 season was the Cottbus World Cup where she placed sixth on the vault. She competed with

, and Maria Smirnova at the 2014 European Championships where they finished sixteenth in the qualification round. She then competed at the Bosphorus Tournament in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and won the silver medal in the all-around and on vault both behind Pavlova. She also won the bronze medal on the floor exercise behind Aida Bauryzhanova and Inshina, and she placed sixth on the uneven bars. The same team from the European Championships competed at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

and finished thirtieth in the qualification round. Then at the DTB Team Challenge, Azerbaijan finished fifth, and Nekrasova won the bronze medal in the all-around behind

Pauline Schäfer Pauline Sieglinde Schäfer-Betz or Pauline Schäfer (born 4 January 1997) is a German Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast who represented Germany at the Gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics, 2016, Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, 2020, ...

and

Lisa Ecker Lisa Ecker (born 19 September 1992) is an Austrian female artistic gymnast who competed at the senior international elite level. She competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, placing 43rd; it was only the second time that Austria was represe ...

2015

Nekrasova 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 ...

, and she finished forty-fifth in the all-around during the qualification round. She also failed to qualify for any finals at the Anadia World Cup. She was selected to represent Azerbaijan at the 2015 European Games alongside

and Kristina Pravdina, and they finished thirteenth in the team competition. Nekrasova qualified for the all-around final and finished fifteenth with a total score of 50.098. Then at the

she finished eighty-eighth in the all-around during the qualification round.

2016

Nekrasova won the bronze medal on the floor exercise at the Baku World Challenge Cup, the first World Cup medal of her career. Then at the Doha World Challenge Cup, she finished sixth on the vault. She finished sixty-second in the all-around at the Olympic Test Event with a total score of 49.133. This result made her the first reserve for the 2016 Olympic Games. She then competed at the

with

and Maria Smirnova, and they finished twentieth in the qualification round.

2017

At the Baku World Cup, Nekrasova won the bronze medal on the floor exercise behind

Catalina Ponor Catalina may refer to: Arts and media * ''The Catalina'', a 2012 American reality television show * Catalina (novel), ''Catalina'' (novel), a 1948 novel by W. Somerset Maugham * Catalina (My Name Is Earl), Catalina (''My Name Is Earl''), a char ...

and

Emily Little Emily Little (born 29 March 1994) is an Australian artistic gymnast. She won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the team women's artistic gymnastic events. She was chosen to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Personal ...

, and she placed fourth on both the vault and balance beam. She then competed at the

Islamic Solidarity Games The Islamic Solidarity Games () is a multinational, multi-sport event. Managed jointly by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Islamic Solidarity Sports Association (ISSA), the Games involve elite athletes of the OIC competing in a ...

alongside

and Ekaterina Tishkova, and they won the team gold medal. Individually, Nekrasova won the silver medal on the vault behind

Oksana Chusovitina Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (; born 19 June 1975) is an Uzbekistani gymnastics, artistic gymnast who previously represented the Soviet Union and Germany. Chusovitina's career as an elite gymnast has spanned more than three decades. She wo ...

and on the balance beam behind Göksu Üçtaş. She also finished fourth in the all-around. She finished eighth on both the vault and the uneven bars at the Varna World Challenge Cup. She won her first World Cup title on the vault at the Szombathely World Challenge Cup. She was the third reserve for the all-around final at the

after finishing twenty-eighth in the qualification round with a total score of 49.973. Then at the Voronin Cup, she won the bronze medal on the balance beam behind Russians

Maria Kharenkova Maria Aleksandrovna Kharenkova (; born 29 October 1998) is a retired Russian-Georgian artistic gymnast. She is the 2014 European champion on the balance beam. Gymnastics career 2011 In April, Kharenkova competed at the Russian Championships i ...

and Viktoria Trykina and the silver medal on the floor exercise behind Kharenkova. She also finished fourth on the vault and seventh in the all-around.

2018

At the Baku World Cup, Nekrasova won the silver medal on the vault behind

. Then at the Mersin World Challenge Cup, she placed sixth on the vault and fifth on the uneven bars. During the

, she landed on her head during her balance beam dismount and was carried out of the competition on a stretcher. She returned to competition at the Paris World Challenge Cup and finished seventh on vault. Then at the

, she finished seventieth in the all-around during the qualification round.

2019

At the Baku World Cup, Nekrasova competed in a unitard for the first time to inspire Muslim girls in artistic gymnastics. She placed seventh on both the vault and balance beam. Then at the Doha World Cup, she finished eighth on vault. She qualified for the all-around final at the

and finished twenty-third with a total score of 48.465. She then won the gold medal on vault at the Koper Challenge Cup with an average score of 14.475. She was then selected to represent Azerbaijan at the 2019 European Games where she placed sixth in the vault final. She then won the gold medal on vault at the

Summer Universiade The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

with an average score of 14.000. She won another World Cup vault gold medal at the Szombathely Challenge Cup. Then at the

, she finished ninety-third in the all-around and qualified for an individual spot at the

, becoming the first woman artistic gymnast from Azerbaijan to do so.

2020–21

During the qualification round of the 2020 Baku World Cup, Nekrasova finished third on vault. However, the event was canceled prior to the event finals due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan The COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Azerbaijan when its first case w ...

. She returned to competition at the postponed- 2020 European Championships but did not qualify for any finals. Nekrasova began her

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

at the

and finished seventh on vault. She then competed at the Ukraine International Cup, winning the gold medal on the vault and the bronze medal on the uneven bars. She also placed fourth in the all-around and on the floor exercise and fifth on the balance beam. She then competed at the

and finished seventieth in the all-around and nineteenth on the vault during the qualification round. She became the first woman artistic gymnast to represent Azerbaijan at the Olympic Games.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nekrasova, Marina 1995 births Living people Gymnasts from Voronezh Russian emigrants to Azerbaijan Naturalized citizens of Azerbaijan Azerbaijani female artistic gymnasts Russian female artistic gymnasts European Games competitors for Azerbaijan Gymnasts at the 2015 European Games Azerbaijani people of Russian descent Gymnasts at the 2019 European Games Summer World University Games medalists in gymnastics FISU World University Games gold medalists for Azerbaijan Medalists at the 2019 Summer Universiade Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Azerbaijan Islamic Solidarity Games gold medalists for Azerbaijan Islamic Solidarity Games silver medalists for Azerbaijan 21st-century Russian sportswomen