Nikolai Yulievich Kuksenkov (, ; born 2 June 1989) is a retired Russian gymnast who won a silver medal in the team event at the

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 ...

. He competed for

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

for many years and moved to Russia after the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in London, where he placed fourth in the all-around and fourth with the team.

Personal life

Kuksenkov was born on 2 June 1989 in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Ukraine SSR,

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 ...

. He received Russian citizenship on 23 April 2013.

Career

For Ukraine

Kuksenkov was a member of the junior Ukrainian team that won team gold at the European Championships. In 2008, he finished 4th in all-around at the 2008 European Championships, Kuksenkov missed qualifying in the Ukrainian Team for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

because of an injury where he underwent surgery and took a while for the recovery. He won gold in All-around and silver in Horizontal Bar at the 2011 Summer Universiade. He won bronze medal in All-around at the 2011 European Championships. He competed for Ukraine's national team at the

in the Men's artistic team all-around and the Men's artistic individual all-around. The Ukrainian team, consisting of Kuksenkov,

Igor Radivilov Igor (Ihor) Vitaliyovych Radivilov (; born 19 October 1992) is a retired Ukrainian gymnast and four-time Olympian, having competed at the 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 Olympic Games. Although he competed on all apparatuses, he was best known a ...

Vitalii Nakonechnyi Vitalii Nakonechnyi (Ukrainian: Віталій Наконечний, born 2 August 1986 in Kalush) is a Ukrainian gymnast. At the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, he competed in the team all-around event, joining Oleg Verniaiev, N ...

, Oleg Stepko and

Oleg Verniaiev Oleg Yuriyovych Verniaiev (; born 29 September 1993) is a Ukrainian artistic gymnast. He is the 2016 Olympic parallel bars champion and individual all-around silver medalist. Verniaiev is also the 2014 World parallel bars champion, the 201 ...

finished in 4th place in the team final. They were initially awarded 3rd position although a successful appeal from the Japanese team over one of their athletes scores resulted in Japan being promoted from 4th to 2nd place, displacing Ukraine from the medals. In the individual final Kuksenkov also finished in 4th position, again just missing out on a medal.

For Russia

In December 2012, Kuksenkov decided to switch to the Russian team. Now competing for Russia, he returned to international competition at the 2013 Summer Universiade, in Kazan. Kuksenkov, alongside the Russian team ( Emin Garibov, David Belyavskiy, Denis Ablyazin and Nikita Ignatyev) won Russia the team gold medal. He won gold medal in Pommel Horse and defended his All-around title in

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

winning another gold medal. On May 19–25, at the 2014 European Championships in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, Kuksenkov contributed scores of 15.133 (pommel horse), 15.066 (rings), 14.866 (parallel bar) and 14.833 (horizontal bar) for Russia and along with teammates ( Denis Ablyazin, Aleksandr Balandin, Nikita Ignatyev, David Belyavskiy) won Russia the Team Event gold medal with a total score of 267.959 ahead of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. At the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, Kuksenkov also competed along teammates ( Denis Ablyazin, David Belyavskiy, Nikita Ignatyev, Daniil Kazachkov and Ivan Stretovich) with Team Russia finishing 5th in the Team Final. In June 2015, Kuksenkov competed in the 2015 European Games, winning gold in the Team Competition (with teammates David Belyavskiy and Nikita Ignatyev). In April 2016, Kuksenkov became the subject of turmoil with the news spreading that he had tested positive for meldonium in a failed drugs test. The announcement came a day after he was crowned the Russian National champion, leading to his withdrawal from the remainder of the competition. He was temporarily suspended from Competition, however On April 13, the World Anti-Doping Agency gave amnesty to athletes with the presence of less than 1 microgram of meldonium in doping samples in tests conducted on athletes before March 1, 2016 is acceptable, WADA cites due to uncertainties and lack of studies for how long meldonium stays in the body., his suspension was lifted and he was allowed to train with the Russian Team for the 2016 European Championships. At the 2016 European Championships in May, Kuksenkov competed on pommel horse (15.066), parallel bars (14.266) and high bar (14.200) to help the Russia team gold with a score of 271.378. He also qualified to the pommel horse final where he finished 5th with a score of 14.566 after a fall. Kuksenkov won his first Olympic silver medal at the

in Team event (together with Denis Ablyazin, Nikita Nagornyy, Ivan Stretovich and David Belyavskiy). In December 2019, Kuksenkov announced his retirement from competitive gymnastics in an Instagram post, stating that he would start working as a coach for the National Russian team.

Competitive history

References

External links

*
Nikolai Kuksenkov Profile

Gymnastics Results
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuksenkov, Mykola 1989 births Gymnasts from Kyiv Living people Doping cases in gymnastics Olympic gymnasts for Russia Olympic gymnasts for Ukraine Gymnasts at the 2012 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Russian male artistic gymnasts Ukrainian male artistic gymnasts Ukrainian emigrants to Russia Naturalized citizens of Russia Gymnasts at the 2015 European Games European Games medalists in gymnastics European Games gold medalists for Russia Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Russia Olympic medalists in gymnastics Summer World University Games medalists in gymnastics Russian sportspeople in doping cases FISU World University Games gold medalists for Russia FISU World University Games gold medalists for Ukraine FISU World University Games silver medalists for Ukraine Medalists at the 2013 Summer Universiade 21st-century Russian sportsmen