MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/: Russia’s two-time Olympic gymnastics Champion Maria Filatova has been inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (IGHOF), the press service of the US-based IGHOF announced in a statement on Thursday.
"Five gymnastics legends will be honored at the 23rd annual International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (IGHOF) ceremony on Saturday, May 18, 2019, at the Petroleum Club in Oklahoma City," the statement reads.
According to the IGHOF, the athletes at the issue are: Maria Filatova (Russia): 3-time Olympic medalist (1976-1980), and 4-time World Championship medalist; Shawn Johnson (USA): 4-time Olympic medalist, including Gold Medalist on Balance Beam (2008 Beijing) and 2007 World All-Around Champion; Ivan Ivankov (Belarus): 11-time World medalist, including 2-time World All-Around Champion (1994 and 1997); Li XiaoPeng (China): 5-time Olympic medalist, including 4 golds, 11-time World Championship medalist.
"In addition to the Class of 2019 Inductees, the 2019 IGHOF International Order of Merit will be presented to Hardy Fink (Canada), the Director of Education & Academy Program·s for the International Gymnastics Federation, for his 4 decades of leadership and service," the statement said.
Born in the Soviet Union in 1961, Filatova won the gold in team events at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, where she also won the Olympic bronze in uneven bars exercise. Filatova is also the two-time world champion (team events in 1978 and 1981) and the 1977 European Champion in floor exercise.
According to the IGHOF official website, over the past 22 years, 99 of gymnastics greatest stars and contributors, representing 22 countries have been formally honored by the Hall of Fame.
The IGHOF is home to gymnastics greats such as Vera Caslavska, Nadia Comaneci, Olga Korbut, Mary Lou Retton, Nikolai Andrianov, Sawao Kato and Vitaly Scherbo.
