Ivan Ivankov

Ivan Ivankov
Ivankov at the 2000 Sydney Olympics
Personal information
Born	(1975-04-10) 10 April 1975 Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
Height	167 cm (5 ft 6 in)
Gymnastics career
Discipline	Men's artistic gymnastics
Country represented	Belarus
Former countries represented	Soviet Union
Head coach(es)	Vladimir Vatkin, Viktor Doylidov, Yuri Koval
Retired	2006
Medal record World Championships 1994 Brisbane All-around 1997 Lausanne All-around 2001 Ghent Team 1997 Lausanne Team 2001 Ghent All-around 2002 Debrecen High bar 1993 Birmingham Still rings 1994 Brisbane High bar 1997 Lausanne Still rings 1999 Tianjin Team 2001 Ghent Parallel bars World Cup Final 1998 Sabae High bar 1998 Sabae Still rings 2000 Glasgow Still rings 2000 Glasgow High bar European Championships 1994 Prague All-around 1994 Prague Team 1996 Copenhagen All-around 1994 Prague Floor exercise 1996 Copenhagen Floor exercise 1996 Copenhagen Pommel horse 2000 Bremen All-around 2000 Bremen High bar 2000 Bremen Parallel bars 1996 Copenhagen Team 2000 Bremen Still rings 2006 Volos Team 2006 Volos Parallel bars European Team Championships 1997 Paris Team Summer Universiade 1999 Palma de Mallorca Rings

Ivan Aleksandrovich Ivankov (born 10 April 1975) is a retired Belarusian artistic gymnast. He became one of the most decorated Belarusian gymnasts while competing internationally between 1990 and 2006. Ivankov was the all-around World Champion in 1994 and 1997, and the all-around European Champion in 1994 and 1996. He won a total of eleven medals at the World Championships. He also represented Belarus at three Olympics (1996, 2000, and 2004), though he never won an Olympic medal. Since his retirement from competition, he has worked as a coach in the United States. Ivankov was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2019.

Early life and career

Ivankov was born in Minsk, Soviet Belarus, on 10 April 1975. He began gymnastics at the age of 6, and by the time he was 14, was a member of the Soviet national junior team, training at the prestigious Round Lake national gymnastics center.

Ivankov established himself as a top up-and-coming gymnast at the 1991 Junior European Championships in Greece, where he won the all-around, pommel horse, high bar, vault and rings titles, and earned a silver medal on floor.

Senior career

1992–1996

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ivankov began representing Belarus. He competed at both the 1992 Junior European Championships, where he helped the Belarusian team to a gold medal finish, and the senior European Championships in Budapest, where he placed 13th in the all-around. He competed in his first World Championships in 1993, where he won a bronze medal on the rings.

1994 was Ivankov's breakout year. At the 1994 World Championships in Brisbane, he won the all-around gold, defeating reigning Olympic champion and teammate Vitaly Scherbo in the process. The same year, Ivankov won his first all-around senior European Championships title and placed well in other international competitions.

Competing on the vault in Brisbane, Ivankov suffered an injury to his Achilles tendon. The injury forced him to miss the 1995 World Championships in Sabae, but he recovered sufficiently to win his second European Championships in 1996 and was considered to be a major medal threat for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. However, after arriving in Atlanta, Ivankov's Achilles snapped as he was walking across a parking lot, ending his Olympic bid.

1997–2004

Ivankov's Achilles injury required serious rehabilitation, reconstructive surgery and muscle grafts, and months of physical therapy. His condition was considered to be career-ending, however, only a year after rupturing his Achilles, Ivankov returned to win his second all-around gold medal at the 1997 World Championships. One year later, he won the all-around at the Goodwill Games in New York City.

In 2000, Ivankov competed in the 2000 Olympics where he finished 4th in the all-around, and 5th in the individual parallel bars and still rings event finals.

In 2001, Ivankov led the Belarusian team to the gold medal at the World Championships in Ghent, Belgium. Individually he finished second all-around, just shy from an unprecedented third world all-around title.

Two years later, Belarus finished 13th at the World Championships in Anaheim, failing to qualify a full team to the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Ivankov competed in Athens as an individual.

After competing at the 2005 and 2006 World Championships, Ivankov decided to retire from international competition. He still performs in exhibitions worldwide.

Post-competitive work

Ivankov resided in Oklahoma and coached at the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy. In 2009, he accepted a coaching job for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's gymnastics team. In 2012, he was awarded the National Assistant Coach of the Year award as the Fighting Illini won the 2012 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championship. As of 2019, he is also now a coach for Champions Gymnastics Academy in Katy, TX.

In 2019 he was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, which described him as "the prototype of the ideal gymnast."

In December 2025, he visited his former gymnastics school in Minsk, Belarus. In an interview, he said that Belarusian athletes having to compete under the title of Individual Neutral Athletes is a "humiliation," and that it was because international sporting federations were "putting a spoke in the wheels."

Personal life

In 2001, Ivankov married Suzyanna, an aerobics instructor and Belarusian television personality. They divorced in 2007, and he remarried the same year. In 2001, Ivankov was named godfather to Alexei Nemov's son. Ivankov has a son, and is currently married to his second wife, Valentina.

Video Interviews

• 2008 Ivan Ivankov Interview on Gymnastike.org at the Wayback Machine (archived December 20, 2008)