The Russians won the World Cup without permission. How about that? Daria Varfolomeev has become the main star of the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championship that takes place in Valencia. Despite the fact that she now represents Germany, the gymnast undertook her return trip to Russia.
russian start
Daria was born in the same place as the Belarusian gymnastics star Anastasia Salos – in Barnaul. The sports career of the future champion was in a certain sense predetermined from the first days of her life. The girl’s mother was also a gymnast in the past. She performed in Russia and even received the title of Master of Sports Candidate, and after her family moved to Germany, she continued training in a new country until she retired at age 18 due to a leg injury. knee.
In Russia, Varfolomeev received the basics and grew up to compete in lower categories. His best result was sixth place in the federal district championship. In 2018, Daria realized that if she wanted to connect her life with gymnastics, then she needed to change her sports citizenship. Here the German citizenship of Varfolomeev’s mother came in handy.
A nice bonus was that in Barnaul Daria trained with Elena Naumova, who had already sent her gymnasts to Germany. Her pupil Elena Geifnider became the German runner-up in group exercises.
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As a result, Daria was seen by Yulia Raskina and the head coach of the German national team, Isabelle Savade.
“At first, we watched his exercises without music and I thought, ‘Okay, we have to do something about it.’ When we turned on the music, Dasha became completely different! She smiled, she had fun… I immediately exhaled and thought: “Thank God!” It was so fun and so sweet. It was at that moment that I realized that we could achieve something, ”Raskina said of her first meeting with Daria.
Daria Varfolomeev
Photo: IMAGO/TASS
German school
In August 2018, Varfolomeev was invited to train in Germany, but was unable to fully move until February 2019. Upon arrival, the 13-year-old gymnast was placed in a boarding school with other girls. At first, Daria was very harsh. This is how she remembers that time:
“I started training as soon as I arrived, with Natalia Raskina, I lived in a boarding school with other gymnasts, but it was hard because the first three years I lived without my parents and also I didn’t know German. My grandparents live 200 km from me, in Frankfurt, and if possible, they came to help me!
But the main thing was the desire to achieve something, no matter how difficult it was. She entered the German team after qualifying for the national championship, where she ranked second in junior after Margarita Kolosov, thanks to this she reached the 2019 world junior championship. It was the first major championship in which I represented Germany in the club exercise!”
In that JJWCH 2019, Daria ranked 15th in the club ranking. In 2022, Varfolomeev reached the adult level and surprised the public with his results. He took two bronzes at the 2022 European Championships, one gold, three silvers, and one bronze at the 2022 World Cup.
How Varfolomeeva shone at the 2022 World Cup:
The Russian gymnast won two medals at once at the World Championships. Here’s someone to root for!
Let Daria get a base in Russia, it was in Germany that he helped her reach a truly high level. In particular, this is the merit of Yulia Raskina, the gymnast’s personal trainer. So we can safely say that Daria is made in Russia, but she was brought up in Germany. Despite this, Varfolomeev remains in contact with the Russian coaches.
Gymnast with a great record.
Now Daria is already used to the situation in Germany: she found friends, learned the language. Now Varfolomeev boldly sings the German anthem at competitions. At the World Championships in the individual events finals, she did it four times, because he won four gold medals!
He passed all qualifying and final tests without errors, earning the highest scores on body and apparatus difficulty. Gymnasts who wanted to surpass Daria made mistakes or simply could not reach the necessary difficulty. Her main competitors Sofia Raffaeli and Stiliana Nikolova did not show her maximum in the first two days of the 2023 World Cup. This allowed Varfolomeev to become the undisputed leader in all finals.
Daria Varfolomeev
Photo: IMAGO/TASS
“Four gold medals is incredible. I just can’t believe it. I’m incredibly proud of it!” — admitted the gymnast.
By the way, Daria repeated a unique record by winning four gold medals in all exercises. In history, only three gymnasts managed to do this. Alexandra Timoshenko (USSR) at the 1991 World Championships, Ekaterina Serebryanskaya (Ukraine) at the 1994 World Championships, however, three gold medals in hoop exercises and two gold medals in ball exercises were later awarded, and Evgenia Kanaeva (Russia) at the 2009 World Cup and at the 2011 World Cup. It turns out that Varfolomeev went down in history.
At the 2021 World Cup, Dina Averina also set a spectacular record:
Dina Averina set a phenomenal world record. No one has won that many!
But Daria has one more goal ahead – full gold, which is considered the most valuable in gymnastics! In the classification for three tests, Varfolomeev was second (102.6), losing only to the Bulgarian Stiliana Nikolova (104.3). Will the former Russian be able to become the best here too? We will know very soon.
