Rozalia Galiyeva

Rozaliya Ilfovna Galiyeva or Roza Galieva ( _ru. Розалия Ильфовна Галиева) (born April 28 1977 in Olmaliq, Uzbek SSR, USSR) is a gymnast who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Olympics.

Galiyeva was born on April 26, 1977 in Olmaliq, Uzbekistan. She began competing internationally for the USSR in 1991, sharing in the team gold medal at the 1991 World Championships in Indianapolis. A solid gymnast but never a star, Galiyeva was a strong support to the Soviet team.

Galiyeva competed with the Unified Team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. She exceeded expectations in the preliminary competition, finishing 8th and qualifying for the individual all-around final behind teammates Svetlana Boguinskaya and Tatiana Lysenko.

However, before the all-around, coach Alexander Alexandrov pulled Galiyeva from the competition, citing a knee injury. Her replacement was teammate Tatyana Gutsu. Although Gutsu had fallen from the balance beam in the team finals, she was the reigning European all-around champion and a Worlds medalist on vault and bars. It was later revealed that Galiyeva's injury was nonexistent, and that the substitution was made because Gutsu was considered to have better medal-winning potential. Indeed, Gutsu emerged from the Olympic all-around as the gold medalist. While Gutsu split her prize money with Galiyeva, Galiyeva always remained angry about this turn of events.

After the 1992 Olympics, Galiyeva continued competing for Uzbekistan. She successfully applied for Russian citizenship in 1995 and began competing for the Russian team. Her first major meet for Russia was the European Championships in 1996 where she won gold on balance beam, beating such renowned gymnasts as Gina Gogean and former teammate Svetlana Boguinskaya, who was now competing for Belarus.

As the only returning Olympian, Galiyeva was named team captain of the Russian squad at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. However, these Olympics would also prove to be less than positive for her. The Russian squad was bitterly disappointed in the team finals, where they finished second to the U.S. after leading for the first half of the competition. Galiyeva, along with other gymnasts such as Lavinia Miloşovici and Svetlana Khorkina, were severely distracted by the rowdy crowd. In the team finals, Galiyeva found herself in the unenviable position of competing on Floor Exercise just after Kerri Strug's amazing vault that cinched the Gold for the USA; the cheering crowd watched Galiyeva with more attention than they had her teammates, but the spotlight was very firmly elsewhere. The situation was repeated two days later in the All-Around finals, when Galiyeva was performing, again on Floor Exercise, while American favorite Shannon Miller was on Balance Beam, and Roza could not properly hear her music over the deafening crowd noise when Miller's impressive routine ended, and again when the score was flashed.

Individually, Galiyeva finished in the top 10 (7th) in the All-Around competition, fulfilling her goal to compete, but again she was disappointed. A Balance Beam medal seemed easily in her reach in event Finals (Roza's team optionals and all-around Beam scores would have been enough to tie her for first and second respectively). However, although she started confidently and at first looked to be a contender for the Gold, she fell on a front somersault near the end of her routine and finished a heartbreaking 7th place on that event. She had also earned a slot in the Event Finals for Vault, but finished just shy of a medal there, in 4th.

After Atlanta, Galiyeva participated in exhibition tours and competitions in the United States. Her last major competition was the World University Games in 1997. After retiring, she performed in an ice skating show, Moscow Circus on Ice, and judged gymnastics competitions in Russia. She is now married and, with husband Mischa, has one son, Nikita, and one daughter, Tatyana.

Major results

*1997 World University Games: 1st team; 2nd BB
*1996 Olympic Games: 2nd team; 7th AA; 4th VT; 7th BB
*1996 World Championships: 6th FX
*1996 European Championships: 1st BB; 2nd team; 5th VT
*1995 Olympic Test Event: 1st FX; 2nd AA; 2nd UB; 6th VT
*1993 World Championships: 6th AA
*1992 Olympic Games: 1st team
*1992 World Championships: 2nd UB; 3rd BB; 4th FX (all prelims)
*1992 Moscow World Stars: 1st BB; 2nd FX; 4th AA
*1991 World Championships: 1st team
*1991 Moscow World Stars: 5th AA; 8th UB
*1991 USSR Nationals: 4th AA

External links

*fig|id=4749|name=Rozalia Galiyeva
* [http://www.gymagery.com/rozagalieva/ Rozalia's Republik] , an unofficial web resource on Galiyeva
* [http://www.gymn-forum.net/bios/women/galieva.html Complete List of Competition Results at Gymn Forum]
* [http://www.intlgymnast.com/interview/gutsu_tatiana.html International Gymnast Interview with Tatiana Gutsu] (discusses 1992 Olympics substiution)