The Kovtun: meet the artistic gymnastics element just named after 18-year-old Ukrainian

The International Gymnastics Federation has officially named a new gymnastic element performed on parallel bars the Kovtun after the Ukrainian18-year-old athlete Illia Kovtun, among five new elements named for their creators in the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Code of Points.

The Kovtun is the back toss from upper arms with a quarter turn to one rail, performed for the first time during the 2021 Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Koper, Slovakia, by Ukrainian Illia Kovtun. The difficulty of the Kovtun is C or 0.3: that many points would be added to a gymnast’s final score for the flawless performance of the Kovtun.

Born in central-Ukrainian Cherkasy, Illia Kovtun took part in the 2020 Olympic Games and this October he won bronze at the World Gymnastics Championships in individual all-around. This year he also became a bronze medallist in individual all-around at the European Championships. Earlier, he had won two medals at junior world championships.

Illia’s coach Iryna Nadiuk congratulated Illia in her Facebook post,

“…now your last name is inscribed in the rules of artistic gymnastics forever, now there is the element Kovtun. Although, of course, that isn’t at all the group of difficulty we were hoping for.”

Four other athletes whose skills have also become eponymous are Belgian Noah Kuavita, American Riley Loos, Italian Andrea Cingolani, who first showed their elements at the 2021 Championship in Slovakia, and American Guillermo Alvarez, who had performed his at the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

“And while careers begin and end, named elements stay in the code forever,” the article on the Federation’s website reads.

Meet The Radivilov – new gymnastic element named after Ukrainian at #Rio2016

Illia Kovtun is the third Ukrainian male artistic gymnast to have an element in artistic gymnastics named after him, previously the International Gymnastics Federation named an element on bars after Petro Pakhniuk and another on vault after Ihor Radyvilov.

Also, four elements have been named after three Ukrainian female gymnasts, Liliia Podkopaieva (vault, floor), Natalia Kononenko (uneven bars), Iryna Yarotska (bars).

Additionally, two Ukrainian female gymnasts from the Soviet times had eponymous elements Liudmyla Turishcheva (vault), Oksana Omalianchyk (balance beam, vault).

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