Pizezky, Katya

Sport:
rhythmic gymnastics

Country Represented:
Israel

Years Competed:
2004

Olympic Info:
Pizezky competed in the 2004 Games rhythmic gymnastics event on August 26, and placed 16th in the Women's Individual All-Around Qualification. She scored 22.675 in the hoop (16th overall), 22.750 in the ball (17th overall) and 21.425 in the ribbon exercise (9th overall) for a total score of 66.850 in the first rotation. She placed 16th in the end with a final score of 89.950, which was not enough to qualify for the final.

Pizezky will represent Israel in the unique and demanding event of rhythmic gymnastics at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Her coach Natasha Asmolov says that she is a very special athlete: " Katya is very emotional. She is a very good actress and her routine is more than just sport, it's a story. She makes up most of her routines; I just decide what goes in and what doesn't." The gymnast has been training since she was six years old and Asmolov has been her coach since Pizezky immigrated from the Ukraine in 1999. Katya was lucky that a new state of the art facility for rhythmic gymnastics had been built in Petah Tikva. The gymnast will go into the Israeli army as soon as the Olympics are over.

Career Highlights:
In 2003 Katya made the general Olympic criteria in the World Championships in Budapest but her inability to crack the top twenty, meant she had not passed the tougher Israeli criteria. Pizezky qualified for the 2004 European Championships thanks to an impressive 6th place finish in the Munich Grand Prix. In the tournament itself she came in 11th, just below the Olympic criteria. The Olympic Committee granted her a special exemption and allowed her to join the Olympic squad. On August 1st Katya proved the committee right as she came in 12th in the World Cup tournament held in Bulgaria.

Birth and Death Dates:
b. February 26, 1986

Origin:
Ukraine

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