Irina Viner-Usmanova
Irina Alexandrovna Viner-Usmanova (; born July 30, 1948) is an Uzbek-born Russian rhythmic gymnastics coach who is head coach of the Russian national team, president of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, and former vice president of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation. In 2015, Viner was awarded the Olympic Order in recognition of her outstanding achievements in global sports, making Viner the first gymnastics coach in history to receive the award. Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee, personally handed her the necklace and presented the award. Viner is one  of the most successful gymnastics coaches of all time, her pupils include five of the last six Olympic all-around champions: Margarita Mamun (2016), Evgeniya Kanaeva (2008 and 2012), Alina Kabaeva (2004), and Yulia Barsukova (2000). She is married to business magnate Alisher Usmanov, formerly Russia's richest man, who has a net worth of more than $20 billion. Personal life. Viner was born in Samarkand, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union. Her father, Alexander, was a People's Painter of Uzbekistan. Her mother, Zoya, was a doctor. Viner is Jewish, and in an interview she gave to Russia's Hello ! magazine at her home, she has said that she reads about Kabbalah, though she doesn't speak Hebrew. Among her many state awards, she was given the "Living Legend" prize by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia in 2007. Viner is currently married to Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov, who was also born in Soviet Uzbekistan, and is Muslim. She and Usmanov originally met in their youth at a sports hall in Tashkent, where he was involved in fencing; they reconnected many years later in Moscow. She has a son from her first marriage, Anton, who was born in 1973  and later adopted by Usmanov. Anton is a real estate investor. Career. As a young girl Viner wanted to take ballet but was discouraged, so she took up gymnastics at the age of 11. Viner was a three-time champion of the Uzbek SSR and graduated from the Uzbek State Institute of Physical Culture. She worked as coach of the national team in rhythmic gymnastics in Tashkent, and under her tutelage, Venera Zaripova became her first successful gymnast. In 1990, Viner briefly moved to Great Britain to coach the British national team. After Barcelona Irina moved to Moscow and began  working for the Moscow City Sports Association (MCSA). Since 1992 Irina Viner-Usmanova was the Head Coach of the Olympic Training Center. She became the Head Coach of the Russian National Team in 2001 and the President of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation in 2008. In 2015, Viner was awarded the Olympic Order in recognition of her outstanding achievements in global sports, making Viner the first gymnastics coach to receive the award. Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee personally handed the necklace to her and presented the award. Viner featured in the 2017 documentary "Over the Limit , which covered her training of Margarita Mamun in the run-up to the 2016 Olympics. The film depicts her controversial training methods including sustained verbal abuse, with statements and insults directed at Mamun such as You're going to die bitch" and "Go f*** yourself with your shaking". In an interview she gave to Russia's Hello! magazine at her home, she has said that her pupils venerate myrrh-pouring icons before every competition. Since she has talked about reading Kabbalah in the same interview, some gymnastics sites translating the article into English assumed she was referring to Kabbalah icons , but this is most likely a mistaken assumption, as myrrh-pouring icons have long been associated with Eastern Orthodox Christianity, while Kabbalah is a form of Jewish mysticism, and Judaism forbids the use of icons altogether. After Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram defeated Russia's Dina Averina at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the all-around individual competition, Viner attacked Ashram, the judges, as well as the wider gymnastics community, accusing them of bias against Russia and saying that "Dina is the real champion". In the following all-around group competition at the same Olympics, the Russian team lost  to the Bulgarian team, and Viner in response once more insinuated an anti-Russian conspiracy in the judging, saying, "everyone understood perfectly well that this was meant to happen, that Russia’s hegemony had to be stopped." Three months later, it was announced that Viner has signed the coach of the Israeli rhythmic gymnastics team at Tokyo, Ira Vigdorchik, to become the new coach of Russia's rhythmic gymnastic team. Notable pupils. Viner has trained many Russian Olympic/World/European/World Cup medal winners, including: Russian gymnasts. Individual rhythmic gymnasts: Notable group rhythmic gymnasts: She has also trained the Russian  Group that won the 2012 Summer Olympics Gold in Group All-around: (Ksenia Dudkina, Uliana Donskova, Anastasia Bliznyuk, Alina Makarenko, Anastasia Nazarenko, Karolina Sevastyanova) Counselor/Coordinator for Russian Group: 2020 Summer Olympics Group silver medalists (Anastasia Bliznyuk, Anastasia Maksimova, Angelina Shkatova, Anastasia Tatareva, Alisa Tishchenko) 2016 Summer Olympics Group gold medalists 2008 Summer Olympics Group gold medalists 2004 Summer Olympics Group gold medalists 2000 Summer Olympics Group gold medalists 1996 Summer Olympics Group bronze medalists (Yevgeniya Bochkaryova, Irina Dzyuba, Yuliya Ivanova, Yelena Krivoshey, Olga Shtyrenko, Angelina Yushkova) Head of Famous Russian rhythmic gymnast coaches. Although Viner is the Head of  the Russian National rhythmic gymnastics Federation. the Russian gymnasts have their own personal coaches and trainers supervising their daily training and in competitions. Notable Russian rhythmic gymnast coaches include: