Sofia Muratova

Sofia Muratova
Muratova at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Full name	Sofia Ivanovna Muratova
Country represented	Soviet Union
Born	(1929-07-13)13 July 1929 Leningrad, Russia
Died	25 September 2006(2006-09-25) (aged 77) Moscow, Russia
Height	160 cm (5 ft 3 in)
Weight	55 kg (121 lb)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Club	Dynamo Moscow
Medal record Olympic Games 1956 Melbourne Team 1960 Rome Team 1960 Rome All-Around 1960 Rome Vault 1956 Melbourne Team PA 1956 Melbourne All-Around 1956 Melbourne Uneven Bars 1960 Rome Balance Beam World Championships 1954 Rome Team 1958 Moscow Team 1962 Prague Team 1958 Moscow Vault 1958 Moscow Balance Beam

Sofia Ivanovna Muratova (Russian: Софья Ивановна Муратова) (13 July 1929 – 25 September 2006) was a Soviet gymnast. She competed in the 1956 and 1960 Olympics and won eight medals.

Muratova grew up in Leningrad and lost her mother during its siege. Muratova herself was evacuated from the city in 1941. During the war she could not regularly attend school, but tried to train every day. She took up artistic gymnastics in 1943, entering a children's sports school, and just three months later competed in the Russian Championships for girls. In 1944 she moved to Moscow, where she trained under Igor Zhuravlev.

In 1945 Muratova won her first major competition, the USSR Junior Championships. She soon became one of the strongest Soviet gymnasts, the only one to win five Soviet all-around titles, yet she was often unlucky at major international events.

Muratova missed the 1952 Summer Olympics due to injury. Two years later, at the 1954 World Championships in Artistic Gymnastics, she won a gold medal in the team competition and led the all-around contest, but broke her arm during a warm-up and had to withdraw from the championship. Her husband Valentin Muratov swore to win a gold medal for her and became the all-around champion. She debuted at the 1956 Summer Olympics, winning the team gold and two bronze medals, all-around and on the uneven bars. At the rather unsuccessful 1958 World Championships in Artistic Gymnastics in Moscow Muratova won the team gold and two bronzes on vault and balance beam. Injuries haunted her on the way to the 1960 Summer Olympics, but with the help from Zoya Mironova, who operated Muratova just three months before the Olympics, she managed to recover and even win three medals — the team gold, all-around silver and bronze on the balance beam. She presented her gold medal to Mironova as a token of gratitude. Her two Olympic all-around medals (1956, 1960) were a rare feat accomplished by only six other woman gymnasts.