Katia Pisetsky
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Katia Pisetsky Russian: Катя Писецки Katja Pisecki / Ukrainian: Катя Пісецька Katya Pisets'ka Hebrew: קטיה פיסצקי (born February 26, 1986 in Zaporozhie, Ukraine) is a Rhythmic Gymnast from Israel.
She started rhythmic gymnastics at age 6 in Zaporozhie, after her parents enrolled her. After her first coach Svetlana Zaharova moved to Germany, She insisted on Katja switching coaches to Ludmila Kovalik, who was the coach of Oxana Skaldina, a former World Champion and Olympic medalist.
Katja's talent was noticed and it was decided to take her to the best coach in Southern Ukraine - Liubov Serebrianskaya, at the Simferopol club Gratsia. To do so Katia would have to go to a boarding school. Katia's parents, Eugenij and Tatiana, at first didn't even want to hear about Katja moving to boarding school. However, they were convinced to try. Katia's grandmother didn't live far from Simferopol and she could visit her grandchild often.
The young Katja was living quite independently, step-by-step learning and developing her body movements and apparatus techniques. It wasn't easy to live in the boarding school, but the girls who lived there became good friends. Katia was sharing a room with fellow rhythmic gymnast Svetlana Rudalova (of Belarus) for 2 years and now they are very good friends. Katia made quite a successful career while training in Simferopol - she became a Ukrainian Junior Championships medalist, and was always in medal position in international competitions.
Her first tournament abroad was in 1998, when she went to Slovenia with Ekaterina Serebrianskaya, where the young Katia won. In 2000 Katia competed in the Club World Championships in Tokyo, Japan and was placed in 7th position.
Unfortunately, Liubov Serebrianskaya had cancer, which none of her gymnasts knew. She couldn't attend the gym as often as before. Katia was still training quite hard. She had no idea of her parents plans to move to another country. Liubov knew about this decision and she was strongly against it. Nonetheless, soon she phoned them and concurred. The preparation for the immigration started. Half of the year Katia was at home, when visas were being made. Katia had been in Israel competing in 1999, and was impressed by the great climate and abundance of fruits.
At the 2002 Israeli Cup, surprisingly to the Israeli Rhythmic Gymnastics Society, Katia wins. Her first international competition for Israel was the Thias Grand Prix where she was ranked 24th All-Around. She was not yet a known gymnast. Surely, having lost so much time before coming to Israel, Katia could not be in top shape at once. The rules changed, the technique of apparatus and body work became much more difficult. She was able to lose 10 kilograms before the European Championship in Granada, where she dropped to being the second ranked member of the team, having come second at the 2003 Israeli Cup.
On her first major competition for Israel, the 2002 European Championships, Katia surprised everybody. Katia came in 13th place All-Around and became the best Israeli gymnast of the competition. She also got the right to compete on the 2003 European Championships, where only the top 15 best European gymnasts compete.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Katerina Pisetsky at the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique profile page
