Maria Paseka

Maria Valeryevna Paseka (Russian: Мария Валерьевна Пасека; born 19 July 1995) is a Russian artistic gymnast. She is the 2015 World champion, 2015 European champion and 2015 Universiade champion on vault. Paseka competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she won a silver medal with the Russian team and an individual bronze medal on the vault. She won a silver medal with the Russian team at the 2016 Summer Olympics, as well as a silver medal on vault. She is the first female gymnast since Ludmilla Tourischeva to medal on vault in two consecutive Olympic Games.

2010

At the end of April, Paseka competed at the European Championships in Birmingham, United Kingdom. She contributed an all around score of 55.850 toward the Russian team's first-place finish. In the vault final, she won the silver medal with a score of 14.275.

2011

In August, Paseka competed at the Russian Cup in Yekaterinburg, Russia. She placed third on vault scoring 13.713 and fifth on floor scoring 13.125. Russian coach Valentina Rodionenko said, "In Yekaterinburg, she did not perform vault very well, but she has very difficult and high-level gymnastics."

In September, Paseka competed at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup event in Ghent, Belgium. She placed sixth on vault scoring 13.837 and fifth on floor scoring 13.175.

Later in September, Paseka competed at the Dinamo International in Penza, Russia. She placed second on vault scoring 13.935 and third on floor scoring 14.034.

2012

In March, Paseka competed at the Russian National Championships in Penza, Russia. She contributed scores of 14.867 on vault, 10.767 on uneven bars, and 13.533 on floor toward the Moscow team's first-place finish. In event finals, she placed third on vault scoring 14.120 and seventh on uneven bars scoring 11.440.

In May, Paseka competed at the European Championships in Brussels, Belgium. She contributed a vault score of 14.833 towards the Russian team's second-place finish.

In June, Paseka competed at the Russian Cup in Penza, Russia. She contributed scores of 15.800 on vault and 14.134 on floor toward the Moscow team's first-place finish. In event finals, she placed seventh on vault scoring 11.925 and seventh on uneven bars scoring 13.175.

London Olympics

At the end of July, Paseka competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. In the team final, she contributed a vault score of 15.300 toward the Russian team's second-place finish. In the vault final, she won the bronze medal with a score of 15.050. Paseka said, "I can't describe my feeling. I still have adrenaline in my blood. It's only third place, a bronze. But this is an Olympic medal. So I'm still happy."

2013

In March, Paseka competed at the Russian Championships in Penza, Russia. She contributed scores of 15.750 on vault and 12.650 on uneven bars toward the Moscow team's second-place finish. In event finals, she placed first on vault scoring 13.475 and eight on uneven bars scoring 11.725.

In April, Paseka competed at the European Championships in Moscow, Russia. She won the bronze medal in the uneven bars final with a score of 14.400. She qualified for the vault final in second place with a score of 14.733. However, in the final she fell on both her vaults and finished in 7th place with a score of 13.499.

In July, Paseka competed at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan together with teammates (Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Tatiana Nabieva and Anna Dementyeva). She contributed a score of 15.100 on vault towards the Russian team's first-place finish, and in doing so, qualified first to vault finals. She won bronze in the vault final with score of 14.950 points.

2015

Paseka during the 2015 European Championships vault final

Originally Paseka was not chosen to compete in the 2015 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships held in Montpellier, France. However, due to the injuries of Alla Sosnitskaya, Paseka was decided to be the last minute replacement for her. Paseka arrived in Montpellier after the podium training, so she started the competition without it. Nevertheless, she qualified with 14.416, the fourth highest score, into the vault final, competing a Cheng vault with a difficulty score of 6.4 as her first vault and an Amanar with a 6.3 difficulty score as her second vault. She also gained a score which would have allowed her to enter the uneven bars final (14.233); however, she gave up her place due to the two per country rule. In the vault final held on 18 April, Paseka won the gold medal with a score 15.250. This was her first European vault medal. With the victory, she defeated the defending 2-time European vault champion Giulia Steingruber.

At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Paseka competed vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise for the Russian team both in qualifications and in the final, all of which she performed cleanly. Due to mistakes by her teammates on the uneven bars and balance beam, Russia narrowly missed the podium, finishing in fourth place. However, Paseka qualified for the vault finals and also earned a score which would have allowed her to compete in the uneven bars final but lost her place because of two per country rule, with Daria Spiridonova and Viktoria Komova placing above her in qualifications. In the vault final, Paseka won the gold medal, defeating the reigning world champion on vault, Hong Un-jong, who won silver. She competed a Cheng and an Amanar, as did Hong.

2016

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Paseka won two silver medals: one for vault and one with the Russian team. During the team finals, she competed only on vault, successfully landing an Amanar to get the highest score for Russia on vault. In the vault finals, she did two clean vaults to clinch the silver. For her first vault she performed a Cheng, landing out of bounds, but a stuck landing and clean form boosted her score. For her second vault she performed an Amanar, taking just a step back.

2017

She did not compete at the beginning of the year so she could recover from back pains she had experienced during the Olympics. Despite having not competed at nationals or World Cup events, she was still selected to compete at the European Championships due to her prowess on vault. At the European Championships, Paseka fell just short of the podium, finishing fourth on vault.