Anna Bessonova

Anna Bessonova is an Individual Rhythmic Gymnast who was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Her father is the Dynamo Kiev football player Vladimir Bessonov and her mother, Viktoria, was a two time world champion group rhythmic gymnast.

Bessonova began rhythmic gymnastics at age 5. Her mother would have rather seen her daughter on the ballet stage, however, Bessonova decided on rhythmic gymnastics. She is coached by the mother/daughter combination of Albina and Irina Deriugina at the Deriugins School in Kiev.

Bessonova is the number one rhythmic gymnast in Ukraine and is currently ranked first in the world in clubs, ribbon and rope, and third in ball and hoop (as of July 19 2008). She won the bronze individual all around medals at the 2008 Beijing and 2004 Athens Olympics. (with a total score of 106.700: Ribbon 26.725, Clubs 26.950, Ball 26.525, Hoop 26.500). Over the course of her career she has won 22 World Championship medals, 2 Olympic medals and 22 European Championship medals.

In 2007, Bessonova became world champion at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship in Patras winning the all-around gold medal. This was long-awaited by the RG community after her second places at the previous 2003 and 2005 Championships.

In 2008, Bessonova also won all around golds at the LA Lights, Deriugina Cup (Kiev World Cup) and Miss Valentine Competitions as well as the all around silver at the European Championships in Torino. At 2008 World Cup events, Anna accumulated 15 medals. The year culminated in her all around bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics.

She is 5 foot eight and only weighs 108 pounds