Igor Radivilov
Igor Vitaliyovych Radivilov is a retired Ukrainian gymnast and four-time Olympian, having competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics|2012], 2016 Summer Olympics|2016], 2020 Summer Olympics|2020], and 2024 Summer Olympics|2024] Olympic Games. Although he competed on all apparatuses, he was best known as a vault and rings specialist.
Personal life
Radivilov was born on 19 October 1992 in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine. On 4 September 2016, he married Ukrainian gymnast Angelina Kysla.Career
2012–2016
Radivilov won silver medal in vault at the 2012 European [Men's Artistic Gymnastics Championships|2012 European Championships] in Montpellier, France. He competed for the national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Gymnastics at the [2012 Summer Olympics – Men's artistic team all-around|men's artistic team all-around] and the men's vault. He earned a bronze medal in the vault final at 2012 Summer Olympics with a score of 16.316. He also finished in fourth place in the team all-around final as part of the Ukrainian team along with Mykola Kuksenkov, Oleg Stepko, Vitalii Nakonechnyi and Oleg Verniaiev. Ukraine also takes pride on Radivilov being their first Olympic medalist born in the post-Soviet era.Radivilov won gold in rings at the 2013 European Championships. At the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, he and the Ukrainian team finished second in the team final. He won bronze in the rings and vault finals behind Russian gymnast Denis Ablyazin.
On May 19–25, 2014, at the 2014 European Championships in Sofia. Radivilov contributed scores of 14.266, 15.300 and 14.700, helping his country win the team bronze medal with a total score of 262.087 points, behind Great Britain. In event finals, Radivilov won the silver medal on vault behind Ablyazin again.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Radivilov debuted a new vault in the event final–a handspring triple front somersault–which had the highest difficulty score of 7.0. Although he sat it down on landing, his feet did touch the ground first, and thus considered a successful attempt when a score was given, which also subsequently contributed to the International Gymnastics Federation in formally naming the skill after him, the Radivilov. However, due to the potential danger of associated injuries to gymnasts with the training and/or competing of this skill, the FIG has since officially banned it from competition after the Olympics and removed it from the next 2017–2020 Code of Points for men's artistic gymnastics.
2017–2019
At the 2017 European Championships Radivilov won bronze on rings behind Eleftherios Petrounias and Courtney Tulloch. At the 2017 World Championships he won silver on vault behind Kenzō Shirai.At the 2018 European Championships Radivilov won silver on vault behind Artur Davtyan. At the 2015 European Games|2019 European Games] he won bronze on both rings and vault. At the 2019 World Championships he won bronze on vault.
2020–2021
In March 2020 Radivilov competed at the FIG [Artistic Gymnastics World Cup">International Gymnastics Federation">FIG [Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series|Baku World Cup] and qualified to the vault final in third place; however event finals were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan. The global COVID-19 pandemic caused numerous competitions to be cancelled or postponed, including the 2020 Olympic Games.In October Radivilov returned to international competition at the 2020 FIG Artistic [Gymnastics World Cup series|Szombathely Challenge Cup] where he finished second on rings and first on vault. In December 2020 he competed at an attendance-reduced European Championships where only ten nations sent a full team. The Ukrainian team of Radivilov, Vladyslav Hryko, Petro Pakhniuk, Roman Vashchenko, and Yevgen Yudenkov bested the Turkish team to win gold in the team competition. Individually Radivilov placed first on vault, winning his first European title on the event, and third on rings behind İbrahim Çolak and Vinzenz Höck.
Radivilov competed at the 2021 European Championships where he defended his title on vault; additionally he placed sixth on rings. He competed at the 2021 FIG Artistic Gymnastics [World Cup series|Doha World Cup] and Osijek Challenge Cup where he placed second and first on vault respectively. He represented Ukraine at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan alongside Illia Kovtun, Petro Pakhnyuk, and Yevhen Yudenkov. They finished seventh in the team final. Radivilov competed at the 2021 World Championships but did not qualify to any event finals.
2022–2024
Radivilov competed at the 2022 European Championships. On the first day of competition he helped Ukraine finish ninth as a team during qualifications. Although they didn't qualify for the team final they qualified a whole team to compete at the upcoming World Championships. Individually Radivilov qualified for the rings and vault finals. During the rings final Radivilov finished seventh. During the vault final Radivilov won bronze behind Jake Jarman and Artur Davtyan. In late October through early November Radivilov competed at the World Championships. While there he won bronze on vault behind Davtyan and Carlos Yulo.At the 2023 European Championships Radivilov won bronze on vault, once again behind Davtyan and Jarman. In October Radivilov competed at the 2023 World Championships alongside Nazar Chepurnyi, Illia Kovtun, Radomyr Stelmakh, and Oleg Verniaiev. During qualifications they finished twelfth as a team and qualified a full team to the 2024 Olympic Games. Individually Radivilov qualified to the vault final. During the final Radivilov placed fourth behind Jarman, Khoi Young, and compatriot Chepurnyi.
In late April 2024 Radivilov competed at the European Championships alongside Nazar Chepurnyi, Illia Kovtun, Radomyr Stelmakh, and Oleg Verniaiev; together they qualified to the team final in first place and individually Radivilov qualified to the vault final. During event finals Radivilov placed fourth on vault. During the team final Radivilov contributed scores on rings and vault towards Ukraine's first place finish. Radivilov competed at the 2024 Olympic Games alongside Chepurnyi, Kovtun, Stelmakh, and Verniaiev. During the Gymnastics at the [2024 Summer Olympics – Men's artistic qualification|qualification round] he helped Ukraine qualify to the team final and individually he qualified to the vault final. During the team final Radivilov contributed scores on rings and vault towards Ukraine's fifth place finish. In the vault final Radivilov fell on his first vault and finished the final in eighth place.
On December 1, 2024 Radivilov announced his retirement from gymnastics, ending his career with one Olympic medal, four World Championships medals, and fourteen European Championships medals.
Eponymous skills
Radivilov has one "inactive" eponymous skill, but it is one that remains officially recognised by the nonetheless. Even though he was ruled to have legally completed the skill in competition and subsequently given naming credit for it, his attempt at it during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on the individual vault event did not go as smoothly as he would have liked. His attempt at the mindbogglingly difficult handspring triple front tucked somersault on vault—now officially known as the Radivilov—assigned the highest difficulty of 7.0, ended with him appearing to have landed the skill on his back, almost received a zero score if that was the case, but since video reply did show him touch the mat with his feet first, he had thus completed a legal vault and was therefore given a score, albeit with a very low execution component due to his fall. However, because Radivilov was then awarded a score to a new original skill, he was also simultaneously deemed to have successfully completed the skill in competition, which led to the skill being automatically named after him. Unfortunately, the skill has since been banned from competition entirely after the Olympics, and removed from the next Code of Points. The FIG has determined that the risk of injury when training and/or competing the skill is just too great for them not to intervene officially. The difficulty score listed below reflected the FIG's 2013-2016 CoP, which was when the skill was first successfully completed in competition, but then not updated into later quads due to its subsequent ban not long after the skill was originated.| Apparatus | Name | Description | Difficulty | Notes |
| Vault | Radivilov | front handspring–triple front tucked somersault | 7.0 | Originated at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro but banned almost immediately after the Olympics due to high risk of injury when performing or training the skill. |