Aliya Mustafina
Sport: Gymnastics
Nation: Russian Federation
DOB: September 30, 1994
Hometown: Moscow
Career Highlights: Two years ago, Mustafina won the world all-around title and became the first gymnast to qualify for all four event finals
in a meet since 1997. She also helped her team win its first gold as independent Russia at that event. However, as the overwhelming
favorite to capture her first European championship in 2011, she suffered a torn ACL and injured MCL at the Euros last April
while attempting the difficult Amanar vault. She returned just eight months later, and then proved emphatically that she was
healed in March, winning the all-around gold medal and adding a gold on the uneven bars at the Russian Championships. "I'm
not afraid of getting injured again," she said. "I'm nervous ahead of competitions, but that's just normal. I've already completely
forgotten about what happened in Berlin." Boasting power and grace in her floor routines and on the balance beam, her performance
in March reestablished her as a serious threat to medal in London. She won golds in beam, uneven bars and vault - that is,
all three events in which she competed - at the Bercy World Cup in Paris in March 2011. Her father, Fargat Mustafin, won the
bronze at the 1976 Montreal Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling.
Olympic History: None