National Team Member
As a member of Russia's national team, Lobaznyuk quickly became a standout thanks to her well-choreographed routines and her spunky personality. In 1997 she won the all-around title at the Charleroi TopGym meet in Belgium, as well as finishing fifth in the all-around (with two additional titles in vault and balance beam) at the International Junior Tournament in Japan. It was at this meet in Japan that she gained the attention of fans worldwide with her cutesy appearance and her amazing floor exercise, choreographed to the music "Hava Nagila".
1998 proved to be a bad year for Lobaznyuk, as she broke her right arm (resulting from a fall off her least favorite event, the uneven bars), and her subsequent absence from the two biggest junior events of the year (Junior European Championships and World Youth Games) led some people to write her off as finished. Fans had nothing to fear, as she healed completely enough at the end of the year to grab a win over Ukrainian gymnast Viktoria Karpenko at the Acapulco Cup in Mexico.
Read more about this topic: Yekaterina Lobaznyuk
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