Evgeniya Olegovna Kanaeva OMF (Russian: Евгения Олеговна Канаева; born 2 April 1990) is a retired Russian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the only individual rhythmic gymnast in history to win two Olympic all-around gold medals, winning at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she finished with 3.75 points ahead of silver medalist Inna Zhukova, and at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she also became the oldest gymnast to win the Olympic gold. On 4 July 2013, Kanaeva received the International Fair Play Award for "Sport and Life".
Kanaeva holds the record for most World titles with seventeen and thirteen European titles. Kanaeva shares the record for most individual world all-around titles with Maria Petrova (1995 tied with Ekaterina Serebrianskaya), Maria Gigova (1971 tied with Galima Shugurova) and fellow Russian gymnasts Yana Kudryavtseva and Dina Averina, and Kanaeva is the one of only three gymnasts to have won all three titles without being tied, impossible due to the tie breaking system even though she never was tied for a title.
At the 2009 World Championship in Mie, Japan, Kanaeva became the first rhythmic gymnast to win all six titles. She repeated the feat at the 2011 World Championship in Montpellier, France, equaling her own record.
In 2009, Kanaeva was awarded the title Merited Master of Sports in Russia. After the 2012 Summer Olympics, on 15 August at the Grand Kremlin Palace, Kanaeva, along with fellow Olympic gold medalists, was awarded the Merit for the Fatherland IV Degree. Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the honors.
Kanaeva is the only gymnast to receive a perfect score under the 30-point judging system, having done so twice: in the 2011 Grand Prix Final in Brno and in the 2012 Grand Prix in Vorarlberg.
Evgeniya Kanaeva was born on 2 April 1990 in Omsk, Soviet Union. Her mother, Svetlana, was also a rhythmic gymnast and was granted the title of Master of Sports. Her father, Oleg Kanaev, was a coach and a former Greco-Roman wrestler. She has an elder brother named Egor who is also a Greco-Roman wrestler.
Her grandmother introduced 6-year-old Kanaeva to rhythmic gymnastics. Her first trainer, Yelena Arais, was the daughter of Kanaeva's later trainer, Vera Shtelbaums. Shtelbaums, who worked in the same gymnastics school, recalled Kanaeva spending long hours practicing even though all other students were gone, while her grandmother stood in the corridor waiting to take her home.
After the Olympic Games 2004, at which Kabaeva and Tchachina won the gold and silver medals respectively, Kabayeva remained competitive while Vera Sessina and Olga Kapranova rose to become Russia's new leading rhythmic gymnasts. Kanaeva made her senior international debut in 2006 at the International Tournament Schmiden where she won gold in all-around and event finals. She competed at the World Cup stage in Mie competing in clubs and ribbon where she finished 5th.
In summer 2007, Kanaeva competed in World Cup in Corbeil-Essonnes winning the all-around gold medal. She also won gold in hoop, rope and ribbon final defeating Anna Bessonova. She then competed at the World Cup series in Ljubljana where she won bronze in all-around, rope and silver in clubs. At the 2007 European Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, Kabaeva, Sessina, and Kapranova were chosen to represent Russia. However, on the eve of the competition, Kabaeva withdrew because of an injury. Viner selected Kanaeva from the reserve team as the replacement. Despite the short notice, Kanaeva impressed by winning gold medals in both the individual ribbon and team competition. A few months later, she won another gold medal in the team competition at the World Championship in Patras, Greece.
In preparation for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games qualification, Kanaeva's routines (hoop, clubs, rope and ribbon) were designed with high difficulties and her music was selected to bring out her uniqueness, one of which was her ribbon routine performed with the special edited piano version of 'Moscow Nights (Подмосковные вечера)'.
In the beginning of 2008 season, Kanaeva still faced tough competition from veteran teammates Vera Sessina, Olga Kapranova and Ukrainian rhythmic gymnast, the then-World Champion, Anna Bessonova. However, by mid-spring, Kanaeva began to establish herself by winning all the individual all-around titles in the Grand Prix and World Cup series, as well as the Russian National Championship. She defeated Bessonova and Kapranova with high scores in all her routines (18.875 in rope, 18.925 in hoop, 18.875 in ribbon and scored a 19.050 in clubs).
At the 2008 European Championships she became the All-around champion. Viner selected Kanaeva and Kapranova as Russia's entries for the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics competition.
Kanaeva was the youngest among all the finalists in the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics competition. In her words, the Olympic Games were "different from all other competitions. You just have to concentrate on yourself, the apparatus and the carpet. You should not pay attention on anything else. I persuaded myself that everything would be alright, that I should not worry." Kanaeva won the Olympic title with a score of 75.50, ahead of second place Inna Zhukova of Belarus by a margin of 3.50 points.
Kanaeva's style changed drastically in 2009, causing her to struggle with injury and exhaustion. Nevertheless, Kanaeva won gold medals in all four apparatuses at the 2009 European Championships in May. Then, in July, she collected all nine gold medals at the Universiade and the World Games. Her five gold medals in the Universiade enabled Russia to come first in the overall team ranking. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev openly complimented Kanaeva's contribution. She was also hailed as the "Heroine of the Games" by the official website of Universiade Belgrade 2009.
In September, Kanaeva competed at the World Championships in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Kanaeva qualified for the individual all-around final by placing first in every single apparatus, each with a gold medal. Her results in individual apparatuses (along with those of her teammates Olga Kapranova, Daria Kondakova, and Daria Dmitrieva) helped win the team gold for Russia. In the individual all-around final, Kanaeva won her sixth gold medal by a margin of 0.600, beating by one the record set by Russian gymnast Oxana Kostina in 1992 of most gold medals won in a single rhythmic gymnastics World Championship. President Medvedev again acknowledged Kanaeva's new record by sending her a telegram of congratulations.
In 2010, Kanaeva had an undefeated all-around season winning the gold medals in all-around and event finals at the Grand Prix Final, she repeated as the 2010 European all-around champion ahead of teammate Daria Kondakova. At the 2010 World Championships, she won gold in the all-around, ball, hoop and silver in rope behind teammate Daria Kondakova.
Kanaeva started her 2011 season competing at the 2011 Moscow Grand Prix where she won gold in all-around and all event finals, she won silver in all-around at the Pesaro World Cup behind teammate Daria Kondakova nevertheless, she won all her other World Cup and Grand Prix series all-around competitions. She competed at the 2011 European Championships where she won gold in hoop, ball and a silver medal in ribbon behind Belarusian gymnast Liubov Charkashyna. In the 2011 World Championships, Kanaeva broke her record by again winning 6 gold medals in a single World Championship, the all-around, event finals (hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon) and team event. At the 2011 Grand Prix Final in Brno, Kanaeva won gold in all-around and all event finals where she scored a perfect 30 in ribbon under the 30-point judging system. She finished her season winning the all-around at the 2011 Aeon Cup in Japan. She ranked 5th in the world ranking 2011 season, dropped from the 1st in 2010 season due to she didn't take part in many competition in the 2011 season. However, she ranked the 1st again in the 2012 season.
Kanaeva started her season with new hoop, clubs and ball routines at the Moscow Grand Prix. She finished 2nd in the all-around at the 2012 Moscow Grand Prix behind teammate Daria Kondakova, but won gold medals in the ribbon, clubs and hoop finals ahead of Daria Dmitrieva and Daria Kondakova. She followed her win at the Grand Prix by winning the all-around at the International Thiais Tournament. She went on to compete on her first World Cup of the season at Pesaro and won the all-around title as well the clubs, ball and hoop finals. She withdrew from Penza World Cup citing illness. She returned to competition at the Sofia World Cup where she beat the defending champion Daria Kondakova and won the event finals in ball and hoop. She did not qualify for the ribbon finals because of the two-per-country rule, with Kondakova and Dmitrieva ahead of her in the ribbon qualifications. She was also the champion in all-around at the 2012 Corbeil-Essonnes Cup ahead of compatriots Daria Dmitrieva and Alexandra Merkulova.