Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva

Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva (born 4 March 2002) is an Australian Olympic rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2022 Commonwealth Games clubs champion, team silver medalist, and all-around bronze medalist. She also won two bronze medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She is a four-time Australian all-around champion (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023). She won the all-around at the 2024 Oceania Championships and thus will represent Australia at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She won five bronze medals at the 2022 Maccabiah Games and has competed at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships five times (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023).

Early life
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Kiroi-Bogatyreva was raised in Melbourne, Australia. Her mother, Valeriya, was a Dancesport competitor, competing in ballroom and Latin dance for 15 years. Both of her parents emigrated from Russia before she was born. She started gymnastics and ballet at the age of two and shifted to practicing rhythmic gymnastics at the age of six at Prahran Rhythmic Gymnastics Specialist Centre in Windsor, an inner South-Eastern suburb of Melbourne. She attended The King David School in Armadale.

Junior career
Kiroi-Bogatyreva's first Australian Championships was in 2012, and she finished fourth in the all-around among the level 7 juniors. She first competed internationally in 2013, marking her debut with an all-around gold medal at the Vitri Cup in Spain. She won four gold medals and one silver medal in the all-around in the 2013 level 7 Australian Championships. She also finished second in the all-around as a level 8 at the 2014 Australian Championships. She won the national all-around title for level 9 juniors in 2015.

Kiroi-Bogatyreva delayed the start of her 2016 season due to an injury, but she returned to competition at the AEON Cup in Tokyo, Japan, and placed 11th with the hoop. After the competition, she spent five months training in Moscow, Russia. She then took second place in the all-around at the Stelle di Natale in Italy. She finished fifth in the all-around at the 2016 Australian Championships in the junior division. Two weeks after the championships Alexandra found out that she was competing with a fractured fourth metatarsal. Kiroi-Bogatyreva placed 11th in the all-around at the 2017 Aphrodite Cup, and at the Holon Grand Prix, she finished 12th out of the 44 competitors in the all-around. She finished second in the all-around at the 2017 Australian Championships and became the junior national champion in clubs. In December 2017, she competed at the Luxembourg Cup in the open division, winning the all-around title despite still being a junior.

2018
Kiroi-Bogatyreva became eligible to compete as an international senior in 2018. She won the all-around bronze medal at the Australia Cup and was selected to represent Australia at the 2018 Commonwealth Games alongside Danielle Prince and Enid Sung. The team won the bronze medal behind Malaysia and Cyprus. Kiroi-Bogatyreva qualified for the individual all-around final and finished in 10th place. Then in the ball final, she won another bronze medal. She also qualified for the ribbon final where she finished fifth.

After the Commonwealth Games, Kiroi-Bogatyreva made her FIG World Cup debut in Baku, placing 29th in the all-around. She then finished 33rd in the all-around at the Guadalajara World Challenge Cup. One week later at the Portimão World Challenge Cup, she placed 22nd in the all-around. At the Australian Championships, she won her first senior national title. She also won gold medals with the Victorian team and with the hoop, ball, and ribbon.

In September, Kiroi-Bogatyreva represented Australia at the World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She finished 76th in the all-around during the qualification round.

2019
Kiroi-Bogatyreva began the 2019 season by competing in three competitions on the FIG World Cup series. In Sofia, she placed 47th in the all-around, in Tashkent she placed 24th, and in Baku she placed 55th. At the Australian Championships, she successfully defended her national title, winning all five individual gold medals and leading the Victoria state team to a team gold.

At the end of August, Kiroi-Bogatyreva competed at the Kazan World Challenge Cup and finished 42nd in the all-around. She once again represented Australia at the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. She finished 60th in the all-around during the qualification round. As the highest-finishing gymnast from Oceania, she qualified for the 2021 World Games.

2020
In 2020, Kiroi-Bogatyreva competed at the Berlin Masters Tournament and finished fourth in the all-around. In the event finals, she won a gold medal with the clubs, a silver medal with the ball, and a bronze medal with the hoop. The 2020 season was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in March, and Kiroi-Bogatyreva spent nearly a year training in her house.

2021
Kiroi-Bogatryeva competed at the 2021 Oceania Championships, which doubled as the Australian Championships and was an Olympic qualifier. She finished in second-place behind Lidiia Iakovleva and did not receive the sole Olympic berth for Oceania. During the all-around event, Iakovleva appealed her ribbon score, and her score was increased on review by "never seen in rhythmic gymnastics" 1.9 points which put her first overall ahead of Kiroi-Bogatyreva. Kiroi-Bogatyreva appealed the competition results to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). The FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Commission annulled the competition and created unprecedented re-judging event where routines were judged from an amateur video footage made on iPad, and results upheld the placements of Iakovleva first and Kiroi-Bogatyreva second. Kiroi-Bogatyreva further appealed the re-judged result to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but her appeal was dismissed on the grounds of "Field of Play". However, the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation's investigation found issues with the makeup of the judging panel and procedures at the competition, and the Oceania Gymnastics Union, Gymnastics Australia, and competition officials were sanctioned as a result. Despite severity of the breaches by the officials they continued to hold significant roles in governance of Rhythmic Gymnastics and sport in Australia.

After missing the Olympic spot, Kiroi-Bogatyreva moved to Baku, Azerbaijan, to train at the National Gymnastics Arena. Early in October, she returned to competition at the Cluj-Napoca World Challenge Cup and placed 14th in the all-around. She was then selected to compete World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan, and Kiroi-Bogatyreva finished 36th in the all-around during the qualification round. She was the highest-placing gymnast from the Commonwealth of Nations.

2022
Kiroi-Bogatyreva began the 2022 season at the Tashkent World Cup where she placed 12th in the all-around. Then at the Baku World Cup, she finished 24th in the all-around. At the Australian Championship, Kiroi-Bogatyreva regained the individual all-around national title, while adding two more individual apparatus national titles and a team gold medal.

After successfully qualifying for the World Games in 2019, Kiroi-Bogatyreva took part in the event, hosted in Birmingham, Alabama. She finished 20th in hoop, 12th in ball, 14th in ribbon, and 15th in clubs. She then competed at the 2022 Maccabiah Games, becoming the first Australian rhythmic gymnast to compete at the event, and won five bronze medals. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2022 Commonwealth Games alongside Lidiia Iakovleva and Ashari Gill. The team won the silver medal behind Canada. Individually, Kiroi-Bogatyreva qualified for the all-around final and won the bronze medal behind England's Marfa Ekimova and Cypriot Anna Sokolova. She then won her first Commonwealth Games gold medal in the clubs final.

Kiroi-Bogatyreva concluded her 2022 season by taking part in the World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She placed 30th in the all-around during the qualification round.

2023
In April, Kiroi-Bogatyreva took part in the Thais Grand Prix and finished 10th in the all-around. She also finished seventh in the hoop final and eighth in the ribbon final. Then in May, she defended her all-around national championship title for the fourth time. At the first competition of the FIG World Cup series held in Sofia, she finished 32nd in the all-around. She then finished 29th at the Baku World Cup. She was the only Australian individual representative selected for the World Championship, held in Valencia, Spain. She finished 37th all-around in the qualification round.

2024
Kiroi-Bogatyreva placed 14th in the all-around at the Marbella Grand Prix, and she finished ninth all-around at the Gymnastik International. She then placed 32nd in the all-around at the 2024 Faliro World Cup. She was the only non-European to compete at the inaugural European Cup, and she came in tenth place.

In May, Kiroi-Bogatyreva competed at 2024 European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, which also doubled as the 2024 Oceania Championships. She won the all-around title and thus claimed the Oceania continental qualification berth for Paris 2024.

On 18th of June Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva was officially announced as Australian Olympic Team member for Paris 2024.

Personal life
Since 2021, Kiroi-Bogatyreva has been studying for a law degree at Monash University. She is involved with the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation.

Awards and accolades

 * Gymnastics Victoria Rising Star Award (2014)
 * Maccabi Victoria Rising Star of the Year (2015)
 * Maccabi Victoria Jewish Junior Sportswoman of the Year (2014, 2016, 2017)
 * Maccabi Australia Junior Sportswoman of the Year (2014, 2016-2019)
 * Gymnastics Victoria High Performance Gymnast of the Year (2016, 2018, 2019, 2022)
 * Gymnastics Australia Senior International Gymnast of the Year (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023)
 * Gymnastics Australia Athlete Award of Distinction (2018)
 * Maccabi Victoria Hall of Fame Inductee (2022)
 * Tier 2 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship recipient (2023)
 * Australian Sport Medal (2022)
 * Maccabi Australia President's Award (2022)
 * Vicsport "rebel" Young Athlete of the Year (2022)
 * Gymnastics Australia's Athlete Roll of Honour
 * Victorian Institute of Sport Scholarship recipient
 * Gymnastics New South Wales Senior International Athlete of the Year (2023)