Alexander Shatilov

Shatilov was born on March 22, 1987, in Uzbekistan and began gymnastics at the age of five.[1] His mother was a gymnast who became a coach after retiring from competition.[1] He grew up in a sporting family: his father rode horses, and his older brother played soccer.[7] He began gymnastics at his own request and was also a gifted student who skipped a grade.[7]

In 2002, Shatilov immigrated to Israel with his family.[2] He initially struggled to find a suitable place to train and practiced at Maccabi Tel Aviv's Hadar Yosef facility before being invited to join the Israeli national team's training program in the Jordan Valley.[6] He moved there alone while he was still unable to speak Hebrew.[7] The team's gym lacked a floor-exercise mat, and he recalled practicing his routine using the lines of a basketball court.[6]

Shatilov experienced rapid physical growth after his arrival in Israel, recalling that he grew 20 centimeters during his first year in the country.[7] The change in his body dimensions affected his gymnastics, and he felt that local coaches did not take him seriously because of his height.[7] He subsequently trained with Sergei Vaisburg, who helped develop a program suited to his body.[7]

Shatilov competed at his first World Championships in 2006.[2] His preparations for that year's European Championships were disrupted by an Israeli military call-up, although he still competed; he later recalled believing that he could combine military service with sport and training in the evenings while serving near home.[7] After reaching the World Championships final two months later, he received outstanding-athlete status in the army.[7]

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Shatilov became the first Israeli gymnast to reach an Olympic final, finishing eighth in floor exercise.[5] During the final, he initially performed well but stepped outside the floor area.[1] His artistic all-around result at those Games was 25th place.[8]

In 2009, Shatilov won floor-exercise bronze at the World Championships in London with a score of 15.575.[9] The result was Israel's first medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.[6][9] After the result, he declared: “I've come close to winning a World Championship medal before and now that I have done it I dedicate it to the State of Israel.”[9] He also won a European floor bronze that year.[4]

Injury kept Shatilov out of the 2010 European Championships.[10] He returned to win European floor silver in 2011 and another World Championship bronze in Tokyo that year.[4][11] In the world final, he scored 15.466 and tied Brazil's Diego Hypolito for third place.[11] The result repeated his 2009 world bronze and secured his qualification for the 2012 London Olympics.[11]

At the 2012 European Championships in France, Shatilov scored 15.166 to win floor bronze, his third European medal after the bronze of 2009 and silver of 2011.[12] He was the first Israeli gymnast to win medals at both the European and World Championships.[12] At the London Olympics later that year, he finished sixth in the floor final and 12th in the men's all-around.[5]

Shatilov won the European floor title in Moscow in 2013, sharing gold with Britain's Max Whitlock after both scored 15.333.[4] The victory made him the first Israeli to win a European gymnastics championship and was the highest achievement of his career to that point.[4] He added another European floor bronze in 2014 and placed fourth in 2015.[10]

After failing to qualify for the Rio Olympics through the earlier qualification route, Shatilov secured his place at the 2016 Olympic Test Event in Rio.[13] He finished 10th in the all-around with 86.249 points, qualifying for his third consecutive Games.[13] His apparatus scores were 14.6 on floor, 14.1 on pommel horse, 13.883 on rings, 14.633 on vault, 14.433 on parallel bars, and 14.6 on horizontal bar.[13] Before the Games, he said he wanted to progress as far as possible and would work to strengthen his floor exercise.[13]

At the Rio Olympics, Shatilov did not advance to either the floor or horizontal-bar final.[14] He scored 13.500 on floor, comprising 6.000 for difficulty and 7.500 for execution, and 14.066 on horizontal bar, comprising 6.700 for difficulty and 7.366 for execution.[14] He attributed the floor result to a small mistake early in his routine but said that he retained the physical and mental capacity, as well as the passion, to continue competing.[14]

Shatilov won another European floor bronze at the 2017 championships in Romania, bringing his career European Championship medal tally to seven.[10] Fellow Israeli Artem Dolgopyat finished fourth in the same event, marking the first time two Israelis had competed in a single European Championships final.[10]

His later career included recovery from injuries and illness: he experienced knee and ankle injuries in 2010, 2013, and 2017, and contracted a virus during the 2019 World Cup event in Baku.[15] He nevertheless qualified for the Tokyo Olympics by finishing seventh at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart.[3] Ahead of his fourth Games, he explained his determination to continue: “Age absolutely does not bother me. I feel that I can still improve my skills and that is why I continue my sports career.”[15]

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were held in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.[16] Shatilov competed only on floor, scoring 13.500 and finishing 47th without reaching the final eight.[3] Tokyo completed a run of four consecutive Olympic appearances encompassing Beijing, London, Rio, and Tokyo; he reached two Olympic finals but did not win an Olympic medal.[3][5] He announced his retirement from competitive sport in December 2021.[6]

Shatilov's career established several firsts for Israeli artistic gymnastics. He reached the country's first Olympic gymnastics final in 2008,[5] won its first Artistic Gymnastics World Championship medal in 2009,[6][9] and secured its first European gymnastics championship title in 2013.[4] His European title followed his earlier distinction as the first Israeli gymnast to win medals at both world and European championships.[4][12] By the end of his competitive career, his record included two World Championship bronzes, seven European Championship medals, and nine World Cup medals.[3]

After announcing his retirement, Shatilov identified his first World Championship medal, won in London in 2009, as the most meaningful moment of his career.[6] He explained that the achievement demonstrated to him that Israelis could win medals at that level.[6]

Shatilov planned to continue in gymnastics as a coach and help develop the next generation of Israeli competitors.[6] In his retirement interview, he discussed plans for a new gymnastics facility in Herzliya, where he expected to manage the hall, and had already taken on roles connected with the national team and the development of younger athletes.[6]