Daria Atamanov

Atamanov began gymnastics as a child, though accounts describe slightly different routes into the sport. In a 2023 interview, she said she first encountered rhythmic gymnastics at age six and a half while watching the London Olympics at her grandparents’ home. Her mother sent her to dance lessons, and the instructor suggested she try rhythmic gymnastics. A separate profile said her parents enrolled her in a gymnastics class when she was seven, recognized her talent, and moved her to a club in Rishon LeZion.[1][2]

Atamanov trained at Hapoel Rishon LeZion with coach Ayelet Zussman, who had also coached Linoy Ashram.[1] She lived at the Wingate Academy for several years and trained six times a week, for at least eight hours per session. She said comparisons with Ashram were a compliment, while emphasizing that each was a gymnast in her own right.[2]

Atamanov was born in Israel and was described as being from Rishon LeZion.[1] Her parents were born in Uzbekistan. She has two siblings and is the middle child; her father works in high-tech and her mother is a translator for content channels.[1][2]

Atamanov competed internationally as a junior before becoming a leading senior gymnast. In 2020, she was part of Israel’s junior team and won gold for her clubs performance at an international competition.[3]

Her major breakthrough came at the 2022 European Championships in Tel Aviv. At 16, she won the individual all-around title with 136.900 points, finishing first in both ball, with 34.450, and clubs, with 34.300.[4] She also won silver in hoop, clubs, and ribbon, and was part of the Israeli team that earned bronze.[5] More than 250 athletes from 39 nations competed at the championships. After her all-around victory, she described concentrating on each exercise separately before considering the result.[4]

At the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Atamanov won gold in ball and ribbon and silver in clubs, while placing sixth in hoop. Her ball score of 34.900 was ahead of Italy’s Sofia Raffaeli, who scored 33.550. In ribbon, she edged Bulgaria’s Boryana Kaleyn by 0.1, performing last in a finish that electrified the crowd. Her coach, Ayelet Zussman, said she knew the scores Atamanov needed, while Atamanov herself did not follow the scores during the competition.[6] Two Sport5 articles characterized the achievement differently: one called her the first rhythmic gymnast to win World Games gold, while another called her the first Israeli athlete to win a World Games gold medal.[2][5]

A serious foot injury interrupted her progress later in 2022. She sustained an acute stress fracture during warm-up before the World Championships, missed the event, and was out of competition for close to a year.[5] In a later interview, she recalled hearing a “click” in her left foot while jumping in the training hall about 15 minutes before she was due to compete; the injury recurred three times.[7] During rehabilitation, she trained seated or with restricted movement and received close psychological support.[5] She later described it as a difficult year without proper training or competition, while saying the setback had strengthened her.[8]

She returned to competition at the 2023 World Championships in Valencia and won bronze in the individual all-around. The result secured Israel a place for an individual gymnast at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Atamanov said she had initially aimed to finish among the top 17 rather than target a medal, and described the result as “I beat myself.” She said the bronze meant more to her than her World Games gold medals because of the work and recovery behind it.[7] In February 2024, she received European Gymnastics’ “Outstanding Achievement of the Year” award for her 2023 accomplishment, finishing first in the public vote with more than 100,000 votes.[9]

At 18, Atamanov made her Olympic debut in Paris. She finished seventh in the individual all-around qualification with 130.450 points across ball, hoop, ribbon, and clubs, advancing to the final among the top 10 of 24 competitors. Her ribbon routine used Gad Elbaz’s “Shir Lemaalot.” Linoy Ashram, who had won Israel’s first Olympic rhythmic-gymnastics medal at the Tokyo Games before retiring, later joined Atamanov’s coaching team.[10][8]

Atamanov placed fifth in the Olympic final with 133.850 points. She scored 35.2 on hoop, 31.8 on ball, 33.85 on clubs, and 33.0 on ribbon.[8] She ranked third in ribbon, fifth in hoop, seventh in clubs, and ninth in ball.[11] A dropped ball cost her points, but she said she focused on completing the remaining routines as well as she could. She finished 2.45 points behind bronze medalist Sofia Raffaeli, said she had given her maximum, and expressed hope that the Israeli public was proud of her.[8]

Atamanov was named in Israel’s delegation for the Paris Games, held from July 26 to August 11, 2024.[12] Israel’s rhythmic-gymnastics team won silver at the Games; the medal entry names Adar Friedmann, Diana Svertsov, Ofir Shaham, Romi Paritzky, and Shani Bakanov, not Atamanov.[13]

Atamanov’s results established her as a prominent Israeli rhythmic gymnast: she won the European all-around title at 16, collected three medals at the 2022 World Games, and returned from an extended injury layoff to take all-around bronze at the 2023 World Championships. Her World Championships result also secured Israel an individual place at the Paris Olympics.[4][6][7]

Her fifth-place Olympic finish capped a campaign in which she competed across all four apparatuses. The Paris result came after a year-long disruption to her training and competition, a period she described as difficult but strengthening.[8]

Reports differed on Atamanov’s post-Olympic status. A November 26, 2024 Ynet report said she had decided to retire after finishing fifth in Paris.[14] An August 25, 2025 Sport5 report said she had returned to training at Wingate and had not announced her retirement after the Olympics.[15]