Dina Averina

Personal life

Born to parents Ksenia Averina and Alexey Averin, Dina and Arina started gymnastics at four years old. Arina was born 20 minutes ahead of Dina, while both have moles on the upper cheekbone (near the right ear), Dina has it on the lower right compared to Arina's upper right. Her sister Arina has a scar above her right eye, caused after an accident with a club. They have an older sister named Polina.

Junior

The Averinas (Dina and Arina) first trained under their first coach Larisa Belova until they became members of the Russian national team and began training in Olympic Training Center in Moscow where they are now coached by Vera Shatalina.

The Averinas began appearing in international competitions in 2011 competing at the 2011 Russian-Chinese Youth Games where Dina won the gold and Arina finishing 5th in the all-around. In 2012, Dina finished 4th at the Russian Junior Championships. Dina and Arina both competed at the Venera Cup in Eilat, Israel where Dina won the all-around gold, she also won gold in Hoop and silver medals in Ball, Clubs and Ribbon. She then competed at International MTM Cup in Ljubljana (along with teammates Aleksandra Soldatova and Arina Averina) won the Team gold medal.

In 2013 season, Dina won bronze in all-around at the 2013 Russian Junior Championships behind Soldatova, she competed in Junior division at Happy Caravan Cup in Tashkent and won Team gold with Arina Averina. At the 2013 Russian Spartakiada's 6th Summer Student Games, Dina won the all-around bronze medal.

Senior

In 2014 Season, Dina debuted at the 2014 Moscow Grand Prix competing in the senior international tournament division. Dina appeared in her first World Cup competition at the 2014 Lisboa World Cup where she won the all-around bronze medal behind Melitina Staniouta. In the event finals: she won silver in Clubs and bronze in Ribbon. In April 23-27, Dina competed in senior nationals at the 2014 Russian Championships where she finished 6th in the all-around.

In 2015 season, Dina started her season at the 2015 Moscow Grand Prix, she then competed at the Corbeil-Essonnes International Rhythmic Gymnastics Tournament where she won the all-around silver medal behind twin sister Arina Averina, she qualified to 4 event finals, taking gold in ribbon (tied with Arina), silver medals in Hoop, Ball and placed 6th in clubs. In August 7-9, Dina competed at the MTK Budapest taking gold in the all-around, hoop, ball, clubs and a silver in ribbon. Dina followed another gold medal win in the all-around at the 2015 Dundee International Tournament in Sofia, ahead of twin sister Arina.

In 2016, Dina began her season competing at the 2016 Grand Prix Moscow finishing 6th in the all-around and qualified to the hoop final. In Feb 26-28, Dina competed in the first World Cup of the season at the 2016 Espoo World Cup finishing 6th in the all-around; she won bronze in ball, placed 4th in hoop, clubs and 6th in ribbon. Dina then competed in the senior division at the International tournament in Lisbon where she won the all-around gold and all apparatus finals. At the 30th Thiais Grand Prix event in Paris, Dina finished 9th in the all-around. On April 1-3, Dina competed at the 2016 Pesaro World Cup where she finished 5th in the all-around with a total of 73.500 points, she qualified in all apparatus after teammate Yana Kudryavtseva withdrew from the event finals, Dina won silver in ball, ribbon and bronze in hoop, clubs. Dina won the all-around bronze at the 2016 Russian Championships held in Sochi. In May 6-8, Dina competed at the Brno Grand Prix taking bronze in the all-around with a total of 72.850 points; she qualified to 3 apparatus taking silver in hoop, ribbon and placed 4th in clubs. On May 13-15, Dina won the all-around bronze at the Bucharest Grand Prix with a total of 73.100 points, she qualified to all apparatus finals: taking silver in clubs behind Salome Pazhava, bronze in hoop, ball (tied with Katsiaryna Halkina) and 7th in ribbon. On May 27-29, Dina finished 5th in the all-around at the 2016 Sofia World Cup with a total of 72.900 points, she qualified in hoop finals placing 4th behind sister Arina Averina. On July 1-3, Dina competed at the 2016 Berlin World Cup where she won the All-around gold medal with a total of 74.050 points, she qualified to all apparatus taking gold in Ball, Ribbon, placed 4th in Hoop and 8th in Clubs. On September 22-24, Dina competed at the 2016 Grand Prix Final in Eilat, Israel where she won the all-around bronze medal with a new personal best total of 74.450 points, she qualified in 2 apparatus finals taking silver medal in ball and placed 5th in clubs.

In 2017, Dina's season began in competition at the 2017 Grand Prix Moscow where she won the all-around gold medal with a new personal best total score of 76.050 points, she qualified to all the apparatus finals taking gold in hoop, clubs, ribbon and a silver medal in ball behind Aleksandra Soldatova. Dina then participated in the organized Desio-Italia Trophy where she won the All-around and team gold medal (together with Twin Sister Arina). On March 10-12, Dina became the All-around champion at the 2017 Russian Championships ahead of defending champion Aleksandra Soldatova who finished in 2nd place respectively. On March 24-26, Dina then competed at the Thiais Grand Prix where she won the all-around gold with a total of 74.500 points, she qualified to all the event finals taking gold in hoop, ball, clubs and silver in ribbon. On April 7-9, Dina competed in the first World Cup of the season at the 2017 Pesaro World Cup where she won silver in the all-around behind teammate Aleksandra Soldatova, she qualified to all the apparatus finals winning 3 gold medals in ball, clubs, ribbon and a silver in hoop. Her next event was at the 2017 Tashkent World Cup where Dina won gold in the all-around ahead of sister Arina Averina, she qualified to all the apparatus finals taking gold in clubs, and 3 silver medals in ball, hoop and ribbon. On May 19-21, at the 2017 European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Dina was member of the Golden winning Russian Team (together with senior individuals: twin sister Arina Averina, Aleksandra Soldatova and the junior group) scoring a total of 182.175 points which was more than 11 points ahead of their nearest competitor team Belarus. Dina qualified to 3 apparatus finals taking 2 gold medals in hoop, ribbon and a silver medal in clubs behind Arina Averina. In June 23-26, Dina then competed at the 2017 Holon Grand Prix taking silver in the all-around behind Arina, she qualified 3 apparatus finals winning gold in ball, silver in clubs and placed 6th in hoop. At the quadrennial 2017 World Games which was held in Wrocław, Poland from July 20-30, Dina won the gold medal in clubs and three silver medals in hoop, ball, ribbon. On August 11-13, Dina competed at the 2017 Kazan World Challenge Cup and won the all-around gold medal edging out sister Arina who won the silver medal, Dina qualified in all the apparatus finals and won 2 gold medals in hoop, clubs, a silver in ribbon and finished 8th in hoop. At the 2017 World Championships held on August 30 - September 3 in Pesaro, Italy, in the first day of the apparatus finals; Dina won gold in hoop (19.100) and silver in ball (18.700). The following day, she won another gold in clubs (19.000) and silver in ribbon (17.200). During the individual all-around finals, she accumulated scores in (hoop:18.850, ball:18.550, clubs:18.850, ribbon:18.450) scoring a total of 74.700 points to become the new All-around Champion edging out twin sister Arina Averina who took the silver medal respectively.

Gymnastics technique

Dina is known for her fast routines and dynamic apparatus handling. She has maintained a Difficulty value of 10 which was scored in her clubs routine - The last rhythmic gymnast to score a 10 in Difficulty was Evgenia Kanaeva. (10 is the base value for the highest D mark; although the New 2017-2020 Code of Points, 10 Difficulties is no longer on judge's score sheets and thus can be open ended, you can increase as many D elements to maximize Difficulty; so by the end of the program - if you get full credit for all the performed difficulties; you can get the full base value 10, irregardless if your difficulty is higher than the actual base value of 10), A Mastery such as chainee turns connecting to a double roll then to a catch she has executed in her routines - ribbon and hoop, a move popularized by Irina Tchachina.

Competitive highlights

(Team competitions in seniors are held only at the World Championships, Europeans and other Continental Games.)