Russian gymnast Ilya Zaika created a personalized element in exercises on the rings

Russian gymnast Ilya Zaika became the author of a new personalized element in exercises on the rings. Match TV reports this with reference to the press service of the Russian Gymnastics Federation.

The element is a force lift with straight arms from hanging upside down to a cross upside down. The working group of the International Gymnastics Federation recognized the element and gave it the name “Stutterer”. The element difficulty was 0.8 points, which corresponds to group H, one of the highest categories.

Olympic champion Nikita Nagorny praised his colleague’s achievement. “I’m very glad that gymnastics is reaching an incredible level. A year ago, I would have said that it would be impossible to do this ever in my life. What Ilya did was crazy! We are proud of Ilya, he is a great fellow. The stutterer glorifies Russian gymnastics,” Sport-Express quotes Nagorny as saying.

According to the rules of artistic gymnastics, a new element receives the name of the athlete who was the first to successfully present it at official competitions. Zaika is a silver medalist at the 2026 European Championships in ring exercises and a three-time Russian champion in this event.