Antonina Koshel

Who is Antonina Koshel?

Antonina Vladimirovna Koshel is a retired Soviet artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in all artistic gymnastics events and won a gold medal in the team allround competition. Individually her best achievement was 12th place on the balance beam.

She was born third among five sisters and was the only sportsperson in the family. She first tried herself in balet, but was discarded as too weak. She changed to gymnastics, and in 1970, after winning all events at the junior national championships, was selected for the senior national team. At the Olympic trials in 1972 she competed while having a fever, yet passed the selection. She retired in 1975 and for decades worked as a coach.