Nicol Zelikman (Hebrew: ניקול זליקמן; born January 30, 2001) is a former Israeli individual rhythmic gymnast. She is a two-time medalist at the 2016 European Junior Championships.

Nicol Zelikman
Nicol Zelikman in 2019
Personal information
Full nameNicol Zelikman
Country represented Israel
Born (2001-01-30) January 30, 2001 (age 23)
Kfar Saba, Israel
Height173 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Weight52.5 kg (116 lb)
DisciplineRhythmic gymnastics
LevelSenior International Elite
Years on national team2014-2022
ClubMaccabi Tel Aviv
Head coach(es)Ella Samofalov[1]
Assistant coach(es)Elena Zelikman
Retiredyes
World ranking9 WC 8 WCC [2] (2019)
17 WC[3] 5 WCC[4] (2018)
10 WC (2017 Season) [5]
Medal record
Representing  Israel
Rhythmic gymnastics
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2019 Baku Team
European Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Baku Hoop
Bronze medal – third place 2021 Varna Team
Junior European Championships
Silver medal – second place 2016 Holon Hoop
Bronze medal – third place 2016 Holon Ball
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Minsk Group All-around

Early life

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Zelikman was born and raised in Kfar Saba, Israel. Her grandparents, father, and mother were born in Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan.[6][7][8] They had lived there, met and married; and in 1993 they moved to Russia, and then immigrated to Israel.[6] She has a twin brother and two older brothers.

She was introduced to rhythmic gymnastics by her mother; Elena "Lena" Zelikman, who is also her personal assistant coach.[9] In 2019, Zelikman was enlisted to the Israel Defense Forces, but also continued practicing professionally. Her head coach is Ella Samofalov.[1]

Rhythmic gymnastics career

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Junior

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Zelikman began appearing in international junior competitions in 2012; at the Miss Valentine and Vitry Cup. She has competed in numerous competitions since 2014 at the Junior Grand Prix and World Cup series. In 2015, Zelikman competed at the Yoldyz Cup in Kazan. Zelikman finished 4th in team and won silver in hoop, bronze in ball at the 2016 Moscow Junior Grand Prix. She won silver in ball and 4th in rope at the 2016 Lisboa Junior World Cup. Zelikman competed at the 2016 European Junior Championships where Israel finished 4th in Team event, she qualified in 2 apparatus finals where she won silver in hoop and bronze in ball.[10][11]

Senior

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In 2017 season Zelikman made her senior debut at the Moscow International tournament where she won the all-around bronze medal. On March 24–26, Zelikamn competed at the Thiais Grand Prix finishing 7th in the all-around, she qualified to 3 event finals placing 5th in ribbon and 6th in hoop, clubs.[12] On March 31 - April 2, Zelikman competed at the 2017 Grand Prix Marbella finishing 5th in the all-around and qualified to all the apparatus finals. On April 7–9, Zelikman competed in her first World Cup event at the 2017 Pesaro World Cup finishing 10th in the all-around and qualified in the Clubs final finishing in 4th place. Her next competition was at the 2017 Baku World Cup where she finished 8th in the all-around and qualified in the hoop final. On May 5–7, Zelikman competed at the 2017 Sofia World Cup finishing 6th in the all-around behind Katsiaryna Halkina of Belarus, she qualified in 2 apparatus finals and finished 5th in clubs and 6th in ribbon. Zelikman suffered an arm injury where she broke 2 bones which will require a surgery, thus she was not selected to compete at the European Championships.

In 2018, Zelikman returned to competition at the 2018 Grand Prix Thiais finishing 6th in the all-around behind Arina Averina, she qualified in 3 apparatus finals taking silver in ball, finished 4th in ribbon and 5th in clubs. On April 6–8, she won the gold medal in the all-around at the MTM Ljubljana tournament. On April 20–22, at the 2018 Tashkent World Cup, Zelikman finished 5th in the all-around, she qualified in all the apparatus finals: finishing 4th in ball, clubs and 7th in hoop, ribbon. On May 4–6, she then competed at the 2018 Guadalajara World Challenge Cup finishing 11th in the all-around, she qualified into the ball final where she won her first world cup medal, a bronze behind Italian Milena Baldassarri. On May 11–13, Zelikman continued her success at the 2018 Portimao World Challenge Cup, where she won silver in the all-around behind Russia's Maria Sergeeva, she qualified in all apparatus finals and won gold in ball, silver in hoop, bronze in clubs and finished 7th in ribbon.

In 2019, during the European Championships which were held in Baku, Zelikman has won the bronze medal in hoop.

In 2021, Zelikman competed in the Baku World Cup, where she came in twenty-sixth place behind Chisaki Oiwa and seventh in the ball final. At the Pesaro World Cup, she came in sixth place behind Anastasia Salos and in the finals she was seventh in the hoop and fifth in ball. From June 9–13, she competed in the 2021 European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Varna, Bulgaria, where she placed ninth in the individual overall final behind Sofía Raffaeli. In the apparatus finals, she placed eighth in ribbon and fifth in ball. The Israeli team also won the bronze medal which was represented by herself, Linoy Ashram and the Israeli group gymnasts. At the beginning of July, she returned to the Minsk Challenge World Cup, where she came in fifth place overall behind Daría Trubnikova. She also placed fifth in the hoop and ball and ribbon finals, and won bronze in clubs. Two weeks later, she participated in the Tel Aviv Grand Prix, in her home country - the last competition before the Tokyo Olympic Games. She finished fourth behind Anastasia Salos. She also gained fourth place in the hoop final, sixth in the ball and ribbon finals, and fifth in the club final. From August 6–8, Zelikman and her teammate, Linoy Ashram, competed in the individual competition of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Having made the top ten, both Zelikman (who finished seventh in qualifications) and Ashram (who finished third) advanced to the individual overall final. In the individual overall competition, Zelikman repeated the seventh place behind Milena Baldassarri. Ashram won the gold medal becoming the first athlete from a non-former Soviet country to do so at an Olympics. Following the Games, the Israeli Gymnastics Federation announced Zelikman has retired as an individual gymnast and will instead move to competing as a group rhythmic gymnast in the Israeli team.

In early 2022, she announced her retirement from competitive sport.[13]

Routine music information

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Year Apparatus Music Title
2021 Hoop Anya by Deep Purple
Ball Humanity by Scorpions
Clubs Devil Inside Me (feat. KARRA) by Kshmr Kazza
Ribbon Concerto De Espania by Michael Lides
2019 Hoop Dark Avenger by Phantom Power Music
Ball When You Came Into My Life by Scorpions
Clubs The Look by The Baseballs
Ribbon Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald main theme by James Newton Howard
2018 Hoop Paint it Black by Ramin DJawadi
Ball Je n'attendais que vous by Garou
Clubs Proud Mary by Tina Turner
Ribbon Miserlou by Caroline Campbell, William Joseph & Tina Guo
2017 Hoop The Children of Captain Grant (Ouverture) by Isaak Dunayevsky
Ball Si tu etais by Salvatore Adamo
Clubs Remains Of The Day by Danny Elfman
Ribbon ?
2016 Hoop Perdóname by David Civera
Ball And The Waltz Goes On by André Rieu
Clubs ?
Ribbon ?
2015 Hoop Perdóname by David Civera
Ball And The Waltz Goes On by André Rieu
Clubs ?
Ribbon ?

Detailed Olympic results

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Year Competition Description Location Music Apparatus Rank-Final Score-Final Rank-Qualifying Score-Qualifying
2020 Olympics Tokyo All-around 7th 95.600 7th 95.900
Anya by Deep Purple Hoop 10th 23.700 8th 24.350
Humanity by Scorpions Ball 7th 24.150 9th 25.500
Devil Inside Me (feat. KARRA) by Kshmr Kazza Clubs 8th 25.600 8th 24.950
Concerto De Espania by Michael Lides Ribbon 5th 22.150 9th 21.100

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b ""ראיון השבוע" עם אלה סמופלוב, מאמנת ההתעמלות האמנותית של נטע ריבקין וניקול זליקמן". הוועד האולימפי (in Hebrew). 2019-06-01. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
  2. ^ "Rhythmic Gymnastics World Ranking 2019 Individual Competitions". fig-gymnastics.com. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  3. ^ "Rhythmic Gymnastics World Ranking 2018 Individual Competitions" (PDF). fig-gymnastics.com. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  4. ^ "Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge Ranking 2018 Individual Competitions" (PDF). fig-gymnastics.com. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  5. ^ "FIG World standings for rhythmic gymnastics". International Federation of Gymnastics. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  6. ^ a b "Nicole Zelikman tells about Baku roots". Archived from the original on 2019-09-20.
  7. ^ "ZELIKMAN Nicol". FIG Athlete Profile (in Kinyarwanda). 2018-09-17. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
  8. ^ "Nicole Zelikman: World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Baku will be great". Archived from the original on 2019-05-18.
  9. ^ "ניקול זליקמן - התעמלות אמנותית". Ynet. ynet.co.il. 19 November 2015.
  10. ^ "Israel exceeds expectations at their first ever European Championships". European Union of Gymnastics. 22 June 2016. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  11. ^ "Israeli national anthem to conclude Rhythmic Europeans". European Union of Gymnastics. 19 June 2016.
  12. ^ "Résultats édition 2017". grandprixthiais.fr. Archived from the original on 28 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  13. ^ "התעמלות: דריה אטמנוב זכתה בזהב בגביע האיגוד" (in Hebrew). 11 February 2022.
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