Few teams in the history of women’s gymnastics dominated the sport like the Soviet Union as they won 9 Olympic team gold medals beginning in the 1950s until the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

One of the Soviet stars during this era was diminutive Maria Filatova. 

She was born on July 19, 1961, in Leninsk-Kuznetsky, which is in Western Siberia, in the Kemerovo Oblast region of Russia.

Coached by Innokenty and Galina Mametyeva, Filatova was originally named as an alternate to the Soviet team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

However, during podium training in Canada, she received such a positive reaction from the crowd that she was added to the team roster. She shared in the team gold medal and was ranked ninth overall after the team competition.

Following the Olympics and the retirements of several high-profile gymnasts, including Ludmilla Tourischeva and Olga Korbut, Filatova emerged as one of the most popular leaders of the Soviet team.  

During her career, Filatova won two European Championship medals, four World Championship medals, seven World Cup medals, four of them gold, and three Olympic medals, including two gold.

Like IGHOF Hall of Famer Olga Korbut, Filatova was known for her energetic and expressive floor exercise routines as well as her difficult acrobatic skills.

She was one of the first female gymnasts to successfully compete a double back somersault on floor in 1975.

Following her retirement in 1982, Filatova performed with a circus troupe.  There she met and eventually married Soviet power tumbler Alexander Kourbatov.   They have a daughter named Alexandra.

Filatova became a successful coach with several different clubs in Ireland, Ohio and Rochester, NY.  She was living abroad when the Soviet empire dissolved.  Even though she was a national hero, Filatova actually had to go thru a tedious process to apply for and eventually receive a Russian passport in order to return home to her native country.

She currently lives in the city where she was born in Siberia.

Filatova will always be remembered for her kind demeanor, as well as her playful, acrobatic and expressive routines on the floor exercise.

As she took the stage at the 2019 Induction Ceremonies, she said, “I love gymnastics because it has no citizenship. It has its own universal language, that any child can understand, no matter where they live.”

With four world championships medals, and three Olympic medals, as well as the admiration of her peers, Maria Filatova joins the Class of 2019 for induction into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.