One of the best rhythmic gymnasts in the world, Margarita Mamun won the individual all-around gold in Rio de Janeiro and helped Russia win the competition for the fifth straight Olympics. A score of 76.483 was enough for her to finish on top of the podium after three-time World Champion Yana Kudryavtseva lost by a slight margin (75.608) in the dying seconds and settled for a silver.
Known as the Bengal Tiger, Mamun was born in Moscow to a Bangladeshi father and Russian mother. While she had previously represented Bangladesh at the junior level, because of new constitutional laws, she now solely holds citizenship of the Russian Federation.
At the rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around final, Mamun was trailing Kudryavsteva after the second rotation. But in the third rotation in clubs, in the last seconds of Kudryavtseva's routine, she failed to catch one of her clubs and had to scramble to get her hand on it before the music ended. Keeping her composure, Mamun took advantage of her opponent’s lapse and was the only gymnast in the final to have scores of over 19 points on all four apparatus. Mamun's score under the 20-point judging system surpassed the previous mark score of Evgenia Kanaeva and is a new Olympic record as well.
Speaking to Reuters after the event, she said, "I'm really happy knowing that I have a lot of fans in Bangladesh who have been supporting me. I can count one to 10 in Bengali. When I was younger my dad used to teach me Bengali but I have forgotten it all."
Ukraine's Ganna Rizatdinova edged out South Korea's Son Yeon-Jae for the bronze in the same event.
Before the Games, Mamun and Kudryavtseva were heavily favoured to win gold and silver. Although there were rumors of them being banned due to allegations that Russia had engaged in state-sponsored doping across multiple sports, International Gymnastics Federation cleared the rhythmic gymnasts, artistic gymnasts and trampoline athletes to compete in Rio.
