Jelizaveta Polstjanaja

Jeļizaveta Polstjanaja (born 12 March 2003) is a Latvian retired rhythmic gymnast. She is Latvian national champion.

Personal life Polstjanaja was born in Jūrmala, Latvia, to Russian parents; her parents lived in Russia but traveled to Latvia often, and her godparents are Latvian. She has a younger sister. Several relatives of her were athletes: her grandfather was a professional hockey player, while her mother was also a rhythmic gymnast, and her father participated in several marine sports. Polstjanaja initially trained in synchronized swimming before switching to rhythmic gymnastics.

In 2018, Polstjanaja received Latvian citizenship for special merit and started competing for Latvia. She speaks Latvian, Russian, and English.

2018 Polstjanaja participated in the Junior European Championship 2018 in Guadalajara, Spain.

2019 Polstjanaja was second in the all-around at the Latvian championships and won all four apparatus finals. In September, she competed at the 2019 World Championships, also held in Baku, where she placed 32nd and did not advance to the top 24 all-around final. She also placed 26th in the team event with her Latvian teammates Alīna Baklagina and Karolīna Mizūne.

A month later, Polstjanaja ruptured a ligament in her ankle, but she continued to train and compete. She won the Latvian championship in December.

2021 Polstjanaja competed at all four stages of the 2021 World Cup series and reached two apparatus finals at the stage in Tashkent. Next, she competed at the 2021 European Championships, where she finished in 26th place after making mistakes, meaning that she did not advance to the all-around final and missed her last chance to win the Olympic quota for the 2020 Summer Olympics available there. While competing, she also suffered a serious hip injury, but she continued on to compete at two World Challenge Cups in July in Minsk and Moscow. At the Moscow stage, she was 4th in the all-around behind Ekaterina Vedeneeva and won bronze in the hoop final; this was the first time a Latvian gymnast had won a medal on the World Cup series.

2022 Polstjanaja won two more medals on the 2022 World Cup circuit: a bronze in the hoop final in Pesaro, and a silver in the clubs final in Baku. At the stage in Tashkent, she was 5th in the all-around.

Her last competition was the 2022 European Championships in Tel Aviv. She finished 12th in the all-around final and reached the hoop final, where she placed 4th.

After this competition, she had conflicts with the Latvian Olympic Committee. Polstjanaja claimed that she received an ultimatum saying that in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she must give up her Russian citizenship or be expelled from the national team. The Latvian Olympic Committee disputed her account and said that dual-nationals of Russia or Belarus could not apply for state funding, including Latvian Olympic Unit funding, but that she was not prevented from competing under the Latvian flag if she wanted to self-fund her costs for training and competing.

Polstjanaja said that because she still had close family and friends living in Russia, she could not renounce her citizenship. Although the Latvian Gymnastics Federation offered her the chance to compete at the 2022 World Championships with her own funding, she refused due to a poor mental state and said that she did not see a point in continuing to compete for Latvia.

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