Background
Anastasia is the daughter of former football player Ilya Bliznyuk who played for the Ukrainian national team and is the head coach of Football Club Zirka Kirovograd.
Anastasia is the daughter of former football player Ilya Bliznyuk who played for the Ukrainian national team and is the head coach of Football Club Zirka Kirovograd.
Bliznyuk was part of the gold medal winning Russian Group at the 2012 European Championships and at the World Cup Final in Minsk, Belarus. Foreign six months leading up to the Olympic Games, the Russian gymnasts only ate buckwheat in their diet. Bliznyuk is a resident of the city of Penza.
Bliznyuk along with rest of the remaining Russian Group Olympians completed their careers after the World Championships.
Irina Viner has stated about their dismissal and retirements: "We have made drastic changes in the composition of the group. All the girls, who a year ago at the Olympic Games were the first after the World Cup series had to say goodbye to the sport.
They did not show in Kiev what could and should have been shown. The "star disease" should not be left on the carpet.