Illia Kovtun is one of the best all-around gymnasts of the past five years, and Rotterdam is his first World Championships for a new country. Born in Cherkasy, he represented Ukraine until 2025 and now competes for Croatia.
A career built for Ukraine
Kovtun won world all-around bronze in Kitakyushu in 2021 and silver in Antwerp in 2023, between Daiki Hashimoto and Fred Richard. At the Paris Olympics he won parallel bars silver behind Zou Jingyuan, and finished fourth in the all-around, 0.199 short of a medal. With Ukraine he won European team gold in 2024, and he has three European titles on parallel bars.
The move to Croatia
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kovtun moved to Osijek in Croatia, where he trains at Sokol Osijek with coach Iryna Gorbacheva. He acquired Croatian citizenship in 2025. The international federation approved his change of nationality in July 2025. Because Ukraine did not consent, a one-year waiting period applied, and he became eligible to compete for Croatia from 10 July 2026.
His first major championship for Croatia came quickly. At the European Championships in Zagreb in August 2026 he won the all-around by 0.001, the smallest possible margin, ahead of Arsenii Dukhno. He also won parallel bars gold.
The Kovtun
Kovtun has a parallel bars element named after him: a back toss from upper-arm hang with a quarter turn to one rail, first performed at the 2021 World Cup in Koper.
Rotterdam 2026
On the first day of qualification Kovtun was sixth in the all-around on 83.099 and top of the parallel bars ranking with 14.900, including a 0.1 stick bonus. Competing without a team around him, he is an individual entrant, so his route to Los Angeles runs through the individual qualification places rather than a team spot.
