Aleksej Demjanov

Aleksej Demjanov was born in Russia, where he learned gymnastics, but was eventually lured to Croatia. He made his international début for Croatia at the 1995 World Championships and also won gold in the rings that year at the Summer Universiade. He then became the first gymnast to represent an independent Croatia at the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta, where he had his best finish of joint-20th (with Nistor Șandro of Romania) in the rings. In 1997, he took silver at the Mediterranean Games, came in third at the Summer Universiade, and was seventh at the World Championships, all in the rings. He also competed at the European Championships in 1996 and retired from active competition in 2000, later returning to Russia.