Daria Bijak
German Gymnast raised in Muenster, NRW
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Daria Eva Kiehne (née Bijak) (born 12 November 1985 in Racibórz, Poland)[1] is a German former artistic gymnast. She is a two-time German national champion (2005, 2006) and competed for Germany at the 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She represented Germany at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
| Daria Bijak | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Daria Eva Bijak | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | 12 November 1985 (age 40) | |||||||||||||||||
| Gymnastics career | ||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics | |||||||||||||||||
Country represented |  Germany (1998–2008) | |||||||||||||||||
College team | Utah Red Rocks (2007–2010) | |||||||||||||||||
| Club | Deutsche Sporthochschule | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Early life
Bijak was born in Racibórz, Poland to Christel and Christoph Bijak.[1] She was raised in Greven, Germany,[2] and trained at the Deutsche Sporthochschule in Cologne under Shanna Polyakova.[3] She went on to compete in the NCAA as a member of the University of Utah gymnastics team.[4]
Gymnastics career
Bijak began gymnastics in 1995.[1]
Bijak was selected to compete at the 2000 Olympic Games but had to withdraw from the team after suffering an Achilles injury.[5]
In 2003, in preparation for the World Championships held in Anaheim, California, Bijak along with the German national team trained for a week in Utah. Bijak kept in contact with the Utah Utes student manager Cameron Linford, who would go on to become the director of gymnastics operations. As a result Bijak joined the Utah Red Rocks gymnastics team in 2007.[6] At the 2003 World Championships, Bijak qualified to the all-around final where she finished 20th.[7]
For the 2004 Olympic Games Germany did not qualify a team nor did Bijak qualify as an individual.[5]
At the 2005 World Championships Bijak placed eighth in the all-around.[8] In doing so she set the record for highest all-around placement by a German gymnast (post-reunification) at the World Championships.[9] The record would later be beaten by Elisabeth Seitz's sixth place finish in 2019.[10]
In 2008, Bijak represented Germany at the Olympic Games in Beijing, where she finished 51st in the all-around qualification round.[11]