Misha (newsroom.co.nz, 29 Jun 2021; intlgymnast.com, 23 May 2023; Instagram profile, 26 Aug 2023)

Gardening, watching cartoons, sun bathing, astronomy. (olympic.org.nz, 04 Apr 2018; intlgymnast.com, 23 May 2023)

Athlete, Coach

Economics, Language Studies - Japanese, Linguistics - Ohio State University: Columbus, OH, USA

Partner Dennise Hassan, daughter Mila

English, Japanese, Russian

Tri Star Gymnastics: Auckland, NZL

David Phillips, NZL; Mark Jujnovich, NZL

His father Sasha Koudinov and his mother Alexandra Koudinova have both coached gymnastics at international level. (stuff.co.nz, 16 Mar 2018; intlgymnast.com, 03 Oct 2010)

2006

He dislocated his left knee upon landing a vault in September 2010. The injury affected his performance at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, which took place the following month. He had dislocated his right knee in December 2009. (intlgymnast.com, 03 Oct 2010)

He took up gymnastics at age seven in Auckland, New Zealand. He was coached by his father Sasha at North Harbour Gymnastics.

His family was involved in the sport.

He became the first New Zealand gymnast to qualify for a final at a World Cup event when he made the floor exercise final at the 2007 event in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. (intlgymnast.com, 03 Oct 2010)

At age 14 years and 266 days on the first day of the gymnastics competition, he was the youngest athlete in any sport to represent New Zealand at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, VIC, Australia. (SportsDeskOnline, 20 Sep 2019; intlgymnast.com, 03 Oct 2010)

To compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. (intlgymnast.com, 23 May 2023)

He trains for 15 hours a week.

He received the 2023 Meritorious Award for his services to Gymnastics New Zealand. (gymnasticsnz.com, 15 Jun 2023)

He was presented with the Men's Artistic Gymnast of the Year award for 2021/22 by Gymnastics New Zealand. (gymnasticsnz.com, 13 Jul 2022)

RETIREMENT RETHINK
He had decided that his final international competition would be the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, QC, Canada, which led to him wanting to showcase his own move 'The Koudinov'. "I thought, 'It's my last competition, let's put together something special for my routine'." In Montreal he attempted the move twice unsuccessfully before managing to complete it on his third try after encouragement from the crowd to try again. "I thought, 'OK, why not?' So I put my thumb up to tell the crowd I had heard them and I decided to go one more time. And I ended up putting it on the bar." Following the competition and after seven years in the United States of America, he moved back to New Zealand and planned to retire from competing in international-level gymnastics. However, his career continued after coach David Phillips convinced him to make himself available for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia. (stuff.co.nz, 16 Mar 2018)

NAMED ELEMENT
In December 2017 'The Koudinov' was added to the Code of Points for the horizontal bar by the International Gymnastics Federation [FIG]. He first performed the element at the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, QC, Canada. "One day I decided to try it over a foam pit just for fun. It seemed possible so I continued to play with it until eventually, I realised I could probably compete it. That's when I trained it more seriously to be able to submit it as a new skill." (fig-gymnastics.com, 15 Dec 2017; nzherald.co.nz, 15 Dec 2017)

MOVE TO NEW ZEALAND
Born in the Russian Federation, at age six he moved with his family to New Zealand. (stuff.co.nz, 16 Mar 2018)

COACHING
He is the men's artistic gymnastics head coach at Tri Star Gymnastics in Auckland, New Zealand. (intlgymnast.com, 23 May 2023; tristar.org.nz, 01 Jan 2022; gymnasticsnz.com, 04 Jun 2021; newsroom.co.nz, 29 Jun 2021)