From Doctor to Olympian: Meet Dr Elena Galiabovitch
Pistol shooting star & Bachelor of Biomedicine alumni Elena is 1 of 75 Australian athletes who will be competing in the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Here's her story.
Image: Elena Galiabovitch before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (The Australian Olympic Committee)
This article was originally published by The Australian Olympic Committee and has been republished with permission.
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Elena’s Story
Elena decided to try pistol shooting after her parents met through the sport - and she competed on and off for a decade before really knuckling down in 2014. Initially it was meant to be an opportunity spend more time with her father but the desire and drive to be successful and be selected for team competitions meant she started taking the sport much more seriously.
Coached by her father Vladimir, Australia’s national pistol coach, Elena claimed her first international title in 2015 when she won the Women’s 25m Pistol Gold at the Oceania Championships.
A member of Victoria’s Oakleigh Pistol Club, Elena was selected to make her Olympic debut at the Rio 2016 Games, where she lined up in both the Women’s 25m Pistol and Women’s 10m Air Pistol events, finishing 32nd and 43rd respectively.
Image: Elena Galiabovitch of Australia shoots in a 10m Air Pistol practice session at the Rio Olympics in 2016. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Elena, a medical doctor who completed her Bachelor of Biomedicine and MD training at the University of Melbourne, took three months off work to prepare for her Commonwealth Games debut on the Gold Coast in 2018. Here, Elena claimed Silver in the Women’s 25m Pistol and Bronze in the Women’s 10m Pistol events.
Image: Bronze medalist Elena Galiabovitch during the Women's 10m Air Pistol Final medal ceremony, Day 4 of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (Getty Images)
In the same year, Elena achieved a career first when she won Gold in the Women’s 25m Pistol at a World Cup event in Changwon, Korea. As well as it being the first World Cup medal of her career, Elena achieved a personal best 296 score over China’s Lin Yuemei. She won the title in a shoot-off, three hits against two.
At the 2019 Oceania Championships, Elena won the Women’s 25m Pistol Gold Medal to secure Australia a quota position at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She went on to book her ticket to Tokyo after winning all four of Australia’s Women’s 25m Pistol Olympic selection events.
In Tokyo, Elena had the honour of being one of six COVID-19 frontline medical workers to carry the Olympic Flag at Opening Ceremony, representing Oceania. She narrowly missed qualifying for the Women’s 25m Pistol Final when placed 11th, and finished 27th in the Women’s 10m Pistol.
Image: Elena Galiabovitch of Australia during the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony, The Australian Olympic Committee
Elena continues to compete around the world and is currently ranked inside the Top 45 in world in the 25m Pistol and Top 70 in the 10m Air Pistol. When she's not preparing for competitions and working as a surgical registrar, Elena is studying to become a urological surgeon. During the pandemic, she spent much of her time at the frontline caring for patients on COVID wards.
“I greatly appreciated the recognition given to healthcare and essential workers in the Opening Ceremony by the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee,” she said. “I felt great pride in being chosen to represent - and gratitude - because without the healthcare workers around the globe the event would not have been possible.”
Read more about Elena and her Bachelor of Biomedicine experience at Melbourne.
Did you know the University has four current students and ten alumni competing at the 2024 Paris Games - including Elena. Read more here.