What Is a Shaposhnikova Transition?

Key takeaways

The original Shaposhnikova starts from a clear hip circle on the low bar, not a stalder — stalder and toe-on entries into the same flight are later, separately listed variations.

It's a bar-to-bar transition, moving the gymnast from the low bar up to the high bar — the opposite direction to a Pak salto.

It's a D-value element in the 2025–2028 WAG Code of Points; adding a half turn in flight gives the E-value Khorkina.

It's named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Shaposhnikova, one of the pioneers of giant-swing technique on uneven bars in the late 1970s.

The Shaposhnikova is a bar-to-bar transition on uneven bars: rather than releasing and re-catching the same bar, the gymnast flies from the low bar to the high bar.

How it works

The gymnast starts in front support on the low bar, on the inside between the two bars. She performs a clear hip circle — circling backward around the low bar with her body clear of it — up through handstand, then lets go and flies to catch the high bar.

The 2025–2028 WAG Code of Points lists it as “inner front support on LB – clear hip circle through handstand with flight to hang on HB”, element 2.406, a D.

Variations

Several later skills use the same flight from the low bar to the high bar but enter it differently. The women’s Code lists them as separate elements:

Entry into the flight	Element	Name	Value
Clear hip circle	2.406	Shaposhnikova	D
Clear hip circle, half turn in flight	2.506	Khorkina	E
Stalder circle	4.405	—	D
Stalder circle, half turn in flight	4.505	—	E
Toe-on (pike sole) circle	5.409	Maloney	D
Toe-on circle, half turn in flight	5.509	Van Leeuwen	E

A toe-on version with a full turn is named after Seitz. The stalder entry is sometimes called a “Stalder Shaposhnikova”, or informally “the Chow” after Amy Chow, who popularised it at the 1996 Olympics.

How it scores in a routine

The bars composition requirements ask for a flight from the high bar to the low bar and a flight on the same bar — a low-to-high flight like the Shaposhnikova meets neither. Its value lies elsewhere: the Code awards 0.20 connection value for a D-value flight from the low bar to the high bar linked directly into a C-value or harder skill on the high bar. The Code also makes an exception to its “empty swing” deduction after Shaposhnikova-type elements. See women’s uneven bars and connection value on uneven bars.

How to tell it apart

A Shaposhnikova moves the gymnast from the low bar up to the high bar; a Pak salto moves the other way, from the high bar down to the low bar.

Why it’s named as it is

The skill is named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Shaposhnikova, one of a group of gymnasts — alongside Elena Davydova, Marcia Frederick and Maxi Gnauck — who took uneven bars in a new direction in the late 1970s by building routines around giant-swing technique. Later gymnasts developed named variations of her transition, as above.