Anna Kozlova  Anna Kozlova (; born 30 December 1972) is a former synchronized swimmer who competed in three Olympic Games. After competing in the 1992 Summer Olympics and winning four European Championships representing the Soviet Union and its successor organizations, she defected to the United States in 1993. After missing the 1996 Atlanta Games due to a five-year wait to receive U.S. citizenship, she competed for her new country in Sydney, where her best placing was fourth. She went on to win gold medals in the Pan-American Games in 2003, before returning to her third and final Olympics in Athens, where she won two bronze medals. Kozlova was born in Leningrad, RFSFR, Soviet Union on December 30, 1972, the daughter of a mathematics professor and a swimming instructor. Kozlova's first international competition was at the 1989 World Cup in Paris, where although she failed to win a medal, she would later credit her impression of the American team at that competition as influencing her 1993 decision to defect to the United States. Kozlova found success in two international competitions in 1991. At the World Cup in Bonn, she won a bronze medal with the Soviet team, and at 1991 European Aquatics Championships in Athens, she paired with Olga Sedakova to win the gold medal in the duet routine competition. The Soviet team also captured the team gold medal. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, twelve of the former Soviet Republics chose to compete together at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona as the Unified Team. Kozlova was chosen to compete in both competitions contested, solo and duet, the duet again with Sedakova. Kozlova's performance in the solo competition was unremarkable, as she failed to advance past the first day of competition. However, the duet with Sedakova was much better, as the team finished in fourth place, one shy of the medals. Remarkably, Kozlova and Sedakova had to finish the duet competition without a coach, as their coach abandoned them part-way through the three-day competition. In January 1993, Kozlova and Sedakova traveled to the United States to train on a temporary visa, where they lived with the family of Atlanta gold medalists and sisters; Becky Dyroen-Lancer and Suzannah Bianco. Returning to Russia, she competed at the 1993 European Aquatics Championships in Sheffield that August. Leaving the Unified Team concept behind, Russia competed as an independent nation.