Deriugina's death was announced by the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOCU), who led tributes to her.

"Her students are known all over the world, and the solid foundation she laid allows to bring new and new talents of Ukraine to the podium, preserving the unique style of the Ukrainian school of rhythmic gymnastics," the NOCU said on its website.

Deriugina’s first notable success was her daughter, Irina, who represented the Soviet Union.

Albina Deriugina coached her daughter to eight World Championships medals at Basel in 1977 and London in 1979, including four gold, when it was the sport’s flagship event before it was added to the Olympic programme.

After Irina retired from competition at the age of 24, mother and daughter combined as a phenomenally successful coaching team, creating a private school and training athletes who won a total of 120 gold medals at major events.

This included Olympic champions Alexandra Timoshenko in the all-around event for the Unified Team at Barcelona 1992, and Kateryna Serebrianska, who succeeded her as gold medallist at Atlanta 1996 when Ukraine made its debut in the Summer Games as an independent nation in a competition where Olena Vitrychenko won bronze.

Other notable pupils included Anna Bessonova, Olympic bronze medallist in the all-around event at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, and Hanna Rizatdinova, third in the same discipline at Rio 2016.

They also coached several World Championships gold medallists including Oksana Skaldina, Tamara Erofeeva and Natalia Godunko.

She was born as Albina Mykolayivna in 1932 in Makiivka, a city captured by pro-Russian separatists in 2014 at the start of the war in Donbas, and currently occupied by Russia.

Albina married Ivan Deriugina, winner of an Olympic gold medal in the modern pentathlon team event at Melbourne 1956.

He died in 1996 at the age of 67.

In 1995, Irina established the "Deriugina Cup", an international gymnastics competition in Kyiv, in tribute to her mother.

Albina Deriugina was made a "Hero of Ukraine," the highest civilian award in the country, in 2002.

In 2015, the NOCU, when it celebrated its 25th anniversary, presented Deriugina with its highest award, the NOC medal.

Deriugina, who died on Wednesday (March 29), was buried in Kyiv today at a ceremony attended by International Gymnastics Federation President Morinari Watanabe.