Natalia Yurchenko
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Natalia Vladimirovna Yurchenko (Russian: Наталья Владимировна Юрченко) (born January 26, 1965 in Norilsk, Russian SFSR) was a Soviet gymnast, who won women's all-around gold medal at the 1983 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR, she was coached by Vladislav Rastorotsky at the Dinamo sports society in Rostov on Don. Her first international competition was the 1978 Junior Friendship Tournament, where she placed 5th all-around and won gold medals in the team competition and on bars. In the same year she debuted in the senior Riga International meet, earning the bronze on the floor.
The great series of successes began four years later, when she won the all-around title at the USSR Championships, USSR Cup, at the prestigious Moscow News tournament and the World Cup. Perhaps even more successful was the year 1983. She won almost complete gold medal complects (except the floor exercise) at the University Games and the USSR Championships. She also became the all-around World Champion, achieving two perfect 10s in the process.
At the Friendship Games in Olomouc, Yurchenko battled with Olga Mostepanova and managed to win the gold medal on the vault and in the team competition. In 1985 she once again won almost all events at the University Games (except vault and the balance beam) and contributed to the team's gold medal at the World Championships. However, although she was the all-around champion in many events of that period, she sometimes did not make the Soviet team due to the "reserved" spots for other coaches and athletes.
Apart from being one of the strongest gymnasts of the 1980s, she originated such popular gymnastics elements as Yurchenko vault and Yurchenko loop. She retired from gymnastics in 1986, but made a surprise appearance at the World Professional Championships (Fairfax, VA) in 1991. In 1999 Yurchenko emigrated to the USA and coaches there since that time.
[edit] Achievements
| Year | Event | AA | Team | VT | UB | BB | FX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | World Cup | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 1st | ||
| USSR Cup | 1st | 1st | |||||
| USSR Championships | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | |||
| 1983 | World Championships | 1st | 1st | ||||
| USSR Championships | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 2nd | ||
| 1984 | Friendship Games | 1st | 1st | 2nd | |||
| 1985 | World Championships | 1st | |||||
| USSR Championships | 3rd |
[edit] External links and sources
- Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique profile for Natalia Yurchenko
- List of competitive results
- Whatever happened to Natalia Yurchenko?
- Video of Natalia Yurchenko performing Yurchenko vault - 1985 Summer Universiade in Kobe, all-around
1934:  Czechoslovakia • 1938: Czechoslovakia • 1950:  Sweden • 1954:  USSR • 1958: USSR • 1962: USSR • 1966: Czechoslovakia • 1970: USSR • 1974: USSR • 1978: USSR • 1979: Romania • 1981: USSR • 1983: USSR • 1985: USSR • 1987:  Romania • 1989: USSR • 1991: USSR • 1992: Not held • 1994:  Romania • 1995: Romania • 1996: Not held • 1997: Romania • 1999: Romania • 2001: Romania • 2002: Not held • 2003:  USA • 2005: Not held • 2006:  China |
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1934: Vlasta Dakanova • 1938: Vlasta Dakanova • 1950: Helena Rakoczy • 1954: Galina Rud'ko • 1958: Larissa Latynina • 1962: Larissa Latynina • 1966: Věra Čáslavská • 1970: Ludmilla Tourischeva • 1974: Ludmilla Tourischeva • 1978: Elena Mukhina • 1979: Nellie Kim • 1981: Olga Bicherova • 1983: Natalia Yurchenko • 1985: Yelena Shushunova, Oksana Omelianchik • 1987: Aurelia Dobre • 1989: Svetlana Boginskaya • 1991: Kim Zmeskal • 1993: Shannon Miller • 1994: Shannon Miller • 1995: Lilia Podkopayeva • 1997: Svetlana Khorkina • 1999: Maria Olaru • 2001: Svetlana Khorkina • 2003: Svetlana Khorkina • 2005: Chellsie Memmel 2006: Vanessa Ferrari |
This article contains information from the website http://www.gymnast.ru/, incorporated into the Wikipedia with permission from its author E.V.Avsenev.
