Natalya Yurchenko is a multiple world all-around champion in both the team and singles championships. She holds the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. The athlete is called the legend of national artistic gymnastics.
Biography
The future winner of many championships was born in 1965, in January. Natalia's homeland is the city of Norilsk. From the very childhood, the girl showed her predisposition to gymnastic exercises, she was a very active child. At the age of 7, the young athlete entered the local gymnastics section.
In her native Siberia, Yurchenko trained in harsh conditions, she even sometimes had to dig out the snow from the entrance to the gym to train. When the girl was 11 years old, she was offered a place in one of the most famous and specialized gymnastics schools.
The new location was in the city of Rostov-on-Don. The parents were forced to stay in their native place, and Natalya was placed in a boarding school. At that time, the girl's new coach, Vladislav Rastorotsky, took over the main educational responsibilities. He was confident in the great athletic potential of the gymnast and never doubted that he could grow her into an Olympic winner.
Sports career
Yurchenko's successes were not long in coming: after several years of working with an eminent coach, she was able to get a gold medal at the international junior tournament, her strong point was the uneven bars. Unfortunately for the athlete, at the age of 15, she received a serious injury, due to which she went to rehabilitation for a whole year.
In 1982, Natalia returned to the world of sports, immediately making a revolution in the world of gymnastics. Together with a star coach, she became the founder of her own style, which could not be repeated by any athlete of that time. In the same year, she took the world championship, she managed to show brilliant results on all gymnastic apparatus, for almost every performance she received the highest estimated score of the judges.
In the future, her sports career only continued to gain momentum, until 1984 she won victory after victory, often with a devastating score for her opponents. At the age of 19, Yurchenko planned to make her debut at the Olympic Games in the United States, but due to the ban, all Soviet athletes of that time did not go anywhere.
In parallel with competitive activity, the girl received a pedagogical education, her goal was to become a sports teacher. Further, Natalia's dream came true - in 1986, after completing her professional career, she devoted herself to the coaching direction of education.
Personal life and future activities
Subsequently, Yurchenko took the post of her coach's assistant, where she stayed until 1989. 2 years after retiring to a sports pension, the girl met a man who later became her husband. This man was Igor Sklyarov, who won first place in the Olympic Games and was successfully involved in professional football.
In 1989, the couple moved to the United States, initially they planned to go through difficult times in the USSR, but later decided to stay in a new place forever. In the same year, they had a daughter, Olga. In Pennsylvania, Yurchenko was engaged in coaching activities, preparing young gymnasts. In 2012, she became the head coach of one of the most famous American gymnastics schools - Lakeshore.
