Natalia Yurchenko

Natalia Yurchenko
Full name	Russian: Наталья Владимировна Юрченко
Country represented	Soviet Union
Born	January 26, 1965 (1965-01-26) (age 46) Norilsk
Discipline	Artistic gymnastics
Head coach(es)	Vladislav Rastorotsky
Eponymous skills	Yurchenko, Yurchenko loop
Medal record Women's Artistic Gymnastics Friendship Games (Alternate 1984 Olympics) Gold 1984 Olomouc Team Gold 1984 Olomouc Vault Silver 1984 Olomouc Uneven Bars World Championships Gold 1985 Montreal Team Gold 1983 Budapest Team Gold 1983 Budapest All-Around World Cup Gold 1982 Zagreb All-Around Gold 1982 Zagreb Vault Gold 1982 Zagreb Balance Beam Silver 1982 Zagreb Uneven Bars

Natalia Vladimirovna Yurchenko (Russian: Наталья Владимировна Юрченко) (born January 26, 1965 in Norilsk, Russian SFSR) was a Soviet artistic gymnast, who was the women's all-around gold medalist at the 1983 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. Natalia is best known for creating the Yurchenko vault, which is like a round-off and a back handspring up onto the vault, and then performing the series of twists and flips.

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.

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 coached there since that time. She coached at LVSA, a gymnastics club in Pennsylvania, for almost 9 years and at Parkettes National Gymnastics Training Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She lives with her family consisting of her husband Igor Sklyarov and daughter Olga.

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

External links and sources

• Natalia Yurchenko at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
• List of competitive results at Gymn Forum
• Whatever happened to Natalia Yurchenko?
• Video of Natalia Yurchenko performing Yurchenko vault - 1985 Summer Universiade in Kobe, all-around

Gymnastics portal

This article contains information from the website http://www.gymnast.ru/, incorporated into the Wikipedia with permission from its author E.V.Avsenev.

Persondata
Name	Yurchenko, Natalia
Alternative names
Short description	Soviet artistic gymnast
Date of birth	January 26, 1965
Place of birth	Norilsk
Date of death
Place of death