Soviet gymnast Natalya Alexandrovna Kuchinskaya: biography, achievements and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Kuchinskaya Natalia - the best gymnast of the late 60s, a legend of Soviet sports. Already at her first international competition (the world championship in Dortmund), seventeen-year-old Natasha won six medals, half of which were gold. None of the world's gymnasts has achieved similar results at this age. Her magnificent technique and amazing grace amazed the whole world. Fans were looking forward to her performances.

Athlete biography

Kuchinskaya Natalya Alexandrovna, whose biography is closely connected with sports, was born in Leningrad on March 12, 1949. The Kuchinsky family can be safely called sports: his father was a master of sports in several types at once, his mother was a rhythmic gymnastics coach. This circumstance to a large extent determined the further fate of the girl, the fate of the most beautiful athlete in the history of gymnastics, for whom sport has become the biggestpassion in life.

Having graduated from school in 1966, she immediately enters the Leningrad University at the Faculty of Psychology. Natalya Kuchinskaya, for whom gymnastics has become a matter of life, explains her act by saying that psychology is of great importance in sports, and in order to achieve significant victories, an athlete needs serious knowledge in this area.

Further in the biography of the athlete was the World Gymnastics Championship, held in 1966 in Dortmund (West Germany), where the young Soviet gymnast became a three-time world champion.

In the period from 1965 to 1968, she participated in the USSR gymnastics championships, winning the title of absolute champion.

In 1968, Natalia becomes a two-time champion at the Olympic Games held in Mexico.

It seemed that the future of the gymnast was bright and wonderful, but in reality everything turned out not quite like that. According to the head coach of the USSR national team Larisa Latynina, at some point something broke in Natasha's character, and sport ceased to be her main business of life. It probably also affected the fact that aerial gymnastics, of which Kuchinskaya was a representative, was irrevocably a thing of the past.

Further there were unsuccessful searches for myself outside of sports, a divorce from my husband. In the early 90s, Natalia moved to the United States of America, where she reunited with her ex-husband again, organized her own gymnastic club in Illinois, where she trains young athletes.

The beginning of the road to big sport

Kuchinskaya Natalia from smallyears began to join the parents in the sport. It is interesting that mother "stretched" Natasha already at the age of two months. Similar attention was paid to Natasha's younger sister Marina, who later also achieved certain results, becoming an Honored Master of Sports in artistic gymnastics.

As Natalya Kuchinskaya recalls, her entire childhood was spent in the gym, where her mother trained athletes in rhythmic gymnastics.

The very atmosphere surrounding the girl all the time, in the end, made her desire to become the best of the best, that is, the world champion. The young gymnast had enough sports anger to achieve her goal, although, according to Kuchinskaya herself, she had no special data, except for the ability to train for long periods without outside interference. Of course, the future Soviet sports star was modest, as evidenced by the upcoming competitions in the West German city of Dortmund.

Starry Dortmund by Natalia Kuchinskaya

Young gymnast Natalya Kuchinskaya quickly broke into the highest echelons of world sports. The World Gymnastics Championship, held in Dortmund (Germany) in 1966, lit her star in the sports sky. No one has ever won three gold medals at that age. The whole world was captivated by the spontaneity of the girl.

Excellent technique, grace and personal charm allowed Kuchinskaya to immediately achieve excellent results in a competition of this level. Young agedidn't bother her. On the contrary, from that moment on, all adherents of gymnastics began to look forward to the Olympics in Mexico, which was to be held in 1968 with her participation.

Mexico Olympics 1968

Kuchinskaya Natalya by this time was the undoubted leader of the Soviet Union national team. The Olympic team also included Lyuda Turishcheva, Larisa Petrik, Lyuba Burda, Olya Karaseva and Zinaida Voronina.

It should be noted that at that time the team of Czechoslovakia, headed by the absolute champion of the Games in Tokyo, the world champion of the Dortmund championship, Vera Chaslavsky, was a formidable opponent of the USSR national team at that time.

The tension of the first day of the main sports competitions was so great that Natasha did not submit to the bars in crouching - an extremely simple element that she could perform with her eyes closed. And ahead was the second day and a free program.

It seemed that everything was lost for her, but the girl showed her sports anger to the fullest.

The result was a bronze medal, which caused much more jubilation than Zinaida Voronina's silver medal.

The third day of the competition was triumphant for Natasha. "Gold" for exercises on a balance beam - isn't this a triumph for an athlete who failed her performance on the uneven bars!

Life outside of sports

Difficult and vulnerable nature, changed realities in sports, injury led to the fact that Natalia Kuchinskaya left the sport. However, life outside of sports was no less difficult for the girl. acting skill,journalism - all this has not become a new "business of life".

After graduating from the Institute of Physical Education, she left for Japan, but returned home a year later. But here lack of money and oblivion awaited her, a divorce from her husband. The husband left for the USA, and Natalia remained in Kyiv.

Further there was life, rapidly rolling to the "bottom". Only thanks to the fact that Natalia Alexandrovna's ex-husband intervened (took her to America), now she works as a gymnastics coach, she has prepared the US champion.

Interesting facts from the life of a gymnast

Natalya Kuchinskaya, a beautiful Soviet gymnast, almost became a member of the family of the President of Mexico. The fact is that the seventeen-year-old athlete, with her performances at the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968, which combined excellent technique and amazing grace, “fell in love” with almost all the men of Mexico.

The son of the President of the country was no exception. A high-ranking fiance even offered her hand and heart to a young Soviet athlete, but the girl refused him.

An interesting story also happened to a girl on the first day of the competition in Mexico City, when members of the organizing committee of the Olympics came to the Olympic village in the evening. They explained their unexpected visit by the fact that Natalya Kuchinskaya was unanimously chosen as the “bride of Mexico City” as the most beautiful girl, and she should be given to the gods as a sacrifice. Of course, the gymnast was struck by such an “honor” and declared that she was from the Soviet Union and there was nothing to sacrifice her for.

This statement caused a smile from the guests, but still inThe "victim" was taken beautiful photos of the athlete and catchy newspaper headlines about her.

Kuchinskaya Awards

Natalya Kuchinskaya, whose awards, given her rapid ascent to the Olympus of gymnastics, can only cause admiration, in a fairly short period of time (1966-1968) managed to put a sufficient number of them into her “piggy bank”.

In 1966, the world championship in artistic gymnastics brought her six medals: three gold, two silver and one bronze (floor exercises, beam and parallel bars - gold, individual and team all-around - silver, vault - bronze).

At the 1967 European Championships for floor exercises and beam exercises, Natalia became the silver medalist of the competition.

In the same year, at the USSR Championship, the athlete won the title of the strongest in vault and uneven bars.

The Olympic Games in Mexico City (1968) showed that the Soviet athlete is the strongest gymnast in the world in beam exercises. At the same time, the team of gymnasts of the Soviet Union, which included Kuchinskaya, also turned out to be the strongest.

In 1969, for outstanding achievements in sports, Natalia Alexandrovna was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.

In 2006, the US authorities decided to induct Natalia Kuchinskaya into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (Oklahoma City).

Kuchinskaya as a unique phenomenon in sports

Soviet gymnastics also knew more titled athletes - these are Polina Astakhova, Larisa Latynina. The names of these girls rattledin many Olympics. However, there was no more direct and charming gymnast than Natasha Kuchinskaya.

The film director Vladimir Savelyev made a wonderful film “Na-ta-li!” About her, and journalists paid as much attention to her as other members of the USSR national gymnastics team did not receive.

Unfortunately, her sporting fate turned out to be difficult and dramatic. The athlete was unable to fully realize her unique talent.