Natalia Yurchenko

Career

Renowned for her innovative and daring gymnastics, she is best known as the originator of the Yurchenko vault family, which is a round-off back handspring entry onto the vault, and then performing a series of twists and flips official Honoured Master of Sports of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, she was coached by Vladislav Rastorotsky at the Dinamo sports society in Rostov on Don. In the same year she debuted in the senior Riga International meet, earning the bronze on the floor.

Perhaps even more successful was the year 1983.

Apart from being one of the strongest gymnasts of the 1980s, she originated such popular gymnastics elements as Yurchenko vault and Yurchenko loop. The Yurchenko family is now a group of vaults based on the entry she used in her original Yurchenko vault (a round-off onto the table, followed by a back tuck, which is currently worth 380 points in the 2013-2016 Code of Points).

She retired from gymnastics in 1986, but made a surprise appearance at the World Professional Championships (Fairfax, Virginia) in 1991. In 1999 Yurchenko emigrated to the United States of America and coached there since that time.

She coached at LVSA, a gymnastics club in Pennsylvania, for almost 9 years, at Parkettes National Gymnastics Training Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania and at Lakeshore Academy of Artistic Gymnastics in Chicago Illinois.

In June 2015, Natalia opened her own gymnastics academy in Chicago"s South Loop. C.I.T.Y. Club Gymnastics Academy is the premier Chicago-based elite athletic training facility whose mission is to improve the lives of children and adults of all abilities from recreational to Olympic caliber through the sport of gymnastics. See Natalia"s Official Site for photos and news.

Achievements

• 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. The great series of successes began four years later, when she won the all-around title at the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Championships, Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Cup, at the prestigious Moscow News tournament and the World Cup. She won almost complete gold medal complects (except the floor exercise) at the University Games and the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics 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.