Kuchinskaya Natalia - the best gymnast of the late 60s, a legend of Soviet sports. Already at its first international competition (world championship in Dortmund), seventeen-year-old Natasha won six medals, half of which were gold. Similar results at this age have not yet been achieved by any of the gymnasts in the world. Her magnificent technique and amazing grace amazed the whole world. Fans were looking forward to her performances.
Athlete Biography
Kuchinskaya Natalia Aleksandrovna, whose biography is closely related to sports, was born in Leningrad on March 12, 1949. The Kuchinsky family can be safely called sports: my father was a master of sports in several ways at once, my mother was a trainer in rhythmic gymnastics. This circumstance to a large extent determined the future fate of the girl, the fate of the most beautiful athlete in the history of gymnastics, for whom sport has become the biggest hobby in life.
After graduating from school in 1966, she immediately enters the University of Leningrad at the faculty of psychology. Natalya Kuchinskaya, for whom gymnastics has become a matter of life, explains her action by the fact that psychology is of great importance in sports, and in order to achieve significant victories, the 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 he participated in the USSR championships in gymnastics, having won the title of absolute champion.
In 1968, Natalia became a two-time champion at the Olympic Games in Mexico.
It seemed that the future of the gymnast was bright and beautiful, 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. Probably, it also turned out that aerial gymnastics, of which Kuchinskaya was a representative, was irrevocably a thing of the past.
Then there were unsuccessful searches for himself outside the sport, a divorce from her husband. In the early 90s, Natalia moved to the United States of America, where she reunited with her ex-husband, organized her own gymnastics club in Illinois, where she trains young athletes.
The beginning of the road to big sport
Kuchinskaya Natalya from an early age began to join parents in sports. Interestingly, my mother “stretched” Natasha at the age of two months. Similar attention was paid to the younger sister of Natasha Marina, who later also achieved certain results, becoming a distinguished master of sports in gymnastics.
As Natalya Kuchinskaya recalls, all her childhood passed in the gym, where her mother trained athletes in rhythmic gymnastics.
The very atmosphere that surrounds the girl all the time, in the end, made her want to become the best of the best, that is, the world champion. The young gymnast had enough sporting anger to achieve her goal, although, according to Kuchinsky herself, she had no special data, except for the ability to train for a long time without outside interference. Of course, the future star of Soviet sports was modest, as evidenced by the upcoming competitions in the West German city of Dortmund.
Star Dortmund Natalia Kuchinskaya
The young gymnast Natalya Kuchinskaya quickly broke into the highest echelons of world sports. Held in 1966 in Dortmund (Germany), the world gymnastics championship lit its star in the sky. Nobody managed to win three gold medals at that age. The whole world was subdued by the immediacy of the girl.
Excellent technique, grace and personal charm allowed Kuchinskaya to immediately achieve excellent results in a competition of this level. Young age did not become an obstacle for 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.
Olympics in Mexico City, 1968
Kuchinskaya Natalia by this time was the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union team. The Olympic team also included Luda Turishcheva, Larisa Petrik, Luba Burda, Olya Karaseva and Zinaida Voronina.
It should be noted that at that time the team of Czechoslovakia, led by the absolute champion of the Games in Tokyo, the world champion of the Dortmund Championship Vera Chaslavsky, was a formidable rival of the USSR national team.
The tension of the first day of the main sporting events was so great that Natasha did not obey the bars, crouching down - 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 in full.
The result was a bronze medal, which caused much more glee than the “silver” of Zinaida Voronina.
The third day of the competition was a triumph for Natasha. "Gold" for exercises on a log - is it not a triumph for an athlete who disrupted the performance on the uneven bars!
Life outside of sports
The complex and vulnerable character, the changed realities in sports, trauma led to the fact that Natalya Kuchinskaya left the sport. However, life outside the sport turned out to be no less difficult for the girl. Acting skills, journalism - all this has not become a new “work of life”.
After graduating from the Institute of Physical Education, she left for Japan, but a year later she returned home. But here she was waiting for lack of money and oblivion, a divorce from her husband. The husband left for the United States, and Natalya remained in Kiev.
Next was life, rapidly rolling to the bottom. Only due to the fact that Natalya Alexandrovna's ex-husband intervened (took her to America), now she works as a gymnastics coach, prepared the US champion.
Interesting facts from the life of a gymnast
Natalya Kuchinskaya, a Soviet beauty gymnast, almost became a member of the family of the president of Mexico. The fact is that a seventeen-year-old athlete with her performances at the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968, combining 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 young Soviet athlete, a senior groom even offered a hand and a heart, but the girl refused him.
Also, an interesting story happened with a girl on the first day of the competition in Mexico City, when in the evening members of the organizing committee of the Olympics came to her in the Olympic village. They explained their unexpected visit by the fact that Natalya Kuchinskaya was unanimously chosen by the “bride of Mexico City” as the most beautiful girl, and she should be sacrificed to the gods. Of course, the gymnast was struck by such an “honor” and stated that she was from the Soviet Union and there was nothing to sacrifice her for.
This statement caused a smile among the guests, but nevertheless beautiful photos of the sportswoman and catchy newspaper headlines about her were taken as a “sacrifice”.
Kuchinsky Awards
Natalya Kuchinskaya, whose awards, taking into account her rapid ascent to Olympus gymnastics, can only cause admiration, for a fairly short period of time (1966-1968) managed to put a sufficient number of them in her “piggy bank”.
In 1966, the world championship in gymnastics brought her six medals: three gold, two silver and one bronze (floor exercises, beam and parallel bars - gold, personal and team all-around - silver, vault - bronze).
At the 1967 European Championships, Natalya became the silver medalist of the competition for floor and log exercises.
In the same year, at the USSR Championship, the athlete won the title of the strongest in the vault and exercises on the 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 proved to be the strongest.
In 1969, Natalya Alexandrovna was awarded the Order of Honor for her outstanding achievements in sports.
In 2006, the US authorities decided to introduce Natalia Kuchinskaya to the “International Gymnastics Hall of Fame” (Oklahoma City).
