Natalia Kuchinskaya
Natalia Kuchinskaya | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Women's artistic gymnastics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Level | Senior international | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gym | Round Lake national training center | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former coach(es) | Vladimir Reyson, Larisa Latynina | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Retired | 1968 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Natalia Alexandrovna Kuchinskaya (Russian: Наталья Александровна Кучинская; alternative transliteration Natal'ja Alieksandrovna Kutchinskaja), also known as Natasha Kuchinskaya (Russian: Наташа Кучинская) (born 8 March 1949) is a retired Russian Olympic gymnast. She won four medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Gymnastics career
Kuchinskaya was born on March 8, 1949, in Leningrad and was selected for a gymnastics class while still in kindergarten.[1] She originally aspired to become a ballet dancer, but was convinced to study gymnastics by her parents, who were both involved with the sport.[1] She trained with Vladimir Reyson and later national team coach Larisa Latynina, who was said to consider Kuchinskaya one of her favourite gymnasts.[2]
By 1965, at age 16, Kuchinskaya was the USSR national champion. At the
At the 1968 Olympics, Kuchinskaya was arguably the most popular member of the Soviet team. She placed third in the all-around, behind Věra Čáslavská and her teammate Zinaida Voronina; she also shared the team gold medal and won the balance beam title and a bronze on the floor exercise. She was dubbed "The Bride of Mexico" and "the Sweetheart of Mexico" by the admiring press and was serenaded with a folk song, "Natalie," during her stay in Mexico City.[2][4][5]
The Olympics was Kuchinskaya's final competition. At the time, her sudden departure from gymnastics was attributed to a thyroid illness;[4] in an interview in the late 1990s, Kuchinskaya also revealed that she had lost her motivation for the sport.[1]
Later life
Following her retirement, Kuchinskaya coached in the USSR, Japan and the United States. She has been married since 1980 to optician Alexander Kotliar and currently lives and coaches in the USA, running her own gymnastics club in Illinois.[4][6] In 1999, she appeared on the "Soviet Sport War" episode of the PBS documentary The Red Files discussing her negative experiences in Soviet gymnastics.[1] In 2006, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.[7]
Achievements
Year | Event | AA | Team | VT
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UB
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BB
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FX
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1965 | USSR Championships | 1st | 1st | ||||
USSR Cup | 2nd | ||||||
1966 | World Championships | 2nd | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 1st |
USSR Championships | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 1st | |||
USSR Cup | 1st | ||||||
1967 | European Championships | 2nd | 2nd | ||||
USSR Championships | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | ||
1968 | USSR Championships | 1st |
Gallery
References
- ^ a b c d "Interview with Natalia Kuchinskaya". The Red Files supplementary material, PBS. 1999. Retrieved January 1, 2008.[dead link]
- ^ a b "Soviet Sports Wars (transcript)" (DOC). PBS. April 1999. Retrieved January 1, 2008.
- ^ "List of competitive results". Gymn-Forum. Retrieved January 1, 2008.
- ^ a b c "Legends: Natalia Kuchinskaya". International Gymnast. Retrieved January 1, 2008.
- ^ "Do favorites always win?". Sport in the USSR. August 1988. Retrieved January 1, 2008.
- ^ "International Gymnastics home page". Archived from the original on April 28, 2009. Retrieved January 1, 2008.
- ^ "Kuchinskaya's page at the IGHOF". International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. 206. Retrieved January 1, 2008.
External links
- Natalia Kuchinskaya at the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
- Natalia Kuchinskaya at Olympics.com
- Nataliya Kuchinskaya at Olympedia