Natalia Yurchenko - an exclusive interview

Natalia wins gold at the World Championships in Budapest, 1983

1983 World Champion Natalia Yurchenko speaks directly to readers of RRG in this exclusive interview.  

Early years:

In the summer of 1976, at the age of 11, I was accepted to a sports boarding school in Rostov-on-Don. I remember it was a 4-level building with the cafeteria on the first floor, academic classrooms on the second floor, rooms for girls on the third floor and rooms for boys on the fourth floor. There was one TV on the ground floor and the kids who stayed at school over the summer (about 20-30 kids), were able to watch the Olympics. Nadia Comaneci�s outstanding performance made us feel jealous because usually the Soviets were the unbeatable favorites. We did feel some relief with amazing performances from Nellie Kim and Ludmilla Tourischeva. Besides Ludmilla, there was a gymnast from Rostov-on-Don, Svetlana Grozdova! And, we were really thrilled to see the very little and cute Maria Filatova. But, the most surprising thing was to see the Romania team with their clean, expressive and very aggressive gymnastics! Even more surprising was to see Vladislav Rastorotsky visit one of our practices just a few weeks later. I knew that I was more advanced than the other girls in my group. So, I had a feeling that he may pick me. 

The first time being in a famous gym was something unforgettable!! It was really the next level of what we'd seen on TV. Many of the girls could do tricks that none of the Olympians could do. Practice started on the trampoline into the pit every day. Double somersaults with twists forward and back, double and triple twisting front and back, triple front and back tucks were the top and something only the bravest could achieve. It was the same for the other events. When I saw the back handspring layout step-out on beam, I was shocked. I could not even imagine such a thing was possible. Everything was very intensive - conditioning, warm-up, tumbling, working on bars and beam - just go, go, go! There were pits, mats and safety pads everywhere. When trying new things, they made sure it was safe and not painful to fall. 

Natalia at the age of 7, when she began gymnastics

Rastorotsky's idea of winning was to develop his athletes with signature moves to be different from other gymnasts. It was a great time in gymnastics with a lot of innovations and creative coaches. I think there was more competition between coaches for being the most innovative. I was probably the most brave, hardworking and coachable kid. That was my talent. Information about how my signature moves were created can be found on my Web site (Yurchenko vault and Yurchenko loop). Rastorotsky was only my coach at Rostov-on-Don with support from assistants. The most helpful was my former teammate Irina Bendasova. Irina now lives in the Unites States and is married to Vladimir Artemev (father of Alexander "Sasha" Artemev).

Artistry

We were raised in our country in a time when almost every girl dreamed about being a ballerina. We were all under classical culture - music, dance, art and literature. There were only "appropriate" TV shows and movies, no advertisements. I remember that I was collecting reproductions of famous paintings. Those were my treasures. We read a lot of books about the most influential people in the world. We were striving to become the best in everything we did (although, maybe I'm just speaking for myself). So, artistry in gymnastics was as equally necessary as being a trickster. Unfortunately, I felt that I struggled with expression with music. I always loved, loved, loved my ballet class which was 1 hour every day - only classical bar, middle, adagio and jump combinations. It was a joy! But, I was never as natural looking as some gymnasts of my time like Natalia Shaposhnikova. I knew I was never going to be like her. Her floor routine "Nutcracker" was the reason I stuck with gymnastics! I was trying my hardest to develop dance basics while staying true to myself - shy but confident, quiet and inconversable but full of deep feelings inside. I had several choreographers during my career and I loved them all! They were all very interesting and emotional people who taught me how to put soul into the dance. My main choreographer, Alexandr Karasev from "Dinamo" Rostov gave me the most knowledge of classical ballet. The funny thing was that he had me work on the leap combinations from many of the male parts.

Natalia during the beam compulsory, 1983 Worlds

Favorite performances

My favorite performance was the 1982 World Cup. 1982 was an amazing year for me. I was finally able to hit all four events at several meets which is something I'd struggled with previously. I was in very good competitive shape for the World Cup, both physically and mentally. I felt confident and really enjoyed that meet which was my first appearance on a big, international stage. I was over excited and felt very confident. However, there were some problems with my participation at the World Cup due to the rules - only World Championship participants were allowed to compete. There were some protests about my participation from other country officials. I actually don't know how things were resolved. Our coaches and staff were so good and never told me about the problem. So, at the time, I never knew there was one.  Everything went so well on the podium it was beyond anything we could have imagined. Ending in first place and sharing the giant World Cup with my favorite person on the team and my very best friend Olga Bicherova. What could be better! 

My second favorite tournament was the 1985 World Universiade in Kobe Japan. I kind of knew that I would never get to compete at the Olympics so I felt the Universaide was my "mini Olympics". The atmosphere at the student's village was amazing. The gym podium, the audience and the ability to compete against Ecaterina Szabo, Lavinia Agache and other world class gymnasts made this tournament unforgettable. We made friends with so many different athletes from all over the world. Every evening there were the celebrations for the new medalists with the entire delegation. I enjoyed every moment!

Soviet system

The most special and unique aspect of the Soviet system was selection. To make any of the competitive sports teams you had to match a lot of criteria, both physically and mentally, work ethic and championship character. For gymnastics, body type, flexibility, toe point, feet, knee structure, level of natural strength as well as the height and body type of the gymnast's parents were all factors. Coordination was simply checked by making kids run fast - you see right away if it looks proper and natural. So, coaches selected nearly perfect kids and strove to make them be the best. 

Gymnastics has changed a lot since my time. For better or for worse? It has been a difficult adjustment to the new rules. But, I really like that tricks are now rewarded. I think that makes for more fair scoring - combining difficulty and execution is very logical and clear. I like that Russian gymnastics has stuck with what gymnastics has to be - Artistic! Although they were struggling for a while with the lack of high difficulty scores. But, I see these beautiful gymnasts and feel very proud of how they are carrying our Soviet/Russian traditions through the history of this amazing sport. Artistry, execution and passion are what make Russian gymnastics so unique. I do not know what they need to improve right now. They always capture your attention even if they fail or suffer. I love them for who they are. Maybe we should just enjoy watching them.

After retirement

After retirement in 1986, I started coaching in my home gym, assisting Vladislav Rastorotsky. We had several girls on the Junior National Team so I spent some more time on Round Lake. When I came to the United States, I started working for Lehigh Valley Sports Academy in Allentown PA. It was a very new club so I had to start from ground zero. I remember my first pre-team with 4, 5 and 6 year old gymnasts. They were so cute and worked so hard. I enjoyed every minute in the gym. I learned a lot with them and I'm glad I was able to do everything from developing children to coaching at a high competitive level. We competed through all levels of the USA Gymnastics program - State, Regional and National Junior Olympics. I am very proud of my first Elite gymnast Annette Miele who made the Junior National team in 2008 and is now competing for the University of Michigan on a full ride scholarship. I am very proud of all of my gymnasts who are now competing for various universities or working as coaches and who remember being on our team as the best time of their lives. 

After Lehigh, I worked for Parkettes for a while. It was much different from what I did myself. But, I learned a lot from Donna and Bill Strauss and I am grateful for that experience. Due to family matters, I took a break from coaching in the U.S. and had to go back to Russia for several years.  While in Russia, I considered working at Round Lake with the Junior National Team. But, I never did start working there. Why? Times changed, I changed. My mentality changed and my life priorities are different now. 

If I were coaching in Russia

What would I change if I were a National Team coach in Russia? It is hard to say. There is a lot of drama in a gymnast coach relationship and a lot of suffering. But, maybe that is the way to produce beautiful gymnasts. In Russia, we have an expression: "The artist has to be hungry and suffer to be able to create a piece of art that will touch your soul". So, this is the way to live our lives, very emotionally, sometimes over the top. We are who we are.

Natalia and her family, daughter Olya and husband Igor, in 2007

Current�

I feel that I have unfinished business in coaching and I�m exciting to be building a new team at my Chicago-based gym C.I.T.Y Club Gymnastics Academy ().
Along with my partners, I just opened
my first gym called C.I.T.Y. Club Gymnastics Academy - International Team
Yurchenko, located in the heart of Chicago, Illinois which
I am extremely excited about! At this gym, I am planning to build a
very serious and strong gymnastics program focussing on Optional, TOPs and Elite programs. This is not going to happen overnight. So, my team is
ready for a long, hard journey. Wish us success!

In addition, with another partner, I am building a company called Yurchenko Gymnastics which will soon be releasing a new collection of gymnastics gear. Our first appearance will be at Chicago Style 2016 which will be held from February 12-14, 2016 at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago."

Thank you!

Natalia Yurchenko

Natalia with the Team Yurchenko gymnasts and coaches, Chicago IL, C,I.T.Y Club Gymnastics Academy, September 2015

Natalia, I (and all RRG readers) would like to thank you and Kerry for all your work in replying to my (very long) questions - and for the use of the pictures from your website!  We wish you much success in the future and will continue to think of you and your wonderful gymnastics as you progress in your life. Hope to see you at a competition soon!

You can read an appreciation of Natalia's gymnastics here.

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Welcome to Olympic Year!

Aerial view of Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro.

It's 2016, a year of many hopes and promises for us all, Olympians or not.  We are all looking forward at this time of the year and I hope everyone achieves at least a little of what they plan.  Begin your work now, and enjoy the journey.  Most of all I wish everyone much happiness and peace.

In Russia, the gymnasts are back at Lake Krugloye and beginning their preparations for the summer, 'step by step' as Aliya Mustafina put it this morning on her Instagram.  Sergei Starkin has been keen to stress the importance of the men's team and in particular Denis Ablyazin to Russia's Olympic effort.  

Valentina Rodionenko has made some announcements of team membership for the summer Olympics, but these are too early to make any difference - everyone is training for the Games and the key decisions will be taken much later in the year.  The announcements were initially made via the Russian Olympic Committee's website at the same time as a lot of other Russian sports announced their Olympic intentions, so they seem to be part of a strategy to promote sport in the Olympic year. 

The context is that Russian sport has been hit hard by the discovery of systematic cheating amongst some of her track and field athletes, aided and abetted by what could be state intervention at the local WADA doping centre.  Her athletics team has been banned from the Rio Olympics.  In the absence of some of her highest profile competitors, Russia has to find other sports who can carry the national flag in Rio, and gymnastics has a responsibility to step up and support the country's reputation.  This is a pressured time for all sports in Russia and the wider world.  You can understand why the powers might want to make it clear that Russia will still have a strong presence in Rio.

On the 14th January the results of a second stage investigation into doping in sport will be published.  WADA chairman Dick Pound has said that there is worse to come, first for Russia as other sports will be implicated in the scandal.  Secondly, other countries have also been found out.  We will have to wait and see what 'comes out in the wash'. 

It's a responsibility when reporting on these matters because they touch so closely the human beings who are involved.  Some of them may be villains, but there are others who could be victims in a larger game.  Cheating in sport is a violation of the basic principles of a human phenomenon that is as old as the ages.  This phenomenon, sport, has an important role in fostering common endeavour, friendship and peace, locally and globally, at whatever level of participation.  We cannot ignore the 'dark side' of sport if we want to support the overwhelming good it does.   Often when I watch a gymnastics competition I am touched by the respect and support the competitors have for each other, and I think that gymnastics is one of the best sports to watch because of this.  But, obviously, life would not be life if everything were perfect.  Gymnastics has its dark side too and I have had to report on some pretty shocking allegations in the last few weeks. 

I have struggled with this.  While gymnastics has a fairly clean slate when it comes to doping, the nature of any infringements tend to be rather more serious than just cheating, as they often involve the exploitation of young people.  The 'pregnancy doping' allegations that have recently been churned up by an article in British broadsheet The Observer are particularly sensitive as they could involve a form of state-endorsed sexual abuse. 

These allegations seem to be false.  Russian journalist Vladimir Golubev, who has published widely on gymnastics, did an interview with 1968 Olympian Olga Karasyova which basically revealed as a 'hoax' the 1994 German TV documentary that made the allegations.  Paris Match journalist Michel Peyrard travelled to Moscow to meet with Karasyova and was horrified to find that after he had travelled so far, there was no story at all to cover. 

Still, the Observer declines to publish a clarification to its recent story.  I am interested to know the reasons why, but reluctant to press too hard.  Not least, this is not my injury or a matter that I can speak about first hand (any more than the Observer journalist can).  What if there were some element of truth in the allegations?  The last thing I would want is to make things worse for the gymnasts.  This is a matter that is private to them.  Writing anything about this subject is treading a fine line and I have therefore decided to follow the principle of 'do no harm'.  I have put English language translations of the key articles into the public domain but otherwise will leave well alone unless asked to do more by those who have been directly affected.

I began this blog over five years ago and my curiosity about Russia remains undimmed, although my focus on gymnastics has become a little blurred.  I still enjoy watching men's gymnastics, but I find women's disappointing; almost unwatchable.  This blog records my constant reflections and developing understanding of the phenomenon we have so far known as artistic gymnastics, but increasingly I am beginning to understand my interest as revolving around the state of Russia, the people of Russia and the feeling of Russian-ness that imbued the sport of gymnastics for so long.  In a sense, I am looking at Russia through the lens of gymnastics. 

Both gymnastics and Russia are a paradox.  The best gymnastics, seen at the top competitions, is visually appealing, emotionally affecting, and awe inspiring.  The training - at the elite level - necessarily involves a strong discipline that can appear brutal.  It is the same with every sport, but in gymnastics there can be a particularly stark contrast between the harshness of the training, and the artistry of the performances.  The very young age of some of the competitors also presents unique ethical challenges.  Russian culture bears the marks of a similar paradox - the beauty and light of great music, literature and dance created from a wider background of real brutality, terror and threats to survival. 

Soviet gymnastics bears a double paradox as it is set within this, latter, context.  I am beginning to view the phenomenon from within this wider frame of reference.   I have recently been touched by an amazing BBC TV documentary, Leningrad and the Orchestra that Defied Hitler, all about the siege of Leningrad and Shostakovich's seventh symphony.  It says more than I could ever imagine.  In September I also saw the film Red Army, and was fascinated to hear the story of another Soviet sport, ice hockey.  I didn't expect to like Slava Fetisov, the ace player of the Soviet five who made ice hockey look like ballet, who has become an important Russian politician - and also happens to be the son-in-law of Russian gymnastics head coaches Andrei and Valentina Rodionenko.  But he is engaging and entertaining, honest and funny.  His story tells us much about Russia and the Soviet Union, too. I have a lot more work to do on these two particular sources, and on a few other stories that keep cropping up.

A highlight of the coming year, besides the Olympics, will be the publication of Dvora Meyers' book The End of the Perfect Ten: the making and breaking of gymnastics top score from Nadia to now.  Dvora has been working on this book for more than a year, and has conducted many, many interviews in an attempt to understand the changing shape of the sport globally over past years.  It promises to contribute much to the picture of world gymnastics.  The book will be published on July the 5th and you can pre-order copies on Amazon now.  Make sure to do so, to ensure that the book receives the publicity and profile it deserves. The publisher will be looking to measure interest, print runs and publicity budgets by the number of orders the book receives.  I am really looking forward to reading it. 

My publication plans are to keep on going as usual with this blog, which I love.  Please forgive me if posts are a little more sporadic than usual - my full time work is busy and I am having to fit my love for Russian and Soviet gymnastics into my increasingly rare 'free' time.  I want to publish my own book or books on the subject and will have to make some life changes to find the time to do the work justice.  My writing partner Vladimir Zaglada knows how unreliable I have been over the past year to 18 months; I hope to put things right in the not too distant future, although it will involve upheaval.

One of my favourite gymnasts - ever - is Natalia Yurchenko.  It seems to me that she is very much a Russian gymnast, one whose performances are full of light and emotion, whose innovations were truly revolutionary, who married art and acrobatics in a way that has never been matched.  Today, she lives happily with her family in Chicago, where she owns her own gym and is training a group of elite gymnasts.  Beneath the serene charm and mystery of the dark-eyed Yurchenko there is a steely determination to succeed.  Keep watching this blog for an exclusive interview with Natalia in the next few days. 

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Artistic gymnastics to fly Russia's flag in Rio

In the absence of Russia's track and field athletes, gymnastics will bear much of the national sporting responsibility at the forthcoming Rio Games, says coach Sergei Starkin.  Denis Ablyazin is Russia's main medal prospect in gymnastics and will begin training for the Games today.  At the Russian Championships (early April) he will perform his programme for European Championships. The plan is for Denis to have his Olympic routines ready by then.

http://penza.rfn.ru/rnews.html?id=444649

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'The Olympic Champion Exposes the Doppelganger' - full translation of interview with Olga Karasyova (2001) - by Marina Vulis

As promised, here is a word for word translation of Olga Karasyova's interview with Vladimir Golubev.

March 7^th, 2001

The Olympic Champion Exposes the  Doppelganger

Olga Karasyova, one the most beautiful and charming gymnasts of our incomparable Olympic team which triumphantly won the 1968 Mexico Olympics, finally achieved fairness. The Moscow Ismail Court sided with her and ordered a famous newspaper to pay 35,000 Roubles for false information.

Olga Dimitrievna [Karasyova] invited me to her cozy two-room apartment above the �Aeroport� metro.  Going through the family gymnastics albums, remembering her younger years,  and quietly spoken,  the still  coquettish  and smiling  �girl of our dream� (1944 German movie name).

- What a  voluminous document folder!  Can you imagine how much time and effort had to be spent to get the case to court.   Correspondence, lawyer�s request, decisions, regulations, summons.

- I must say,  the story was dragging on.  One day, the German TV Broadcasting Corporations  RTL had an interview - with my doppelganger!  A certain young woman announced that she was the Olympic Gymnastics Champion Olga Kovalenko (I indeed, took my second husband�s name, then got divorced, and went back to Karasyova). She gave a sensational interview alleging that at the time she was performing with  the USSR National Team, the coaches forced the girls to become pregnant, and after 9 or 10 weeks to have an abortion. The medical professionals know that during this time, women have an elevated level of male hormones in the body,  so girls become physically strong, with new vital functions, and they experience elation.  A sort of doping.   To put it in the words of the imaginary Kovalenko,  �That�s how we won�.

- Deftly conceived.  By the way, one can believe this.  When you learn the truth of what the DDR [East German] coaches were doing, you get scared.  You can imagine the ballyhoo outside the USSR.

- Naturally, this interview was duplicated by many information agencies, newspapers, and magazines. Juan Jimenez de Parta, the accredited correspondent of �ABC�, the Spanish newspaper published in Moscow, somehow found my telephone number, and asked for a meeting.  You can imagine his disappointment when I easily proved it was a pure fake. While my �double� broadcast live about  the �abortions�, I was on a cruise, as one could see in my foreign passport (in the USSR, one had an internal and a foreign passport).

Then even the �Paris Match�  reporter (Michel Peyrard) who  in person saw  the �stunning�  interview in RTL,  flew in.  He was pleasantly surprised by my fluent French, and at the same time annoyed as he found  no similarity between me and the �German Olga�.

To summarize, I was besieged by the journalists who all tried to convince me to bring a criminal case against RTL. That was a difficult season for me � hospitalization, surgery, long treatment. In addition, my mother was also hospitalized. All this time, my lawyer was not sitting idly, and was preparing paperwork against  RTL.  However, the project turned out to be very expensive, and we sort of �buried it�.

Then all of a sudden, one Russian newspaper resurrected an article �smelling of mothballs� and published it - �In Bed with the Coach�. It started like this, �There was no other sports scandal caused such horror in the public eye as the story which was told by the former gymnast Olga Kovalenko on the RTL TV Channel", wrote a famous �Sports Illustrated� journalist.  But in fact in Russia, this story had no resonance.

Later  followed  the  most incredible stories. The correspondent of a Russian paper got in touch by phone with this Olga Kovalenko, who presently lives and works abroad.  She repeated, �My case is not extraordinary. I was one of numerous athletes who were prescribed obligatory sex. The girls who refused were dismissed from the team. Those who did not have regular boyfriends, were forced to �cohabit� with the coaches�.

You can imagine how I felt. I was in shock! Cheap, so cheap! Obviously, the �Fake Olga� disappeared without a trace;  she evaporated, after probably getting a large fee for her first RTL interview. But here -  �she was  reached by phone�. And I filed a suit against the newspaper.

You see, I do not like to complain about life.  Whatever happened,  happened. I suffered  a lot. As a young girl, I became friends with Valery Karasyov during the 1966 Worlds where our idols  Larisa Latynina, Polina Astakhova, Boris Shakhlin, Yuri Titov performed for the last time. Valera courted me with such attentiveness and persistence,  that I really thought, �maybe it is a fate?�. We got married and together went to both the  1968  Olympic Games in Mexico and the 1970 Worlds.

We lived together for ten years. I wanted a child so much! But my husband kept saying we needed more money, needed to settle down. He was eager to work abroad, but the contracts somehow did not work out. In the meantime, I liked working for the International Department of the USSR State Sports Committee. I wanted this - did not in vain get a Degree from the Foreign Languages Department of a Pedagogical Institute.  As before, I was connected to gymnastics - was   FIG President Titov�s  interpreter,  travelled abroad, and was preparing to run for the FIG Technical Committee. Perhaps, my happy eyes caused my husband�s jealous spells. Ugly scenes would happen more and more often.  I already realized that the more he yelled  and  spied on me,  the more he wanted to �veil� his own sins. Was I blind, and did I not guess about his going �astray�?

- Olga, I was the friend of your family, and this all happened in front of my eyes, I could not convince Valery that he was overdoing it, and losing it without a reason.

- In that last year of my marriage, when the relationship became some kind of antipathy, I fell  for Yuri Kovalenko, who was working in the International Department as an interpreter and travelled with delegations to the tournaments. A typical situation � a constantly insulting husband,  a new friend who looks like Yacheslav Malezhik  [a Soviet and Russian singer, poet and composer]  and  who presents flowers,  sings songs accompanied by a guitar in English, and pays compliments. Where would a woman� s heart lie?

- Everything  is relative in this world. Yura was overburdened  by  his role as an interpreter and  wanted more. Yes, we had a new apartment  in a prestigious building,  a car, modern furniture � in those times. Finally, he found a good position  in one American firm. He had trouble getting  it, and used all my connections to get him accepted. But when I got seriously sick, when he had to support me and give up something, he �broke up�, could not take it. He actually betrayed me; the rays of my previous glory faded, and he cooled towards me. He found a new flame, a daughter of the firm�s  president, a very rich man,  and as the result  left for the USA

My current husband, Michael Lifirenko, fell for me when I was not doing well.

- Sorry, let us go back to the scandal. Your Olympic Team included Lyuda Turishcheva,  Lyuba  Burda,  Larisa Petrik, Natasha Kuchinskaya, Zina Voronina, Olya Karasyova  � simply all beauties. Did the they really force  you to have sex?

- This is, I repeat, is a monstrous canard [hoax]. I was seeking only one thing � for the newspaper to refute the story.

And I am very satisfied that the court stood up to defend my honour and dignity. I would love to find the German impostor and tell her something in person. However, though I am angry,  I might just heartily  laugh !

On July 2000, Olga turned 51.  No one believes it � she is still a real beauty.

Vladimir Golubev

EDITOR'S NOTE : The Sports Illustrated article mentioned here was published in Sports Illustrated in 1994, Vol 81 Issue 23, and was written by Alexander Wolff and Richard O'Brien.  The full text in English is as follows :

Since the fall of communism, horror story after horror story has come to light about the excesses, pharmacological and otherwise, of the various Eastern-bloc sports machines. But no tale has been quite as chilling as the account aired on Nov. 21 by RTL, a TV station based in Luxembourg and Germany. According to Olga Kovalenko, who as Olga Karasyova won a team gymnastics gold medal for the U.S.S.R. at the 1968 Olympics, Soviet sports officials ordered her at the age of 18 to become pregnant by her boyfriend and then decreed that the fetus be aborted at 10 weeks. Kovalenko, who indicated that she was one of many female athletes directed to have sex, said doctors told her that pregnancy would cause her body to produce more male hormones, which in turn would give her greater strength and stamina. She said that girls who balked at the order were threatened with dismissal from the team, and some of those without boyfriends had sex with their coaches until they became pregnant.

Vadim Moyesseyev, who was identified as an official with the Soviet Olympic team in the late 1960s, confirmed Kovalenko's story. And one unnamed former coach told RTL, ``There was a lot of coercion and manipulation to make the girls get pregnant. In any other country it would have been called rape.''

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