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Natalia Shaposhnikova

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Natalia Shaposhnikova
Full nameNatalia Vitalyevna Shaposhnikova
Country represented Soviet Union
Born (1961-06-24) 24 June 1961 (age 63)
Rostov-on-Don
ResidenceNew Jersey, United States
DisciplineWomen's artistic gymnastics
Eponymous skillsuneven bars: clear hip circle through handstand with flight to hang onto high bar
Medal record
Representing  Soviet Union
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1980 Moscow Team
Gold medal – first place 1980 Moscow Vault
Bronze medal – third place 1980 Moscow Balance Beam
Bronze medal – third place 1980 Moscow Floor Exercise
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1978 Strasbourg Team
Silver medal – second place 1979 Ft. Worth Team
Bronze medal – third place 1978 Strasbourg All-Around
World Cup Final
Gold medal – first place 1977 Oviedo Vault
Gold medal – first place 1978 Sao Paulo Vault
Silver medal – second place 1978 Sao Paulo Balance Beam
Silver medal – second place 1978 Sao Paulo Floor Exercise
Bronze medal – third place 1977 Oviedo All-Around
Bronze medal – third place 1978 Sao Paulo All-Around
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 1979 Copenhagen Balance Beam
Silver medal – second place 1979 Copenhagen Floor Exercise
Bronze medal – third place 1979 Copenhagen All-Around
Bronze medal – third place 1979 Copenhagen Vault

Natalia Vitalyevna Shaposhnikova (Russian: Наталья Витальевна Шапошникова; born 24 June 1961, in Rostov-on-Don), married name Natalia Sout, is a former Soviet artistic gymnast, two-time Olympic champion, and Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR. She was known for her risky, original skills and expressive choreography, especially on balance beam and floor exercise.

Competitive career

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Shaposhnikova trained at Dynamo in Rostov-on-Don under Honoured Trainer of the USSR Vladislav Rastorotsky, who also trained her compatriots Ludmilla Tourischeva and Natalia Yurchenko. She was one of the world's strongest gymnasts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, especially on vault. She was known for her difficulty and originality, especially her one-armed handstands on beam. At the 1979 European Championships, she performed one of the first triple twists on floor, and her opening tumbling pass on floor at the 1980 Olympic Games was a roundoff 1.5-twisting layout immediately into a roundoff back handspring double pike.

At the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, she contributed to the Soviet team's gold medal and won an individual gold medal on vault. She also took home bronze medals on floor and beam, and missed a medal in the all-around by just 0.05.

Shaposhnikova came close to winning gold on beam at the 1978 World Championships, entering the final with a slight lead over Nadia Comăneci of Romania. However, Peter Shilston wrote in an April 1980 profile in British Gymnast magazine: "There was a fiercely partisan section of the audience determined that Comăneci should win to make up for her previous disappointing performances. When Natasha (Natalia?) came up, needing a score of 9.8 to take the gold, she faced a very hostile reception which clearly got on her nerves. She made a series of mistakes, all jeeringly received, and slumped from first place to eighth." Shilston called the loss "probably the saddest experience of Natasha's (Natalia's?) life".

Eponymous skill

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Shaposhnikova invented a complex transition skill on the uneven bars—a clear hip circle on the low bar with flight backward to the high bar—and it is named after her in the Code of Points. The skill, sometimes referred to colloquially as the "Shaposh", is still widely performed today; it is credited as a D element in the 2013–16 Code of Points. Since the 1990s, other gymnasts have developed variations of the Shaposhnikova, including:

Coaching career

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Shaposhnikova and her husband, Pavel Sout, a gold medalist in men's gymnastics at the 1981 World Championships, currently coach at Gymnastika in Woodland Park, New Jersey.

Achievements (non-Olympic)

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Year Event AA Team VT UB BB FX
1976 USSR Championships 3rd 2nd
1977 World Cup 3rd 1st
USSR Cup 1st
USSR Championships 3rd 1st 2nd 2nd
1978 World Championships 3rd 1st
World Cup 3rd 1st 2nd 2nd
1979 World Championships 2nd
European Championships 3rd 3rd 1st 2nd
USSR Cup 1st
USSR Championships 1st 3rd 1st 2nd
1980 USSR Cup 2nd

References

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  1. ^ "The Four-Year Fan Guide: Bars". The Gymternet. 2016-08-01. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
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This article contains information from the website http://www.gymnast.ru/, incorporated into the Wikipedia with permission from its author E. V. Avsenev.