Natalya Yurchenko - 1985 Montreal - FX (1) 9.925

[@intldawn]

Love her. I love that her gymnastics is never rushed, never frenetic in any way. She is sneakily powerful but she moves with such fluidity and control. Beautiful girl and beautiful gymnastics.

[@gaelgarciabernal2434]

When 9.925 was awarded to this beautiful and PERFECT rendition of gymnastics with flamenco, it was clear the FIG and the Soviet team were ushering Natalia to her retirement. Then, Shushunova and Omelianchik follow her in the rotation, even though she was the defending champion!? I think that must have DEVASTATED her! You can see that she talks to herself a lot before and after routines. When she made mistakes, she looked rattled but still so serene and regal! Natalia is one of my FAVORITE GYMNASTS of all time!!!

[@azbycx56]

The title was hers for the taking. Shushunova and Omeliantchikboth underperformed early on and if she hadn’t fallen off bars in the AA she could have been double world champion.

[@konfyushus]

It was a real honor to be able to work under her. She was a great gymnast, and is still a great coach. Parkettes is lucky to have her. :D

[@ferency98]

I never realized just how beautiful Natalia Yurchenko was. A shame she never could go to the Olympics.

[@gymnast2890]

Like Mary Lou was a contender against this 5 deep Russian team!

[@rcarnegie78]

She owns the C.I.T.Y. Gymnastics club a block from my house. She's even more gorgeous now.

[@Maxglick6673]

@@rcarnegie78 I went to C.I.T.Y club for 2 years as part of the founding boys team! It’s a small world, but our coach was fired and my best friend and I were forced to move to another gym.

[@Maxglick6673]

@@rcarnegie78 She’s a great person and nice coach too. It’s amazing to know that the namesake of such a popular vault was referred to by me as simply coach Natalia.

[@valyusha98]

Insanely talented and beautiful… what a queen ❤

[@godinhogodinho5258]

Beautiful floor routine, with elegance and grace. Today it's the opposite. It's more like a circus acrobat show.

[@casualgymnast]

As if I haven't been familiar with her! She's so artistic and good to watch! She just got herself a new fan

[@211jump]

just beautiful round off - back handspring technique. It's really nice.

[@misterjonathan5643]

So elegant ❤❤❤❤

[@kenmoreSF]

what a beautiful gymnast!

[@aagold76]

I had that EXACT addidas bag back in my gymnastics days (next to her when she sits down)

[@irinapopandopulo2703]

Какая она ладненькая! Все так чисто без шатаний!

[@nikos7170]

My number one.❤

[@stephanfourie6879]

What a fantastic beautiful gymnast. I always liked her very much. Such grace and style, i truly enjoyed these years of women's gymnastics. Today i cant stand watching a specific tumbler.

[@tigerlilly9038]

Hater. I said it. However I will play fair .What "specific tumbler" hmmmmmm? Or do you perhaps mean the most decorated Olympic gymnast in THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD? hmmm??hmm?

[@stephanfourie6879]

@@tigerlilly9038 hahahahaha take your tablets darling

[@emilygregory7004]

@@stephanfourie6879 Someone else needs to take some tablets. You can't stand watching greatness? Sorry for you😔

[@emilygregory7004]

@@tigerlilly9038 You said it right! 😆😆

[@stephanfourie6879]

@@emilygregory7004 i have no need for tablets while watching this floor exercise by yurchenko. You say she was not great?

[@nataliacruz2809]

Qué maravilla!

[@MNGYM26]

I love this cut of Hernando's Hideaway

[@MdrnDncr87]

@brooke2045 yup, she is the one who the yurchenko entry on vault is named after

[@holidayhomes8505]

If a real Olympics would have happened in 1984, ML Retton would not have been standing anywhere near the All Around medalists podium.

[@MrMartinportnoy]

I always wonder how she would have fared... with luck she might have finished 4th or 5th AA, with a bronze on vault

[@kenmoreSF]

Mostepanova would probably won the gold is my guess. Even with the home court advantage, Retton would either bronze or 4th. She had a decent floor and vault but the beam is pathetic. if you watched old videos of Shushunova back in 82, Mary Lou wishes she had the same level of difficulty of a young Shushunova.

[@gk891]

@@MrMartinportnoy While I agree that MLR would've probably finished 4th or 5th AA, I would've had her winning gold on the vault. She demonstrated some insane amplitude and power on the vault, way more so than Yurchenko, Mostepanova, Szabo, Agache, or Gnauck. My favourite vaulters from that era were Retton and Stoyanova. At least Stoyanova from 1983. It's to my understanding that Boryana didn't look as good in 1984 as she did a year earlier.

[@giuliopisani6522]

Una ginnaste più belle di sempre!!!

[@АлександрПавлов-к7щ2л]

Оценка явно занижена.Браво Наташа!

[@MNGYM26]

@johnnyblack1974 Hey, I agree with you. This line-up was ridonckulous! LOL, what do you think of the 1989 line-up? Baitova, Boginskaya, Strazheva, Laschenova (my favorite ever), Dudnik, Sazonenkova...or even the 1991 line-up? Boginskaya, Kalinina, Lysenko, Gutsu, Chusovitina, Galieva and Grudneva as the alternate. The Soviet women's team was a juggernaut for 40+ years.

[@gymnast2890]

Or go back to 84-ish. Which is why Mary Lou's title is so silly & it took 20 YEARS for a American to win. Carly Patterson deserves more credit... AND that title 1st ever American to win Gold AA. Rhetton's fame totally went to her head... and she could never have beat the Russians in 84! That line up was sick!!!! Oksana O. ......tied Shushanova for the Gold at World's. And Baraksonava is the most beautiful gymnast I've ever seen.

[@gymnast2890]

Irina Baraksonova reminds me of her. Such beautiful extension & dance the Russians have.

[@ccutehoney]

@xxScreamoCrazexx The USSR Boycotted the Olympics that year she didnt get to go and Mostepanova didnt get to go either. They probably would have gone 1st 2nd

[@MrMartinportnoy]

@Metal80sfreak No, she would have gone, had the Soviets not boycotted the '84 Games. This was probably the most frustrating situation of her competitive career

[@tedsler]

Is there an upload of the team competition from the competition? i think i have only ever seen the AA... i love Natalia. this was the first competition i watched and it made me want to be a gymnast too

[@jediprice70]

Is this girl that they named the vault move after?

[@SaraB1423]

konfyushus@ agreed. She coached me at LVSA.

[@gymnast2890]

Awesome! What was her coaching style? My Coach was a 3x Olympic coach, American. He was retiring when I got there, he was Kathy Johnson's coach. I don't like Bela. My teammate trained with him & was quite famous prior to the 88 Olympics. She hit puberty & made 1st alternate :( .....my other teammate made the team but busted her knee between trials & the Olympics! Many Romanian's & American's have said how abusive the Karolyi's were, especially hitting, name calling, starvation back in Romania. Like 14 former Romanian gymnasts said this, with the men's team sneaking them apples prior to competitions! He name called in the US, but he's a fame whore who dumped anyone he didn't think would get him on TV. He carried Kerri Strug out on the medal floor when he wasn't allowed there.....and that picture was International News. If you watch....." You can do it"....with no regard to her injury at all or if she might be crippled for life. The Romanian government locked up Nadia after 76 like in the movie White Nights with Barishnikov.....they both defected.

[@lucialap]

What is the music's name?

[@Adrenalina377]

Sá mina é a maior cravadora de saltos que já vi.

[@felipemajo5770]

Is incredible the change in her body if you compare with 1983. She looks so thin! Is that normal??

[@211jump]

Felipe Majo this was when the food shortages were at it highest

[@gymnast2890]

@@211jump They could have fed the gymnasts, they just didn't. They were celebrities in the former Soviet Union!

[@gymnast2890]

Puberty finally hit....the only way around that is starvation...notice how wide her hips are for a gymnast? It makes her look more thin compared to Irina & Oksana, for example. Although both are extremely tiny & obviously pre-pubescent. Gymnasts have a short life span at that level, puberty took out the majority of Americans. (I know it ended my gymnastics career, bad genes. My Mom had double D's. I was still improving, but it's just a game changer, balance, strength to weight ratio,etc messed up competing against Oksana bodies? No.) The Communist countries in the 80's avoided puberty by starvation. Check out Nadia in the 80 Olympics. She's emancipated. She was 14 in 76.....the Romanian's were desperately trying to keep her relevant at 18!!!! The food shortage didn't affect them as they were celebrities in Communist countries.

[@Metal80sfreak]

wait.... she never went to the olympics?!

[@intldawn]

Metal80sfreak Nope. The Soviets were among the team that boycotted the 84 Olympics. Natalia was the world champion the year before so she certainly would have been the favorite to win the all-around. Mostepanova was second and won the alternate Olympics competition with a perfect 40.0 score, I believe. So they would have been a force to deal with against Retton and Szabo

[@zdenamarkova4967]

byla můj kůn

[@kameroncoleman9293]

Xbox! Oh Xerox...