In many sports traditionally considered Russian, domestic athletes lost competition to rivals from China and the USA. Gymnastics, swimming, diving - here Russians suffer insulting defeats from those who previously studied with them. It is only in synchronized swimming that one young generation immediately replaces one champion generation.
The next link in this continuous chain of victories was this girl from Kaliningrad. For many years, world synchronized swimming has not known other champions. The duet Ishchenko - Romashina is not one Olympic cycle that pleases its fans with fantastic performances.
Childhood: a difficult choice
In 1986, in Smolensk, the future legend of world sports was born - Natalia Ishchenko. The girl’s family soon moves closer to the sea - in Kaliningrad. There Natalya takes her first steps in sports. The girl’s mother seriously took up the physical development of her daughter.
Having brought a five-year-old baby into the city sports complex "Youth" by the hand, she gives Natasha immediately for rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming.
So torn between related, but still different kinds of sports, little Natalya Ishchenko. Synchronized swimming eventually won.
From Kaliningrad to Moscow
After some time, the athlete is transferred to a special sports school. For almost ten years, her second family is a team of coaches - Mizina, Ustyugova and Stepanovich. Natalya then gratefully begins to recall the mentors who taught her the basics of her favorite business. Mizina and Stepanovich perfected the technical skill of the girl, Ustyugova set her unique, characteristic of only her one choreography.
For the further development of the future champion, a new push was required. The Kaliningrad pools became too small for Natasha, and at fourteen she moved to Moscow. The Olympic Aquatics Center is becoming her home.
Big sport: on the way to the first Olympics
Going on a free swim, Natalia immediately shows who deserves to become the main mermaid of world sports for the next decade. The first big tournament for her is the open Russian Championship. Having won a gold medal in the group, she excelled in the free program, also taking the main award.
In 2006, Natalya Ishchenko celebrated her full age. The synchronized swimming, which she showed along with her teammates, impressed both the fans and the judges. Literally in one day, she becomes a three-time European champion.
Group program, combination and solo - three out of four possible gold was taken by a twenty-year-old athlete. At the World Cup in Yokohamm, history repeats itself - again, three golds in the same disciplines.
Due to the huge number of awards, the biography of the athlete becomes a simple listing of all the major tournaments held in the years between the Olympics. At all major competitions, Ishchenko Natalya Sergeevna collects one gold after another. At the World Championships in Melbourne, she becomes the four-time world champion. To diversify her collection of medals, she adds one silver to four gold awards.
From Beijing 2008 to London 2012. Romashin Duo - Ischenko
The regulations of the Olympic synchronized swimming tournament do not allow more than one duet to be announced from one country. In addition, only two sets of awards are played here - in the group and in duets. At the time of the Beijing Olympics, the leading pair from Russia was the duet Davydova and Ermakova. Natalia Ishchenko remained performances in the group program. Of course, Russian athletes could not win anything other than gold. So, for the first time in my life, she becomes the Olympic champion Natalya Ishchenko.
Synchronized swimming soon undergoes a peaceful change of the ruling dynasty. Leave the great sport of Davydov and Ermakov. For the next years, the main pair of synchronized swimming is the duet Ishchenko and Romashina.
At the World Cup in Rome, already in the status of the main pair of the country, Ishchenko and Romashina take gold awards. In addition, Natalia takes the main awards in group and solo performances.
How many years Natalia Ishchenko is leading in the world synchronized swimming, it is impossible to predict at that time. Until the next Olympics in London, together with her friends, she collects medals in all competitions.
At the 2010 European Championships, she sets a new achievement, becoming the first ever absolute champion of the continent.
A difficult victory in London. Privacy break and return to Rio
Ischenko Natalya Sergeevna went to the 2012 Olympic Games as a multiple world champion. No one doubted that both sets of awards in synchronized swimming will be taken by Russian mermaids. However, everything was easy and beautiful only on TV screens.
The advantage over the rivals was great, but Natalia performed with a high temperature. Almost losing consciousness, she finished her performances. She was already returning to Moscow with serious complications. This is how Natalia Ishchenko relates to her work.
Synchronized swimming cannot replace relationships, family in the life of a young girl. After the Olympics, Natalia takes a time out on her personal life. All medals, titles, awards go by the wayside, when in 2013 Ishchenko gives birth to a son.
Having clearly laid out the time of her maternity leave between the two Olympics, Natalia begins to regain shape and prepares to return to big sport for the sake of performing in Rio.
An important role in the return of Natalia was played by her coach Tatyana Danchenko. No one will be able to withstand eight-hour training in the pool without the human attitude of a mentor.
According to the girls, Danchenko became their second mother.
We went to Rio Ishchenko and Romashina to set a record achievement for synchronized swimming - to become five-time Olympic champions, which they did. Fans and specialists compared their performances with the theater, with ballet in the water.
Natalya Ishchenko. A family
Not all athletes manage to find a balance between personal life and competition. Natalia Ishchenko did not have to make a difficult choice between work and family - everything in her life schedule was clearly laid out on the shelves.
She married an athlete, Olympic medalist Sergei Anikin. In 2013, they had a son.
After leaving sports, he went about his business. Together with his wife, they are the owners of the school for future champions - “START!”. According to Natalia, the family not only does not interfere with her sporting successes, but, on the contrary, gives an incentive for maximum results.
Natalya Ishchenko is only thirty years old, but she has five Olympic gold medals and a dozen and a half world champion titles. However, fans watch her performances not only for sports interest, but also in order to get aesthetic pleasure from the vivid images that she creates.