Natalya Donchenko
{{Short description|Soviet speed skater (1932–2022)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Natalya Donchenko
| image = Natalya_Sergeyevna_Donchenko_died_2022.jpeg
| image_size =
| caption = Natalya Sergeyevna Donchenko
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 25 August 1932
| birth_place = Moscow, Russian SSR, Soviet Union
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|07|11|1932|08|25|df=y}}
| death_place = Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
| death_cause =
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| education =
| employer =
| occupation = French teacher and skater
| spouse =
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| nationality = Soviet Union
}}
{{Family name hatnote|Sergeyevna|Donchenko|lang=Eastern Slavic}}{{MedalTableTop}}
{{MedalCountry|{{URS}}}}
{{MedalSport|Women's speed skating}}
{{MedalCompetition|Olympic Games}}
{{MedalSilver| 1960 Squaw Valley |500 m}}
{{MedalBottom}}
Natalya Sergeyevna Donchenko ({{langx|ru|Наталья Серге́евна Донченко}}; 25 August 1932 – 11 July 2022) was the first female Soviet speed skater to win an Olympic medal. She had taught herself to skate on an abandoned rink during World War two. She was spotted and asked to join a skating team. She said her most proud moment was to win in 1945 but her Olympic Siver medal in California was her greatest achievement.
Life
Donchenko was brought up in Gorky after her father was arrested when she was a child and they never saw him again. During the war she was living by an ice rink and the fencing was taken down to be used elsewhere and she and others played on the ice while the athletes raced past them. The athletes noticed her skills and asked her to join them. In 1945 she competed and won for the first time. She remembered this as her biggest triumph.
In 1952 she won the USSR 500m speed skating race at the Medeu ice rink near Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan while she was a student at the Gorky Institute of Foreign Languages.{{Cite book |last=Posolʹstvo (U.S.) |first=Soviet Union |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7OE7AQAAIAAJ |title=Information Bulletin |date=1952 |publisher=The Embassy |language=en}} She became a French teacher. In 1957 she married her trainer and had a son. She retrained and by January 1958 she was back in the team.{{Cite journal |last=Tselishcheva |first=Natalya |date=1 December 2009 |title=Non-slip path of Natalia Donchenko (in Russian) |url=http://bmsi.ru/doc/3afa467b-5dea-4b0e-8e5c-2d7aa4d47ce0 |journal=Excellent Sport|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130614064857/http://bmsi.ru/doc/3afa467b-5dea-4b0e-8e5c-2d7aa4d47ce0 |archive-date=2013-06-14 }}
When she competed at the Olympics in "Squaw Valley" in California her husband had to stay at home. He was surprised that she lost the gold medal by only a tenth of a second but he knew her achievement was outstanding. She did compete in the 1960 World Championship and she was placed fourth. Donchenko was an avid Russian athlete who participated in countless championships nationwide. She only retired from sport in her late 70s. {{Cite web |title=Donchenko, Natalya (1932–) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/donchenko-natalya-1932 |access-date=2023-01-05 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}
References
{{reflist}}
Personal records
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right" | ||
| Event | Result | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 500 m | 46.0 | 1960 |
| 1,000 m | 1.35.6 | 1962 |
| 1,500 m | 2.27.9 | 1962 |
| 3,000 m | 5.22.6 | 1962 |
Olympic results
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right" | |||
| Event | Result | Date | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 m | 46.0 | 20 February 1960 | Squaw Valley |
External links
- [http://www.skateresults.com/skaters/natalya_donchenko skateresults]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20200418033216/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/do/nataliya-donchenko-1.html sports-reference]
- [https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/speed-skater-helga-haase-celebrates-winning-the-500-m-ahead-news-photo/1074504666 Getty Images]
- [https://olympics.com/en/news/haase-blazes-the-trail-for-women-s-speed-skating International Olympic Committee]
- [http://3g.speedskatingstats.com/index.php?file=skater&code=1932082501 Speed Skating Statistics]
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=7OE7AQAAIAAJ&dq=Natalya%20Donchenko%20greatest%20women&pg=PA127 USSR Information Bulletin. Soviet skaters set new world records. B. Sokolov February, 25 1952]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donchenko, Nataliya}}
Category:Soviet female speed skaters
Category:Olympic speed skaters for the Soviet Union
Category:Speed skaters at the 1960 Winter Olympics
Category:Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union
Category:Olympic medalists in speed skating
Category:Russian female speed skaters
Category:Medalists at the 1960 Winter Olympics
Category:Speed skaters from Moscow
Category:20th-century Russian sportswomen
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