Total Medals:
Olympics:
Worlds:
Euros:
World Cup:
Olomouc:
Appearances:
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Natalia Yurchenko is in the paradox of being a complete unknown outside the gymnastics community, but amongst gymnastics fans her name is as recognizable as household names like Nadia Comaneci, Olga Korbut, and Katelyn Ohashi. This is due to her innovation on vault which would revolutionize the apparatus and in the same fashion as what the Fosbury Flop did for track and field. Yurchenko-style vaults are now the near-universal standard and her name is amongst the most ubiquitous in the sport.
Despite her repertoire as a classic 1980s gymnast, Yurchenko first emerged as a key member of the Soviet program during the 1977-1980 Olympic quad. Yurchenko missed the 1980 Olympics but by 1982 had remerged as one of the top gymnasts in the world. She won the AA title at the 1983 World Championships. Yurchenko would miss the Olympics as a result of the 1984 boycott, but because her contributions to the sport were so legendary, the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame broke all precedent by making her the only non-Olympian in women’s gymnastics to be inducted.
World Championships & Olympic Competition:
Results:
1978:
Junior Friendship Tournament (Druzhba): 5th-AA, 2nd-VT, 1st-UB, 1st-Team Riga International: 25th-AA, 8th-VT, 1st-FX
1979:
Russian SSR Championships: 1st-AA, 1st-VT, 1st-FX
Moscow News: 12th-AA (T): Competed as Exhibition USSR Cup: 4th-AA
European Championships: Alternate USSR Championships: 11th-AA, 8th-UB, 5th-BB, 1st-Team USSR Spartakiade/Pre-Olympics: 3rd-BB This was a single competition with both the Pre-Olympics and USSR Spartakiade titles at stake. World Championships: Alternate
1980:
Did not compete.
1981: Dinamo Spartakiade: 4th-AA USSR Cup: 4th-AA, 2nd-BB Giresum Tournament: 3rd-AA Schoolchildren’s Spartakiade: 6th-AA, 5th-BB, 1st-FX, 4th-Team
1982: Moscow News: 1st-AA, 1st-VT, 1st-UB, 1st-BB USSR Cup: 1st-AA, 1st-UB USGF International Invitational: 4th-AA, 5th-UB, 5th-BB, 5th-FX, 4th-Team USSR Championships: 1st-AA, 1st-VT, 1st-UB, 5th-BB, 1st-FX World Cup: 1st-AA (T), 1st-VT (T), 2nd-UB (T), 1st-BB, 4th-FX (T) Budapest International: 1st-VT, 1st-UB (T), 4th-FX
1983: American Cup: 8th-AA International Mixed Pairs 3 on 3: 1st-Team Moscow News: 1st-AA, 2nd-VT, 4th-UB, 1st-BB European Championships: 9th-AA, 4th-BB, 4th-FX (T) University Games: 1st-AA, 1st-VT, 1st-UB, 1st-BB, 5th-FX, 1st-Team USSR Championships: 1st-AA, 1st-VT, 1st-UB, 1st-BB, 2nd-FX, 1st-Team USSR Spartakiade: 1st-AA, 1st-VT, 1st-UB, 1st-BB, 1st-FX, 1st-Team World Championships: 1st-AA, 8th-VT, 1st-Team
1984: USSR Cup: 4th-AA, DNQ-VT, DNQ-UB, DNQ-BB, DNQ-FX Alternate Olympics (Olomouc): 5th (T), 1st-VT (T), 2nd-UB, 1st-Team
1985: Russian SSR Championships: 1st-AA Australia Games: 2nd-AA USSR Championships: 3rd-AA European Championships: 10th-AA, DNQ-VT, DNQ-UB, DNQ-BB, DNQ-FX University Games: 1st-AA, 2nd-VT, 1st-UB, 7th-BB, 1st-FX, 1st-Team World Championships: 6th-AA, 6th-VT (T), 6th-BB, 1st-Team
1986: World Cup: 10th-AA, DNQ-VT, DNQ-UB, DNQ-BB, DNQ-FX World Sports Fair: 3rd-AA Chunichi Cup: 6th-AA (T) Tokyo Cup: 2nd-UB (T), 1st-BB
Gallery:
Results are taken from Score for Score, The Gymternet, GymnasticGreats, My Meet Scores, Gymn-Forum, the official websites of various national gymnastics federations, newspaper clippings, classic gymnastics magazines, and in some cases, were provided by the gymnasts themselves. An explanation for the meaning of these 
symbols can be found here.
An Old School Gymnastics Blog 
Thank you so much for posting this bio and all the others, clearly a labour of love. I first spotted Yurchenko as a relatively unknown gymnast (1979) in London for what used to be the annual USSR Display Team visit; alongside the more famous Nelli Kim, Elena Mukhina and Natalia Shaposhnikova. She stood out for an amazing beam routine where she swung under the beam ( few worked side on in those days) and I expected big things of her. Expectations that she would claim her overall crown were cruelly denied by the usual cold war ‘tit for tat’ politics when the USSR and its minions boycotted the 84 Olympics. As a result this most elegant and graceful exponent of her craft lost her chance and the crown went to the show-boating, fist-pumping Mary-Lou Retton. Retton was an accomplished power house of tumbling but far from the balletic elegance of the classic all-round Champion, a sign of things to come. Today Yurchenko’s legacy remains in the many moves that bear her name but she is less honoured than she should be.
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