Russian volleyball player Natalya Safronova: biography and sports career

Natalia Safronova is a Russian volleyball player,the owner of the silver medal of the Olympic Games, the champion and multiple prizezha world championships and Europe. Unfortunately, due to a serious illness she was forced to leave the sport.

Biography

Natalia Safronova was born in 1979 in theKrasnoyarsk. In volleyball the future sportswoman has got casually. When the 8-year-old tall girl was walking with her mother in the park, the children's coach Zinaida Rusakova drew attention to her. So Natalia together with her sister Alexandra got into the volleyball section.

At the children's tournament, which took place in Yekaterinburg, the trainers representing the local club Uralochka drew attention to Safronov.

Training in the new team was opened beforeathlete new perspectives. At the age of 15, Natalia Safronova is a volleyball player of the double "Uralochka", with the basic composition of which is the direct path to the national team.

Professional sports career

Since 1995, the girl began to speak forjunior, and then the youth Russian team. In 1997, the dream came true 18-year-old Safronova - a young doigrovschitsa was in the main team of the country.

The 1998/99 season turned out for Natalia especiallysaturated. She played at once in two teams - for farm-club "Uralochki" "Uraltransbank" in the Russian championship and for "Jay" in the Japanese second division. In addition to these tournaments, Natalia Safronova, together with the national team won in 1997 at the European Championships and won bronze ЧМ-98.

In 1999 the Russian volleyball player againbecomes the winner of the continental championship. These achievements allow Natalia to gain a foothold in the main team of "Uralochka". In 2001, Safronova first participated in the "Final Four" of the European Champions League and took third place there.

The season 2001/02 the sportswoman spends in structurecommand "Aeroflot-Malachite". Here she becomes one of the best in performance of volleyball players of the Russian championship, and after the tournament returns to her native "Uralochka" again.

In 2004 Natalia Safronova went to theOlympics in Athens. Unfortunately, she was not able to play there for a single minute. Because of the desire to leave the "Uralochka", her coaches, who run the Russian team in parallel, took revenge on Natalya, not releasing her for one game. As a result, Safronova still became a silver medalist.

The next four seasons, Natalia spentnear Moscow "Zarechye-Odintsovo". Here she became one of the leaders of the team. with "Zarechye" Natalia Safronova managed to win the championship of Russia, to win two cups of the country, and also to reach the final part of the Champions League.

After coming to the national team of the newcoach athlete was not only returned to its composition, but also by a majority vote was chosen by the captain. It was Safronova who led the team to the games of the triumphant World Cup in Russia in 2006.

In 2008, Natalia unilaterally broke the contract with "Zarechye" and moved to the Moscow "Dynamo". In her composition, she became the champion of Russia for the fourth time.

Because of this transition there was a scandal betweenathlete and her former team, which soon grew into trials that lasted almost two years and undermined Natalya's physical and mental health.

"Painful" care

In December 2009, during training, one of thevolleyball player "Dynamo" lost consciousness. It was Natalia Safronova. A volleyball player, whose condition was assessed as critical, was first delivered to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute.

Natalia spent 18 days in a stroke coma. When her condition stabilized a little, Safronov was transferred to one of Cologne's rehabilitation clinics.

Currently, the ex-sportswoman lives with her husband mostly at the dacha. She struggles to move, but she hopes for the best.

Despite such an unexpected and forced withdrawalNatalia from the big sport, her team-mates did not leave her friend in trouble. They regularly held charity auctions and events in support of it. The national team of Russia at the World Cup 2010 also dedicated its ex-captain Natalia Safronova.