Russian volleyball player Natalia Safronova: biography and sports career

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

Biography

Natalia Safronova was born in 1979 in Krasnoyarsk. In volleyball the future sportswoman has got casually. When the 8-year-old tall girl was walking with her mother in the park, she was noticed by the children's coach Zinaida Rusakova. 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" paid attention to Safronov.

Training in the new team opened up new prospects for the athlete. At the age of 15, Natalya 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 compete for the junior, and later 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 was especially intense for Natalia. She played at once in two teams - for the farm club "Uralochka" "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 World Cup-98.

In 1999, the Russian volleyball player again becomes 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 2001/02 season the athlete conducts as part of the Aeroflot-Malachite team. 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 the Olympics 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 held in the Moscow region "Zarechye Odintsovo." Here she became one of the leaders of the team. With "Zarechye" Natalia Safronova managed to win the Russian championship, to win two cups of the country, and also to reach the final part of the Champions League.

After the arrival of the new coach in the national team, the athlete was not only returned to her, but also by a majority vote was chosen by the captain. It was Safronova who led the team to the games of the triumphant for Russia World Cup in 2006.

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

Because of this transition, a scandal arose between the athlete and her former team, which soon turned into a trial that lasted almost two years and undermined Natalya's physical and mental health.

"Painful" care

In December 2009, during training, one of the volleyball players "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 hardly moves, but she hopes for the best.

Despite such unexpected and forced withdrawal of Natalia 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.