Yelena Volchetskaya

Sport: Artistic gymnastics

Born: 4 December 1943

Birthplace: Grodno

Honors:

Honored Master of Sport of the USSR

Honored Coach of the Republic of Belarus

Associate Professor of the department of theory and methodology of physical education of Yanka Kupala Grodno State University

Medal “For Services to the University”

Honorary citizen of Grodno

Career highlights:

Gold (team all-around), Olympic Games in Tokyo, 1964

Gold medals (vault), USSR championships, 1960-1962, 1965

Gold medals (balance beam), USSR championships, 1963, 1964

Biography:

Yelena Volchetskaya was born on 4 December 1943 in Grodno. Nikolai Tretiak, her physical education teacher at Secondary School No.8, saw the potential of the future Olympic champion when she was in fifth grade. He decided to introduce the girl to famous coach Renald Knysh. The coach asked Yelena to demonstrate a few gymnastic routines, and after that included her in one of his groups. Yelena Volchetskaya was a diligent student who obediently followed all instructions of the coach. It helped her become a champion of the republic just two years later. At the age of 15, she became Master of Sports of the USSR. Renald Knysh saw Yelena’s talent and started training her for the most important sports events. She was the first to perform a vault with a 360-degree turn at one of national championships. Later, it became a trademark element of her gymnastics routine.

At the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Yelena Volchetskaya won a gold medal in the team all-around event, ranked eighth in the individual all-around and fifth in the vault.

This gold Olympic medal was the first gold medal in artistic gymnastics in the history of Belarus and of the Soviet Union. Yelena Volchetskaya became a role model for all next generations of Belarusian gymnasts.

In 1965, the gymnast from Grodno notched up yet another success, becoming the champion of the USSR again. Later that year, she graduated from Yanka Kupala Grodno Pedagogical Institute.

Soon Yelena Volchetskaya finished her gymnastics career and became a coach at a children’s and youth sports school. It was Yelena Volchetskaya who noticed the talent of a second-grade student of Secondary School No.10 of Grodno. That student was Olga Korbut, the future four-time Olympic champion.

Yelena Volchetskaya started working at the College of Physical Culture in 1968. After graduating from Yanka Kupala Grodno State University (physical education major), she continued working as a teacher at the university.

In the early 2000s, Yelena Volchetskaya went to the USA to work as a gymnastics coach. In 2006, she returned to Grodno, where she lives and works to this day.




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