26 July 2011 - Athlete of the Week: Natalia VALEEVA (ITA)

Natalia VALEEVA: A Unique Career Lausanne – 26 July 2011  Natalia VALEEVA just earned a second team world title spearheading her two young Italian teammates at the Turin World Championships this month. VALEEVA finished with four 10s during the gold medal match to capture a world gold medal in a third decade!   Natalia VALEEVA’s archery experience has been quite unique. She has competed on three national teams: USSR (1989-1992), Moldova (1992-1996) and Italy (since 1997). She won individual and team bronze medals with the Unified Team at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. She was individual world champion twice (1995 in Djakarta, 2007 in Leipzig, the only non-Korean to do so since 1987, in more than 20 years!) and team world champion twice as well (1999, 2011). She is a four-time individual indoor world champion (1991, 1995, 1999, 2001) and she competed in her fifth Olympics in Beijing (2008). She won the World Cup Stage in Santo Domingo twice (2008, 2009).  
Asked about her archery career so far, the Italian champion says "I never thought my career would be so long! Twenty years in the national teams! I always thought that sooner or later I would quit shooting or I would get physically tired or the results would lower… but for one or another reason this has not yet occurred. I still win competitions although less than before (when I had no family), and I never get tired of maintaining my shape in the gym and shooting. I don't know how to explain it… maybe because I'm still an athlete?"
  
VALEEVA only had to quit shooting at the seventh month of pregnancy with Stefano (her first son, born in 2000) and the third month of pregnancy with the twins (Victoria and Sofia, born after Athens 2004). Or due to injuries. She got back to practicing immediately after giving birth.

VALEEVA, who has competed in five Olympic Games, confesses that her best memories are from "My first Olympics in Barcelona—It was more difficult to get into the Soviet team than to play in the Barcelona competition!" She continued shooting for Olympic medals, trying to improve their colour: "I won a lot, but I still have the desire to win again! I have missed the Olympic gold medal and maybe next time I will be satisfied at last!"

VALEEVA is leading a string of veteran archers and 1992 Olympics alumni that kept competing or came back recently to the competition thanks to the attractiveness of the Archery World Cup launched in 2006. These archers include the 1992 individual Olympic champion Sebastien FLUTE (FRA), the 1992 double bronze medallist Simon TERRY (GBR), Ilario DI BUO (ITA), Alison WILLIAMSON (GBR) and Natalia NASARIDZE (TUR). VALEEVA, NASARIDZE and Khatuna LORIG (now shooting for the USA) actually shot together with the USSR at the time.

VALEEVA appeared in the July issue of the British Airways in flight magazine in a selection of “athletes to watch” for London 2012.
  Biography Extract:   Natalia VALEEVA – Born 15 November 1969 in Tirnauca (Tirnaspol), Moldova    1st Team World Archery Championships Turin 2011 1st Team Indoor Archery World Championships Rzeszow 2009 2nd Individual Indoor Archery World Championships Rzeszow 2009 1st Individual Archery World Cup stage 1 Santo Domingo 2009 4th Individual Archery World Cup Final Lausanne 2008 5th Team Olympic Games Beijing 2008 1st Individual Archery World Cup stage 1 Santo Domingo 2008 1st Individual World Archery Championships Leipzig 2007 4th Team World Archery Championships Leipzig 2007 4th Individual Archery World Championships Madrid 2005 53th Individual Olympic Games Athens 2004 6th Individual Archery World Championships New York 2003 1st Individual Indoor Archery World Championships Florence 2001 9th Individual Archery World Championships Beijing 2001 7th Individual Olympic Games Sydney 2000 1st Individual Indoor Archery World Championships Havana 1999 1st Team Archery World Championships Riom 1999 1st Individual Archery World Championships Jakarta 1995 1st Individual Indoor Archery World Championships Birmingham 1995 3rd Team Olympic Games Barcelona 1992 3rd Individual Olympic Games Barcelona 1992 1st Individual Indoor Archery World Championships Oulu 1991    
More information on Natalia VALEEVA and all other archers can be found on the World Archery website.