The eminent Tver skier Natalya Nepryaeva celebrates her birthday. – Strong-willed and very purposeful athlete

Representative of the Tver Center sports training SHVSM will become the sixth native of the Tver region who will perform at the winter Olympic Games Oh.

Like, on February 10, 22-year-old skier Natalya Nepryaeva from Tver will make her debut at the Pyeongchang Olympic track in the women's skiathlon. Before her, only five natives of the Upper Volga region managed to perform at the White Olympics.

All participants of the Winter Olympic Games from the Tver (Kalinin) region

The very first was the skater Yuri Mikhailov ( in the picture), which in Italian Cortina d'Ampezzo won gold medal at a distance of 1500 meters. On the next Winter Games in the American Squaw Valley, the Soviet Union was represented by the Kalinin skater Valery Kotov. The pupil of the legendary Vladimir Chestny achieved the best result at a distance of 5000 meters, where he took fifth place.

Then came a long break. Only in 1994 in the Norwegian Lillehammer and in 1998 in the Japanese Nagano skier Antonina Ordina ran along the Olympic slopes, who began her journey in big sport in the village of Burashevo, Kalininsky district. True, she no longer performed under the Russian, but the Swedish flag. And his best result Antonina achieved in Lillehammer 1994 - she became sixth in the relay and seventh in the 15 km race.

Since 2002 in the history of Tver Olympic sports the era of hockey player Ilya Kovalchuk has come, who has already played for the Russian national team in four games (Salt Lake City-2002, Turin-2006, Vancouver-2010 and Sochi-2014). At the same time, the very first Games have become the most successful for him so far, when the 18-year-old Kovalchuk, as part of the national team of Vyacheslav Fetisov, won the Olympic bronze.

In 2010, another native of the Tver region, figure skater Alexander Smirnov, also performed at the White Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. In pair skating, together with Yuko Kawaguchi, he took third place in short program. But after the free program, the pupils of Tamara Moskvina could not stay among the winners and finished in an honorable fourth place.

Natalya Nepryaeva was born in Tver on September 6, 1995. Just a year and a half before the appearance of the future Olympic hope of the Upper Volga region, her mother Irina Krupysheva, as part of the Russian team, won gold in cross-country skiing at the World Winter Universiade in the Spanish city of Jaca. Yes, and dad Mikhail Nepryaev, who in the second half of the 1980s was the strongest skier in the region, had just completed sports career, but, of course, continued to ski with his wife in his spare time.

Under the supervision of her parents, Natalya also started skiing. Mom acted as her daughter's first coach. In 2010, the Honored Coach of Russia took the youngest Nepryaeva under his wing. Alexander Smirnov, her parents' mentor. An experienced specialist, he helped the young skier achieve serious success and reach not only the national, but also the international level.

At the beginning of 2013, Natalya Nepryaeva successfully performed at the final competitions of the Russian Winter Spartakiad, where she won full set awards. Then she won the Russian championship and became a member of the national junior team. Her debut at the international level turned out to be very successful. At the Junior World Championships in Slovenia, Natalia climbed to the highest step of the podium. A little later, she triumphantly performed at the European Winter Olympic Festival in Romania - she brought home gold, silver and bronze.

In February 2014, many international news agencies published a photograph of Natalya Nepryaeva, screaming with joy, holding her ski poles. These were unforgettable moments of triumph. On the track of the famous ski resort Val di Fiemme in Italy that winter hosted the World cross-country skiing among juniors under 20.

Natalia started with a disappointing fourth place in the freewheeling sprint. Then in the skiathlon for 10 kilometers she showed the fifth result. Nepryaeva waited her time on Sunday, February 2. The race for five kilometers in the classical style, she flew in the same breath, smoothly, powerfully and stopped the stopwatch at around 14 minutes 5 seconds. This result eventually became gold among juniors under 20 years old and historical for Tver sports.

The path to the Russian women's team for Natalia Nepryaeva turned out to be quite thorny. For the first time in main team country, it was included in 2015. However, the debut at the World Cup stages of the Tver skier turned out to be almost imperceptible. She took places outside the top thirty. And then there's the disease. It is no secret that after the end of the 2016/17 season, the Tver woman was thinking about ending her sports career.

However, in the past off-season, Natalia got into the training group of the Russian national team under the guidance of Honored Coach of Russia Yuri Borodavko and went through a full cycle of training and recovery camps with him. And, probably, everyone paid attention to how she was transformed, literally blossomed. Perhaps for the first time she opened her personal life. On her page on the social network, there were photographs of going to the store with her younger sister Dasha, walking along the seashore and in the mountains, as well as quite glamorous pictures, including in a bathing suit.

The results of the work were shown by the first starts of the 2017/18 Olympic season. Natalya Nepryaeva for the first time in her career climbed the podium of international races in Finland and Sweden. At the stages of the World Cup, she entered the TOP-10 for the first time, became the best among Russians and led Olympic selection. Furthermore, Nepryaeva became the international leader among skiers under 23 years old. On the eve of the Olympic Games, at the World Youth Championship (under 23), Natalia won silver in the skiathlon and bronze in the sprint.

Interview

- Genes actually play a big role in the fate of each person. From birth, Natalia had good abilities for skiing, which is why she stood out among her peers, - says Alexander Smirnov, Honored Coach of Russia, about his pupil.

How would you describe her character?

- Strong-willed and very purposeful athlete. At the same time, she experiences failures inside and extremely rarely shows even her most positive emotions openly.

- How can you explain her transformation after the unsuccessful last season 2016/17?

- Markus Kramer, in whose group Natasha studied last season, is still a foreigner and it is probably difficult for him to find an approach to Russian skiers and even more so for skiers. And Borodavko is our Russian peasant, with whom I am well acquainted. By the way, he also managed to train Natasha's father, Mikhail Nepryaev. Apparently, Yuri Viktorovich managed to inspire her and set her up for work.

- How big are Natalia's chances of winning a medal at her first Olympics?

Let's take a sober look at things. If Nepryaeva, at the age of 22, at her debut Olympic start, manages to finish on 6-10 lines of the final protocol, it will be very good result. Of course, miracles happen in sports, including at the Olympic Games. But I don't believe in miracles. Now the main thing is to perform with dignity and gain invaluable Olympic experience, which will help to achieve big victories in future.

The chairman of the regional parliament presented the eminent Tver athlete Thank You Letter and a memorial sign of the Legislative Assembly of the Tver region, the press service of the Legislative Assembly reports.

Natalia Nepryaeva was born on September 6, 1995 in Tver, where she spent her childhood. From an early age she was fond of skiing, and over time she began to engage in it professionally. Natalya, in her own words, became interested in skiing from the age of seven or eight. Her mother, Irina Nepryaeva, became her first coach. Parents who were skiing themselves managed to instill in their daughter a love for this species sports. Subsequently, this affected her choice of a sports career.

The first steps in professional sports helped to make experienced trainer Alexander Vasilyevich Smirnov is a former mentor to Natalya's parents. The family tradition was supported by the younger sister, who also started skiing. Despite the young age of the athlete, she already has a lot of victories and awards in her piggy bank. Currently, Natalia Nepryaeva is the master of sports of Russia in cross-country skiing, from 2013 to the present she has been a member of the Russian national team.

At the beginning of 2013, Natalya Nepryaeva successfully performed in the sixth Winter Spartakiad of Students and won three awards - gold, silver and bronze. Then she played for the Tver region, but as part of the Moscow region team. At the 2013 Russian Championship, the athlete received gold. Natalia - three-time silver (2013 - Czech Republic, 2014 - Italy, 2015 - Kazakhstan) and two-time bronze (2015 - Kazakhstan) medalist of the World Championship among juniors, two-time silver medalist of the Russian Championship in 2015 and 2016, winner of the Russian Championship among youth (under 23) 2015, multiple winner and prize-winner of the Russian Championships among juniors 2013-2015. And this is just a small list of all the victories and achievements of the Tver skier.

Natalya admits that she has never regretted the choice she once made and considers skiing to be the main part of her life.

- I like to train and win, Natalya admits.

The athlete enthusiastically continues training and prepares for new starts.

Representing the Moscow and Tver regions at the same time, Natalya Nepryaeva says that, first of all, she is proud of her small homeland, considers it a great honor for herself to represent the Tver region at the level of Russia.

Currently, a group led by coach of the Russian national cross-country skiing team Markus Kramer is undergoing training in Norway.

- We train not only in Norway, but also in Switzerland. Then we'll go to Germany- says Natalia. - Actually ski starts will start from November. First there will be qualifying and control starts. And according to the results, the coaches will determine the best - who will represent the country at the World Cup stage.

Andrey Epishin, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Tver Region, wished Natalya Nepryaeva further victories and new achievements. The speaker of the regional parliament expressed confidence that Natalya would definitely win the highest sports award - Olympic gold. For her part, the athlete thanked the speaker for his attention to skiing, expressing the hope that support for talented athletes in the region will be strengthened.

Photo: the press service of the Legislative Assembly and from the page of the athlete "VKontakte"

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TVER, February 17. The bronze medalist of the Olympic Games, Russian Natalya Nepryaeva, grew up in the family of the Universiade champion in the ski relay and from childhood she was two years ahead of her peers, so her success is natural. This opinion of TASS was expressed by the honored coach of Russia, who previously worked with Nepryaeva in Tver, Alexander Smirnov.

On Saturday, Russian skiers Natalya Nepryaeva, Yulia Belorukova, Anastasia Sedova, Anna Nechaevskaya became bronze medalists in the 4x5 km relay, covering the distance in 52 minutes 7.6 seconds. Gold was won by Norway's Ingvild Ostberg, Astrid Jacobsen, Ragnil Haga and Marit Bjorgen (51:24.3), silver went to Sweden's Anna Hog, Charlotte Kalla, Ebba Andersson, Stina Nilsson (51:26.3).

“Mom is a cross-country skiing coach, the 1995 World Universiade champion in the Spanish Jaca in the ski relay, Natasha was born in the same year. Both parents are masters of sports, so she has been skiing since childhood. She was two years ahead of her peers, Natasha got to the world championship in 1992, so she stood out from everyone, ”said the coach.

According to Smirnov, the competent placement of athletes at the stages also helped to win the bronze.

“I was very worried, I thought in my heart that, in principle, they could fight for third place, I was very worried when Nechaevskaya ran at the last stage. Competent arrangement was at the stages, this contributed to the fact that they took third place. The first three girls made a good start, ”the source of the agency shared his opinion.

Nepryaeva will also perform in team sprint and in the 30 km race in classic style.

Natalya Nepryaeva performed more successfully than other Russians in the mini-tour at the 1st stage of the World Cup in cross-country skiing 2017/2018 in the Finnish Ruka. In today's skate race in the 10 km freestyle pursuit, she finished eighth, and seventh in yesterday's classic. For the first time in her career, she got into the top 10 at the World Cup - and immediately twice in a row! The athlete, who trained with Danil Akimov, and then with Markus Kramer, seems to have finally found her coach, who became Yuri Viktorovich Borodavko.

The season started well. Before that, I didn’t have such results, but I hope that in the future I will run even better, try in training so that my form does not decline.

- How did today's race turn out for you?

Today's race was very difficult, especially the last lap. I hoped to the last that I could stay in the group, but the rivals are all strong enough, and I didn’t have enough strength a little. Perhaps somewhere I made tactical mistakes - we will sort it out with the coach so that mistakes will not be repeated in the future.

- Can you say that for you classic style yet preferable to free?

Yes, I love the classics more, but I also try to pull up my skate. I strive to be generalist.

- What are your future plans?

So far, my coach and I have not discussed this, but I know that I will run a classic sprint and skiathlon in Lillehammer.

You are preparing for the first year with Yuri Viktorovich Borodavko, can you name the main differences in training process compared to other coaches?

Firstly, strength training has improved, and secondly, endurance. In general, Yuri Viktorovich is a maximalist. It requires the maximum return from athletes in training and competition and does not allow you to relax for a minute.

- Perhaps this predetermined your progress?

He knows how to awaken excitement in an athlete, he knows the sore spots that can be put pressure on, and this helps a lot.

- Yuri Viktorovich has a birthday today. Will you congratulate him?

Yes, definitely. We will gather as a team and congratulate the coach. Alexander Bolshunov has already congratulated him with his prize-winning place. I think that the others pleased him too: some more, some less. But we all tried very hard.