Natalia Kocherova (born 23 February 1990) is Russian

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

and

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

from

Omsk Omsk (; rus, Омск, p=omsk) is the administrative center and largest city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia, and has a population of over 1.1 million. Omsk is the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk ...

Early life

Kocherova was born in Yegorovka, Russia in 1990. An accident resulted in her right leg being amputated above the knee.

Skiing career

Kocherova first major international event as a

Nordic skier Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe to heel. Re ...

was at the

2014 Winter Paralympics The 2014 Winter Paralympics (russian: Зимние Паралимпийские игры 2014, Zimniye Paralimpiyskiye igry 2014), the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, were an ...

in Sochi. There she competed in two events, the 12 km Free (sitting) where she finished ninth, and the 1 km Sprint (sitting), which after taking the twelfth and final spot during qualification, she qualified for the final, finishing in fifth position. The following year she qualified for the 2015 IPC Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing World Championships in

Cable, Wisconsin Cable is a town in Bayfield County, Wisconsin, United States. Its population was 825 at the 2010 U.S. census. The census-designated place of Cable and the unincorporated communities of Leonards and Radspur are located in the town. Geography Acc ...

. Kocherova entered three events in the

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not tim ...

, winning a bronze medal in the 12.5 km Individual (Sitting). She followed this with four events in the cross-country, and was part of the gold medal-winning Russian team in the 4 x 2.5 km mixed relay. She won the bronze medal in the women's 6km sitting biathlon event at the

2021 World Para Snow Sports Championships The 2021 World Para Snow Sports Championships was an international disability sport competition held in Lillehammer, Norway from 8 to 23 January 2022. It was the inaugural edition of the World Para Snow Sports Championships with para-alpine skiin ...

held in Lillehammer, Norway. She also won the silver medal in the women's 10km sitting biathlon event.

Track and field career

2015 saw Kocherova qualify for the Russian team for the

2015 IPC Athletics World Championships The 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships were a Paralympic track and field meet organized by the World Para Athletics subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee. The event was the 7th edition of what is now known as the World Para ...

. She entered seven events, including all distances in the T54:

100m The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

200m The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a Sprint (running), sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run th ...

400m The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

800m The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

1500m The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

, and

5000m The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Athletics at the Summer Olympics, Olympic Games and the World Championships in At ...

. Her best result was fourth in the 800m. The next year she entered the

2016 IPC Athletics European Championships The 2016 IPC Athletics European Championships was a track and field competition for athletes with a disability open to International Paralympic Committee (IPC) affiliated countries within Europe, plus Israel. It was held in Grosseto, Italy and too ...

, and became the tournaments most successful athlete after winning five gold and a single silver medal. At Grosseto she set championship records in the 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m races.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kocherova, Natalia 1990 births Living people Russian amputees Ukrainian amputees Russian people of Ukrainian descent Cross-country skiers at the 2014 Winter Paralympics Russian female cross-country skiers Russian female sprinters Russian wheelchair racers Female wheelchair racers Russian female biathletes Russian disabled sportspeople Biathletes at the 2018 Winter Paralympics