Natalia Valeeva (born 15 November 1969 in

Tîrnauca Tîrnauca (Romanian; uk, Тернівка, ''Ternivka'', russian: Терновка, ''Ternovka'') is a commune and village in the Slobozia District of the Left Bank of the Dniester, Moldova, situated on the east bank of the river Dniester, betw ...

Transnistria Transnistria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), is an unrecognised breakaway state that is internationally recognised as a part of Moldova. Transnistria controls most of the narrow strip of land between the Dniester riv ...

) is a naturalized

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...

. She is a five-time Olympian and former world number one, and a native of

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

, having represented the Unified Team, Moldova and Italy, at the Olympic Games of 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. She won the individual and team bronze medals in the 1992 Olympic Games.

Personal life

Valeeva is the mother of twins, and is married to an Italian native (Roberto Cocchi). She is sponsored by

Hoyt Archery Hoyt Archery is an American manufacturer of recurve and compound bows located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Most notable for their competition recurve bows, which are featured prominently in the Olympics; every gold medalist in individual archery at the ...

and Easton Technical Products as a member of their Pro Staff.

1992 Summer Olympics

Valeeva represented the Unified Team and won the individual bronze medal with

Cho Youn-Jeong Cho Youn-jeong ( ko, 조윤정; born September 29, 1969) is a South Korean archer. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, she achieved both her gold medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She also won an individual silver medal at the 19 ...

and

Kim Soo-Nyung Kim Soo-nyung (born April 5, 1971 in Chungcheongbuk-do) is a former member of the South Korean Olympic archery team in 1988, 1992, and 2000. She has earned a total of four gold medals at the Olympics, one for the individual ...

, both representing

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, winning gold and silver. She also won the team bronze medal with Lyudmila Arzhannikova and Khatouna Kvrivichvili with South Korea winning gold and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

winning silver.

1996 Summer Olympics

Valeeva represented Moldova at the 1996 Summer Olympics, where she was defeated in the third round.

2000 Summer Olympics

Valeeva represented

Italy at the 2000 Summer Olympics Italy competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. 361 competitors, 246 men and 115 women, took part in 175 events in 29 sports. Medalists Archery The men's team, which returned two members of the bronze medal-winning 1996 squa ...

, gaining seventh place in both the individual and the team event.

2004 Summer Olympics

In her next Olympic appearance, Valeeva represented Italy at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

where she placed 9th in the women's individual ranking round with a 72-arrow score of 650. In the first round of elimination in high winds and difficult conditions, she faced 56th-ranked

Jasmin Figueroa Jasmin Lanaran Figueroa-Dungca (born 20 March 1985 in Tondo, Manila, Philippines) is an athlete from the Philippines. She competed in archery and is a former student of the University of Makati. Figueroa took up archery in 1995 and started rep ...

of the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. The biggest upset of the round, this match saw Valeeva lose to Figueroa 132–130 in the 18-arrow match, dropping all the way to 53rd overall in women's individual archery.

2007 World Championships

In the World Championships of 2007, in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, Valeeva won the gold medal, beating Korean top archer Park, holder of the

FITA Fita (Ѳ ѳ; italics: ) is a letter of the Early Cyrillic alphabet. The shape and the name of the letter are derived from the Greek letter theta (Θ θ). In the ISO 9 system, Ѳ is romanized using F grave accent (F̀ f̀). In the C ...

world record for the qualifying round of 1405 points (of a possible 1440). This was the second gold medal in the outdoor World Championships for Valeeva, the first one in 1995. So far in her career, Valeeva has collected 7 individual gold medals in World Championships (indoor and outdoor), and she is one of the few archers in the world to have won the Indoor and Outdoor World Championship in the same year, in 1995.

2008 Summer Olympics

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Valeeva finished her ranking round with a total of 634 points. This gave her the 30th seed for the final competition bracket in which she faced

Anastassiya Bannova Anastassiya Bannova (born 26 February 1989) is an archery, archer from Kazakhstan. Bannova represented Kazakhstan at the 2008 Summer Olympics. She placed 35th in the women's individual ranking round with a 72-arrow score of 628. In the first ro ...

in the first round, beating the archer from

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

with 107–105. In the second round she came close, but was eliminated by third seed Joo Hyun-Jung with 110–108.Athlete biography: Natalia Valeeva
beijing2008.cn, ret: Aug, 21 2008 Together with Pia Carmen Maria Lionetti and

Elena Tonetta Elena Tonetta (born 8 June 1988 in Rovereto) is an Italian archer. In 2005, she was the Junior European Champion, winning at Silkeborg (Denmark). She won the second place in the final of the Junior World Cup, at Mérida (Mexico) in 2006 ...

she also took part in the team event. With her 634 score from the ranking round combined with the 613 of Lionetti and the 595 of Tonetta the Italian team was in 9th position after the ranking round. In the first round they were too strong for the team from

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

, beating them with 215–211. However, in the quarter final they were eliminated by the eventual gold medalists from

, despite a 217 points score. The Koreans managed to shoot a new World Record of 231 points to advance to the semi final.

2012 Summer Olympics

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she reached the last 32 before being knocked out by

Ksenia Perova Ksenia Vitalyevna Perova ( rus, Ксения Витальевна Перова, , ˈksʲenʲɪɪ̯ə pʲɪˈrovə; born 8 February 1989 in Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Oblast) is a Russian female archer. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she competed for her ...

, and was part of the Italian team that was knocked out by China in the first round.

Individual performance timeline

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valeeva, Natalia 1969 births Living people Italian female archers Moldovan female archers Soviet female archers Olympic archers of the Unified Team Olympic archers of Moldova Olympic archers of Italy Olympic bronze medalists for the Unified Team Archers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Archers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2012 Summer Olympics People from Slobozia District Moldovan emigrants to Italy Naturalised citizens of Italy Olympic medalists in archery Archers at the 2015 European Games European Games medalists in archery European Games gold medalists for Italy World Archery Championships medalists Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Italy Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Italy Competitors at the 2013 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in archery Italian people of Moldovan descent