Zinaida Mykhaylivna Turchyna ( ua, Зінаїда Михайлiвна Турчина, née ''Stolitenko'' on 17 May 1946) is a retired Ukrainian

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

player. Coached by her husband Igor Turchin she competed for the Soviet Union in all major international tournaments in 1973–1988, except for the boycotted

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

, and won three Olympic and five world championship medals. In 2000 a panel from the

International Handball Federation The International Handball Federation (IHF) is the administrative and controlling body for handball and beach handball. IHF is responsible for the organisation of handball's major international tournaments, notably the IHF World Men's Handball C ...

and sports journalists named her the best female handball player of the 20th century. Stolitenko was brought to handball in 1959 by Igor Turchin, a team-sports coach 10 years her senior, who later headed

HC Spartak Kyiv HC Spartak Kyiv (ukrainian: ХК Спартак Київ) is a Ukrainian women's handball club from Kyiv. It used to be a member of the Spartak VSS during the Soviet era. History Spartak was arguably the best team in Europe between the 1970s and ...

in 1962–1993 and the Soviet handball team in 1973–1993. She married him in 1965 and changed her last name from Stolitenko to Turchyna. They had a daughter Natalia (born 1971) and a son Mikhail (born 1983). Natalia played handball alongside her mother for Spartak Kyiv, while Mikhail went into basketball. After the death of her husband in 1993 Turchyna took over his coaching positions at Spartak Kyiv and the Ukrainian national team. She retired from coaching in 1996, but still works as the manager of Spartak Kyiv. Since 2002 she lives with her boyfriend Vladimir.

References

1946 births Living people Sportspeople from Kyiv Soviet female handball players Ukrainian female handball players Handball players at the 1976 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 1980 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players of the Soviet Union Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in handball Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics {{USSR-Olympic-medalist-stub