Natalia Vitalyevna Vorobieva (russian: Наталья Витальевна Воробьёва; born 27 May 1991 in

Tulun Tulun ( rus, Тулун, p=tʊˈlun) is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the river Iya (Angara's basin), northwest of Irkutsk. Population: History It was founded in the second half of the 18th century as a village in the Iya Vall ...

Irkutsk Oblast Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and Nizh ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

) is a Russian wrestler, who has won the Olympic, World and European titles.

Career

Vorobieva took up wrestling in her youth, despite some misgivings from her parents. After winning a number of titles at youth level, Vorobieva proceeded to succeed at senior level in the women's -72 kg freestyle division, beginning with a bronze medal at the 2012 European Championship. Vorobieva won an unexpected gold at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, where she beat five-time World Champion

Stanka Zlateva Stanka Zlateva Hristova ( bg, Станка Златева Христова; born 1 March 1983 in Krushare, Sliven Province) is a retired female Bulgarian freestyle wrestler. She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Ath ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

to win the gold medal. She was the first Russian to win the -72 kg freestyle title. In the following, 2013, season, Vorobieva won silver in the women's -72 kg freestyle event at the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, losing in the final to Zhang Fengliu. Vorobieva won the

European title European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...

, defeating

Maider Unda Maider Unda Gonzalez de Audikana (born 2 July 1977 in Vitoria, Spain) is a Basque Spanish retired female freestyle wrestler. She participated in Women's freestyle wrestling 72 kg at the 2008 Summer Olympics. In the 1/8 final she beat Oksana ...

in the final. Vorobieva dropped into the -69 kg division when the weight categories were changed at the start of the 2014 season. Her first season in her new weight class brought a bronze at the

, and victory at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

(defeating

Ilana Kratysh Ilana Kratysh ( he, אילנה קרטיש, russian: Илана Кратыш; born July 6, 1990) is an Israeli freestyle wrestler. She placed third at a 2012 Grand Prix Wrestling tournament in Belarus. Kratysh won the silver medal at the Europea ...

in the final). In the final of the Golden Grand Prix Ivan Yarygin 2015, Vorobieva defeated

Ochirbatyn Nasanburmaa Ochirbat Nasanburmaa (born 14 April 1989) is a female wrestler from Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and C ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. That year, she also won the World title in the women's -69 kg freestyle division, beating

Zhou Feng Zhou Feng () is a freestyle wrestler from China. She competes in the 75 kg division and won the gold medal in the same division at the 2014 Asian Games. She won the gold medal in the women's 68kg event at the 2022 Asian Games The ...

in the final, and won a bronze medal at the European Games. At the

2016 Olympic Games ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

, she competed in the -69 kg division, winning a silver medal after losing to

Sara Dosho is a wrestler from Japan. She won the gold medal in the women's 69 kg event at the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She also won the gold medal in her event at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships held in Paris, France. C ...

in the final. Vorobieva moved back up to the -72 kg division. 2019 was a very successful year for Vorobieva. She won the -72 kg freestyle World title, beating Alina Stadnik Makhinia in the final, and the -76 kg title at the 2019 World Military Games, beating Wang Juan of China in the final. In 2020, Vorobieva won the -72 kg freestyle European title, beating Maria Selmeier in the final. In March 2021, she qualified at the European Qualification Tournament to compete at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo, Japan. In June 2021, she won one of the bronze medals in her event at the

2021 Poland Open The 2021 Poland Open was an amateur wrestling event held in Warsaw, Poland between 8 and 13 June 2021. It served as the last United World Wrestling Ranking Series event of the year and played a role with regard to the 2020 Summer Olympics ...

held in Warsaw, Poland. Vorobyeva has also trained with

UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

and M-1 Global MMA fighters, such as Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev,

Vyacheslav Vasilevsky Vyacheslav "Crushin Russian" Vasilevsky is a Russian mixed martial artist currently competing in the Middleweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2008, Vasilevsky has fought for Bellator MMA, M-1 Global, and Ab ...

Abubakar Nurmagomedov Abubakar Magomedovich Nurmagomedov (born November 13, 1989) is a Russian mixed martial artist, who is currently competing in the Welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is a three-time Combat Sambo World Championship bron ...

, Mikhail Malyutin and Ali Bagov.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vorobieva, Natalia Living people 1991 births Russian female sport wrestlers Olympic wrestlers of Russia Wrestlers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in wrestling Olympic gold medalists for Russia Olympic silver medalists for Russia People from Tulun Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Lezgins European Games medalists in wrestling European Games bronze medalists for Russia Wrestlers at the 2015 European Games World Wrestling Championships medalists Wrestlers at the 2019 European Games European Wrestling Championships medalists Wrestlers at the 2020 Summer Olympics European Wrestling Champions Sportspeople from Irkutsk Oblast 20th-century Russian women 21st-century Russian women