Natallia Tsylinskaya (russian: Наталья Цилинская; born 30 August 1975) is an international cyclist, who specialises in track sprinting. Tsylinskaya is an eight time World Champion, and an Olympic bronze medalist.

Early life

Under the direction of her trainer, Alexander Beljatsky (who rode for Russia's road racing team ''Dynamo''), Tsylinskaya won the Youth USSR Championship at the age of 14. At age 16, in 1993, she travelled to

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to participate in the Junior World Championships, where she won a

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medal.

Return to cycling

After she left cycling to get married and start a family,

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

ian authorities convinced Natallia to return to competitive cycling during the winter of 1998. As Minsk did not have a track or adequate training facilities, Tsylinskaya moved to

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, where she trained. At the 2000 World Championships in

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won gold in both the 500mTT and the Sprint, these results alone were not sufficient for a qualification for the

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. In 2001, she teamed up with

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n trainer Stanislav Solovyev (Станислав Соловьев), who remained her coach throughout her career. She won gold for both the sprint and 500mTT events at three of the four world cups in that year but did not gain a medal at the 2001 World Championships in

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She also suffered a severe crash during the sprint qualification rounds, in which she broke her collarbone.

Championships from 2002 to 2004

Riding for the first time in international competition under her maiden name of Tsylinskaya, she began the 2002 season by winning both the sprint and 500mTT events at the World Cup races in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

and Moscow. She followed this by winning gold in both the 500mTT and sprint events at the 2002 World Championships in

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. In the World Championships of 2003 in

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, she won gold in the 500mTT event, posting a time of 34.078 seconds, her personal best time. However, in the sprint event, Tsylinskaya competed against Russian track cyclist Svetlana Grankovskaya in the final, and lost in two straight heats so took second place. In 2004 the focus was on the Athens Olympics which took place in August. After victories in World Cup races earlier that year, at the World Championships in

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in May 2004, she collided with

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rider Victoria Pendleton's wheel in the sprint and bruised her right hip in the crash. In the following 500mTT competition, she finished eighth, with

Anna Meares Anna Maree Devenish Meares (born 21 September 1983) is an Australian retired track cyclist. She currently resides in Adelaide in South Australia where the Australian Institute of Sport's Track Cycling program has its headquarters at the Adelaid ...

winning the event. At the Olympics in Athens on 20 August 2004, Tsylinskaya took the bronze medal, her only Olympic medal, in the 500m time trial.

Season 2005 – Season 2006

At beginning of the new season Tsylinskaya decided to expand her training routine to incorporate

Keirin – literally "racing cycle" – is a form of motor-paced cycle racing in which track cyclists sprint for victory following a speed-controlled start behind a motorized or non-motorized pacer. It was developed in Japan around 1948 for gambling ...

racing. She began the season by appearing at the

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World Cup where she won gold in the 500mTT and in the sprint and also won bronze in the Keirin, losing out to Victoria Pendleton and Anna Meares. One month later in January 2005 Natallia rode at the Manchester World Cup where she won gold in the Keirin event The World Championships were held in Los Angeles. She won gold in the 500mTT race over Anna Meares by .014 seconds, but was beaten in the sprint by Kerrie Meares after being relegated and subsequently disqualified in the quarterfinals for performing a dangerous maneuver. In the second round of the Keirin event Tsylinskaya fell whilst trying to muscle her way into the lead. Tsylinskaya sustained mild superficial injuries as well as a moderate

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration ...

. The 2006 season began at the Moscow World Cup where she won gold in both the 500mTT event and the sprint. At the Manchester World Cup she consolidated her season dominance in the 500mTT by taking gold on the first day. A day later, she came second in the sprints losing out to Victoria Pendleton after being relegated in the final. In the Los Angeles World Cup Tsylinskaya again won the 500mTT and the sprint events. At the 2006 World Championships Tsylinskaya won gold in the 500mTT event, posting a time of 34.152 seconds. At the later sprint event, Tsylinskaya also took the gold in the sprint event, beating Victoria Pendleton in the final.

Season 2007 – Present

The 2007 track cycling season kicked off in Sydney Australia where Round 1 of the World Cup series was held from 17 to 19 November 2006. Tsylinskaya met Great Britain champion Victoria Pendleton in the final of the Sprint competition and was pushed to a deciding third ride before taking the gold medal. The second round of the world cup series was held in Moscow, Russia on 15–17 December. As in Sydney, Tsylinskaya once again made it through to the final where she met and bested 19-year-old

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Lizandra Guerra. Tsylinskaya had to settle for second place behind Cuban Lizandra Guerra with a time of 34.802 seconds in the 500m time trial. At the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

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, she qualified seventh fastest in the preliminary heats for the sprint event. Tsylinskaya was placed sixth overall at the end of the competition.

Family life

Through cycling Natallia met her first husband, Alexander Markovnichenko, a famous

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

bicycle racer who at the time was a World Champion in the combined team of the

USSR 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 nati ...

. They married in the mid-1990s, moved to

Donbas The Donbas or Donbass (, ; uk, Донба́с ; russian: Донба́сс ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the Donbas are controlled by Russian separatist groups as a result of the Russo-Ukrai ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

, and Natallia gave birth to their daughter, Masha, in May 1996. She only returned to Minsk occasionally to attend the Academy of Physical Training and Sports, where she studied in absentia and which she completed in 1998. Tsylinskaya thereafter began a relationship with Russian bicycle racer Andrey Minashkin. The couple wed on 18 October 2002 in a ceremony in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

References

External links

Cycling News and Photos

Sportspanorama Belarusian Sports Website

Union Cycliste International Official Website

Women's Cycling
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsylinskaya, Natallia 1975 births Living people Belarusian female cyclists Cyclists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of Belarus Olympic medalists in cycling UCI Track Cycling World Champions (women) Cyclists from Minsk Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Belarus Belarusian track cyclists