When preparing for this interview we weren’t able to find either a picture or the results of your struggle in Nemiroff Cup, why is that?

Natalie: You will not manage it anyway, since I have never participated in this tournament as an athlete. In 2007 I was invited as a guest of honor but then each year there were significant reasons not to come to the tournament. Then came the  pregnancy and bringing up my daughter.

This year you reached a success at the Championship of Ukraine but since that moment we haven’t seen anywhere.

Natalia: In fact, at this very moment of my life sport doesn’t play a leading role, raising a child comes first. I also want to develop and fulfill not only as an athlete. Thanks to sport I got a lot of friends and acquaintances, and also visited a number of countries. We have victories, get titles, awards, all this make us well-known. I get a lot of worthy offers and I can choose what is suitable for me, something to express my personal characteristics.
This year's Nemiroff will be the only tournament, where I may participate. Igor Mazurenko, the organizer of the tournament invites me each year to take part in the event, but I have never accepted the invitation.

Why do you say “may participate”?

Natalia: So far, I'm not sure about my condition, I haven’t had training for quite a long time. I’m actively working on it (trainings, a proper rest and sports nutrition). There is still some time left and just after a few days I'll be ready to give a definite answer about going or not.

This year there’s a new women's category up to 52 kg, who will represent the Ukrainian women's team in this category in Warsaw?

Natalia: I’m almost sure that the most titled Ukrainian athlete, Viktoria Ilyushina will take part in the event. Vicki’s category is 55 kg, to lose up to 52 kg is the loss of sport performance. So she is not sure either which category to choose, 52 or 65. Nevertheless, she’s really a unique example. Last year Vick appeared at Nemiroff being at her third month of pregnancy (she didn’t know about it at the moment), this year she gave birth to a child in June, and one week later she ran to the gym. This is who really is a fan of arm wrestling, though this isn’t Moscow, and athletes have a much more difficult financial situation, and the conditions of the training process are lower. But Vicki copes with everything, with the children and trainings. Her husband helps her a lot. He’s Sergey Melnik, also a successful armrestler. Together, this ARM-couple achieves excellent results. These people really deserve a huge respect.

The Ukrainian women's team will be a proper rival to other world teams, I wish you good luck and, of course, a victory in Warsaw at Nemiroff World Cup.

Julia Khozyainova