Five-Time Olympic Synchro Champion Natalia Ishchenko of Russia has announced her retirement from the sport.
According to the R-Sport Agency, Ishchenko said:
“I will not return to sports as an athlete, but I’m not going to leave synchronized swimming completely. It has been a considerable part of my life for a long time and of course it will always remain with me.”
Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya
Not only is Ishchenko the first European synchro swimmer to win all four different synchro events, she also adds 19 World Championship and 12 European Championship Titles to her career. At 31 years old, her success proves as recent as the 2016 Olympic Games and 2015 World Championships. Her accomplishments have earned her the title of Synchronized Swimmer of the Year on three different occasions from Swimming World, first in 2011, then 2012, and capped off with a shared title with partner Svetlana Romashina in 2016.
Ishchenko’s Olympic achievements started in 2008, when she won gold in the team event in Beijing. Russia repeated their success in this event in both 2012 and 2016, and she added additional Olympic Gold in the duet competitions in London and Rio.
Her first international medals date back to silver in the solo event and gold in the team contest at the 2005 World Championships in Montreal. Ishchenko has had a consistent presence on the synchro stage ever since, with a brief break in competition in 2013 and 2014 after giving birth to her son.
However, as the current face of Russian synchro swimming, Russian National Team Coach Tatiana Pokrovskaya confirmed that Ishchenko is not entirely done with the sport. She told SportStar Live that Ischenko’s legacy and future work in synchro will continue to benefit the sport:
“Natasha (Ishchenko) is our superstar. She was an extraordinary soloist, she performed excellent in duo and in the group. She’s a very courteous and clever woman with a high IQ. I believe she will do a lot of good for the youth and sports in the Kaliningrad region.”