Nataliia Voloshynenko, a Nordic walking instructor: “I was born to teach people to enjoy sports and feel good”

28 Листопада 2023 by Olga Zhurbenko

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“It may have happened too late, but I am sure that I have found the sense of life in my favorite activity,” says Nataliia Voloshynenko. Within 4 years, the 46-year-old coach from Kryvyi Rih city has trained two bronze medalists (World and European championships) and one female world champion. But medals are not the main thing for her:

“Through Nordic walking, I want to involve as many people of all ages as possible in physical culture: from young children to respectable grandparents! My dream is that regardless of the weather or mood, my students would pick up the poles and share with me the joy I feel during training,” the woman says.

Natalia always talks about Nordic walking emotionally, with a happy confidence that it is the best sport in the world.

“It may sound strange, but Nordic walking is a sport that activates the brain. Both hemispheres are involved because arms and legs work evenly. I don’t know any other sport like it. There is a very popular phrase: 90% of the muscles are working when you do Nordic walking. I add to this: even all 100% if you are smiling, too!

Thanks to such useful and proper exercise, our body recovers, so I do my best to have my students feel great and visit doctors as rarely as possible,” says the instructor.

Nataliia confirms these words by her personal example. A month before she started practicing Scandinavian, she had to undergo several surgeries, including tonsil removal. However, after the start of regular training, which included breathing practices as well, her tonsils gradually stopped bothering he

Nataliia almost lost her vision when she was eight years old due to a disease. Soviet school education knew no concept of inclusion, but Nataliia was introducing it into practice: from the 2nd to the 11th grade, Nataliia studied just “aurally” in a regular school. She was offered a placement in a specialized boarding school, but she was a very sickly child. Her mother convinced her that it was not a good idea to go home from Kharkiv to Kryvyi Rih, so it would be better to continue her education at school.

Still, the first years of school were not easy. It took her a while to adapt to the new environment, and her classmates would sometimes make fun of her. But Natalia felt support and understanding from her teachers.

Gradually, she tempered herself and overcame her own lack of confidence, and she finished school with good grades.

While looking for a job, Natalia thought about why she was born. It was not an easy question to answer. After all, she wanted her favorite job to bring maximum benefit to others. At first, she worked in her first profession as a school biology teacher, but she did not feel confident as a specialist. Later, she got a job in the sales department of one of the enterprises of the Ukrainian Society of the Blind. She liked her job and was good at it, but it did not help her find answers to her question.

Natalia learned Scandinavian walking by chance and was immediately interested in it, but not too seriously at first. But when her mother gave her the first pair of the walking sticks, she decided that she should try to learn. Having mastered the technique, the woman felt joy and satisfaction, which she wanted to share with everyone who found it at least a little interesting. Yet, Natalia realized that the desire alone was not enough for systematic work, so she sought advice from specialists and obtained the degree in rehabilitation.

As a coach, she is happy to see her students win medals at European and world championships, but it is not the awards that make her feel the happiest.

“I have students with various health disorders. When I manage to bring them back to the joy of life, I feel happy!

I was preparing a woman who had had a stroke for a competition. As a rehabilitation therapist, I was very worried about her. She didn’t win the competition, but she did overcome herself. This woman enjoyed the atmosphere so much that she reached the finish line with a smile on her face! This is the biggest victory for me.

Finally, I answered my own question: I was born to teach people to enjoy sports and feel good!” believes the woman.

In the first days of the full-scale invasion, Scandinavian walking helped Natalia not to fall in despair. She was determined to stay in Kryvyi Rih no matter what it would cost. She decided that no one could expel her from her native land. The deserted city and the anti-tank “hedgehogs” on the sidewalks were depressing her, but as long as at least one student agreed to come to the training session, Natalia would train them.

“But one day I came to our training location alone. Because of the shelling, mass evacuation began and my students answered the phone while they were leaving the city. It was scary!” the woman recalls.

Natalia continued to train on her own to distract herself. She also dreamed of taking her team to the World Cup championship.

Later, she decided to post videos of her lonely lessons on social media to motivate her students. And it worked.

“In March 2022, the students who remained in the city resumed regular training. Later, I posted an announcement about our classes in groups for internally displaced persons. A family from Nikopol joined us. In April 2022, I organized an online competition. It was helpful, and to my surprise, new participants joined us, who later proved to be good! They were hesitant, saying how it would look like during the war. I told them that we had to be in good physical shape to win,” she says.

Her dream came true: in August 2022, Natalia took her students to the World Championship in Poland, where her team performed extremely well.

Natalia urges people who have not yet experienced the joy of her favorite sport to at least start with daily walks.

“If you want to live a good life and develop harmoniously, you need to become as independent as possible, both physically and emotionally. To do this, you just need to get off the couch and take the first step,” Natalia advises.

Prepared by Denys Ivanchenko

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“THE INVINCIBLE LADY” is a series of articles about Ukrainian women and girls that motivate, fascinate, and inspire.

This initiative is part of the project “Empowerment of Women and Girls with Disabilities by Strengthening their Involvement and Leadership in Communities,” which is being implemented by the National Assembly of People with Disabilities of Ukraine with the support from the UN Women Ukraine and the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund.

About the UN Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF)

The UN Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund is a unified global financial mechanism designed exclusively to support the participation of women in peace and security building and humanitarian responses. Governed by a range of civil society, governments, and the UN actors, WPHF is a multi-partner trust fund that mobilizes urgently needed funding for local women-led organizations and works together with women on the frontlines to build lasting peace. WPHF has provided funding and supported capacity building for more than 500 local civil society organizations working with the “Women, Peace, and Security” agenda and implementing humanitarian activities in 28 crisis-affected countries.

This publication has been prepared with the financial support from the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), but the views and contents expressed herein do not necessarily represent the official endorsement or recognition of the United Nations.