Thai boxing is a national sport in Thailand; fighters of this style are idols of thousands of fans. Champions are awarded with royal blood. However, one of the strongest athletes, if not the strongest, lives in Russia. Natalia Dyachkova, whose biography is of particular interest, has collected all conceivable and unimaginable awards and titles in both amateurs and professionals.
Girl with a character
The history of the athlete is quite atypical for a girl from martial arts. Usually, parents sharply object that their daughters engage in such traumatic sports, but his father himself led Natalya to the coach with the firm intention to make her a fighter.
Natalia Dyachkova was born in Petrozavodsk in 1994. Mom left the family when the girl was four years old, and Natasha was brought up with her father and grandmother.
In the basement of the house where the Dyachkova family lived, coach Ivan Andrienko opened a section where the guys began to go and were engaged in martial arts. This is where the 11-year-old father Natalia brought.
Breakthrough
At first, the girl did not succeed, she lost to everyone. The turning point in her fate came in 2009. All the girls who once defeated an unsuccessful athlete took part in local competitions. Angry about herself, Natalya Dyachkova carried out three fights against strong rivals on courage and sent everyone to the knockout. Three years of hard training and insulting defeats were not in vain.
This was followed by a victory at the junior championship of Russia, an invitation to the national team. Natalya Dyachkova went to her first World Cup in 2009. The sharp transition from domestic to international competitions did not embarrass a girl with a strong character. Despite the fact that many rivals were 2-3 years older than her, she performed with dignity, reaching the finals, where, unfortunately, she lost to the Turkish athlete.
Awards and belts
Soon Natalya Dyachkova, whose photo is already appearing in sports publications, becomes Russia's first number in Thai boxing. The athlete combines amateur performances with professional fights.
She also manifests herself in such a martial arts as Wushu Sanda, winning the championships of Russia.
Two years after losing to the Turkish athlete, Natalia Dyachkova takes revenge from her in the semifinals of the World Cup. But in a duel, she injures her leg, which is why the main goal of her final fight is the ability to withstand all rounds against the Ukrainian. So the second time in a row, Natalia becomes the silver medalist of the World Cup.
Particularly successful for the athlete is 2012. She becomes the world champion among professionals according to WPMF, and does it in the homeland of Thai boxing, which is especially honorable. In the same season, she won a gold medal at the home world championship, held in St. Petersburg.
The girl does not stop there. On her account victories at the European Championships, new belts in various professional versions.
At her first adult World Cup in 2015, she was also considered the main favorite. Nevertheless, in the final of the tournament, she lost to the strong Swedish athlete. Natalya Dyachkova is always hard going through her defeats and analyzes all the mistakes in order to take revenge.
The origin of the nickname
The story of the nickname Natalia is curious. Once she spoke at a tournament dedicated to the memory of soldiers who died in hostilities. After the fights, the mothers of the fighters told the athlete that she was fighting boldly and aggressively, like a lynx.
A few days earlier, a lynx from the forest came running to the parliament building of Karelia. Natalya considered this a sign of fate and chose this animal as her peculiar totem. She even has her own sponsored lynx in the city zoo, which she constantly visits.
Natalia Dyachkova: personal life
Outside the ring, the athlete acts as assertively and aggressively as in fights. By her admission, she did not wait until they began to look after her, and with her own hand she chose a companion.
While the girl is not married, she meets a young man - the son of her class teacher.
As a child, Natalia Dyachkova was very worried about her mother leaving her family. For many years, the girl avoided her and only after the death of her grandmother resumed dialogue.
Despite his young age, Natalia manages to combine training with coaching. She opened the Thai Boxing Federation in her native Petrozavodsk, organized the Lynx Fight Club. In it, Dyachkova teaches the basics of Thai boxing to everyone. Today, Natalya’s classes are attended by all segments of the population — writers, lawyers. By the way, the champion has already led some of her pupils into a big sport - they go to big tournaments.
Despite family problems and problems with financing, Natalya Dyachkova managed to become one of the strongest in Thai boxing - an exotic form of martial arts for Russia. Many of her rivals experienced the power and speed of blows of the glorious "Karelian lynx".