The ordinary miracle of Natalia Prolohaieva

The amazing life of a four-time world champion, Natalia Prolohaieva, was at first like a simple story of thousands of Ukrainian girls in the provinces.

A CINDERELLA FROM LOZOVA

Natalia was born in 1981 in the town of Lozova, Kharkiv oblast, went to school, and was used to hard work since her very childhood. She enjoyed sunshine and nature. She was like anyone else, except that she was always willing to study. Natalia wholeheartedly practiced swimming until she was a school six-grader. In the sixth grade she became a Candidate Master of Sport and suddenly stopped training. “Our coach abandoned us and moved to Canada. So I lost interest in swimming,” Natalia says today. Even today, the word “abandoned” carries a faint note of anguish and incomprehension. How can one decline his responsibility, go back on his promise, instill and then forget a hope? Many years later, when a tragedy, more terrible than the departure of a coach, occurred, he suddenly came back. “When he came to know that I had resumed swimming after the injury, he suddenly showed up and suggested that we work together. This sounded false. You know, my principle is: I never do the same blunder.”

When Natalia discontinued swimming, she still remained a sportswoman, doing karate and free-style wrestling. She wanted to become a doctor, but her parents had no money to pay for tuition. So after finishing the ninth grade, she entered a cooking school and became a confectioner. Later, she was trained as a salesgirl. She got married and gave birth to two sons, Dmytro and Yevhen. After the first son was born, Natalia planned to continue studies at Kharkiv’s Institute of Economics. But when it was clear that she was pregnant again, she changed her mind and stayed behind in Lozova. An ordinary life, simple joys…

However, Natalia’s simple and undisturbed life abruptly changed in the fall of 2005. She received severe injuries in a car crash and became disabled. The memories of that day are still causing pain in the young woman. Natalia thinks that her survival was a miracle. Incidentally, she was the only one who suffered in the crash. She had both of her legs, pelvis, and, what is more, backbone injured. The rupture of the spinal cord was a never-healing wound that doomed her to unbearable pain and endless surgeries for as long as 18 months. “It was a horrible time, when you lie in bed and do not know what is in store for you. I had quite a share of depression and despair,” Natalia says. In this terrible period, Natalia lost what is in fact the most important support for a woman. Unable to endure hardships and Natalia’s hopeless condition, her husband abandoned her. Natalia does not reproach him today. But she says the sons reacted to dad’s desertion in their own way – they stopped mingling with and even saying hello to him.

HOPING WITHOUT HOPE

Doctors forecast that Natalia would be always bedridden. Nevertheless, some people with a similar injury advised the young woman not to fall into despair but, instead, to exercise and try to get up. And Natalia heeded this advice. “I decided that I would not stay in bed and pity myself: look how poor and unhappy I am,” Natalia says. She began to read literature on spinal injury rehabilitation, study Valentin Dikul’s methods, and persistently do special exercises. In this difficult situation Natalia decided to continue studying because she had to earn on her own to raise children. She entered a college to train as accountant. The college was a stone’s throw from the Wheelchair Invalids Union, and Natalia began to attend their events and take part in sport marathons. Her life path took a new unexpected turn. She was told about Paralympic movement, of which she had known nothing before, and offered a professional swimming course. Natalia agreed. She began to train, still continuing her hospital treatment.

One of the miracles in Prolohaieva’s incredible story was the meeting with the coach Oksana Vorontsova in 2007. “We went to contest the Ukraine Cup. And I met Ms. Vorontosva who had brought along a vision-impaired girl, Yana Berezhna. I like very much her approach to trainings. Looking at the way Vorontsova treated the girl, you could think they were mother and daughter. She would bring her to the swimming pool and give her all kinds of advice. We stayed in the same room, which was a gift of fate.”

Natalia requested Vorontsova to be her coach, and she agreed. But the wheelchair-bound swimmer lived in Lozova, while trainings were held in Kharkiv. So Natalia entered the Kharkiv State Academy of Physical Culture, moved to the city, and was accommodated in a dormitory. From then on, her life schedule was especially tight. Natalia trained hard for five days a week, and on Saturday mornings she would take a suburban train to Lozova, where her mom and sons lived. It took her four hours to commute. She would come back to Kharkiv on a Sunday evening in order to be in the swimming pool at 6 a.m. on Monday. She spent four years like this before the London Paralympics.

“GOD KEPT ME SAFE FOR MY CHILDREN.” THE WAY TO A GREAT VICTORY

Three gold and one silver medals. Glory, fascination and astonishment over a pretty, amiable, frail, but so strong woman. She not only overcame a physical ailment, but also climbed on top of the world with a faint smile that concealed her years-long inhuman efforts and willpower.

What did Natalia Prolohaieva’s miracle emerge from? The champion herself is sure that it is the combination of inner strength and divine providence. “I believe in God,” she says. “I am not a fanatical parishioner, but when I sit in the cool room before a start, I pray and read Our Father. I think God helps me and protects my children. He kept me safe for them.” Natalia is also trying to instill faith in her sons.

The record holder also says she has a certain sixth, clairvoyant, sensation. She often knows in advance that something will go wrong. Her predictions usually come true. But sensations told her nothing on that terrible day, she confesses.

When competing, Natalia does not heed her “inner voices.” She believes that being able to concentrate is above all in sport. “You must pull yourself together and psych yourself up. You must not just swim with the stream. All your strength gets compressed and, whenever necessary, bounces up like a spring. You make an all-out effort in the race,” Natalia says, sharing the secrets of her victory. After finishing, when she is to get ready for another start and take some rest, she listens to relaxation music and the sounds of nature. “I know how to distract myself,” the champion says. “I have a little secret. Before the start, I sing some simple children’s songs that we used to learn, such as, for example, ‘A Grasshopper Chirped in the Grass.’ And all the sportsmen around look at me and get surprised: an absolutely cool person indeed!”

A small house with a gazebo and a vineyard, evening-time tea with children, outings to nature – this is how Natalia spends her very scarce free time. She continues to dream. All that she wants after a splendid victory is to relocate to Kharkiv together with her children who are her joy and the sense of her life. She wants to drive a car. What is more, she always receives proposals from men. But, having burned her fingers once, Natalia is not yet prepared to tie the knot with a new husband. “I do not rule out that I will have a husband one day. But now that fame has come I am wary of these proposals. I had sad experience. A man once tried to live at my expense. It is so hard for me now, so can I possibly keep a man? I do not plan any serious relationships so far.”

Natalia Prolohaieva is now getting ready for the career of a coach. She will begin in a year’s time, when the Kharkiv State Academy of Physical Culture awards her a diploma. Let us wish her strength, new ordinary miracles that will surprise the world, and, naturally, happiness.