Natalia Rusnatschenko

Natalia Rusnatschenko grew up in Moldova, then part of the Soviet Union. She participated as a handball goalkeeper with the Soviet Union at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics and won the bronze medal. Rusnatschenko then moved to Austria with her family after the fall of the Soviet Union.

With her new home country, Rusnatschenko participated in the 1992 Barcelona and 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. The Austrian team finished fifth on both occasions. Rusnatschenko won around 100 international caps with Soviet Union and 255 more with Austria.

At club level, Rusnatschenko played with Spartak Kyiv in the Ukraine, and with WAT Fünfhaus, Hypo Niederösterreich in Austria. She helped Hypo win the European Champions League in 1990, 1992-95, 1998, and 2000. Rusnatschenko also won it twice with Kyiv.

Rusnatschenko won Austrian titles in 1990, and 1992-95. From 2001-07 she played with McDonald’s Wiener (Vienna) Neustadt, and later worked as a supervisor at the sports boarding school at Südstadt in Maria Enzersdorf.