Draft:Natalia Kovaleva

Natalia Kovaleva also known as Natalia Kovalyova, also known as Big Natalia, is a Russian Born Female Bodybuilder now living in America. She won the Bodybuilding Division of the New York Pro Bodybuilding Championship in 2023. She also came 5th in the Bodybuilding Division of the Ms. Olympia Bodybuilding Championship in 2023.

Biography
Her name is Natalya Kovalyova, and she was born in Russia, Tver city, January 19, 1989. She was born premature, quite ironical considering my current built:) She lost her parents early: at age of 12 her mother died, my father didn’t raise her. She was raised by mom’s sister and her elder sister. Her sister was a multiple national judo champion (in her youth). She decided to do wrestling too and the coach noticed that I have a great potential, but somehow a schoolmate told her ”you have developed huge shoulders and it’s ugly for a girl” and then she quit, she thought her mate was right, at that time she was 15, this was the first and the last time that she listened to and followed someone’s opinion. Then she tried basketball when she entered the university ( where she studied journalism and Russian language and literature). After that she tried kickboxing and had good results, even if there wasn’t any category for women and no opportunities. She was training with the guys, some of them had multiple champion titles. She started going to a very old and hardcore gym just to loose weight; she wanted to look like a model, at that time it seemed to her that they have both (muscles and thinness) that’s what she wanted to achieve and she achieved that look.

One day she did a deep cleaning of her house and found magazines with bodybuilder women; she remembers seeing Lenda Murray and Ursula Sarcev and then she understood who she wanted to be. Lenda Murray impressed her the most and was enough to start collecting magazines, videos, to start training. She never expected to look like a bodybuilder and could not imagine that one day she would be on the same stage with professional bodybuilders. There was a period in her life when she left bodybuilding for one and half year and didn’t train at all, trying to decrease to the Physique category. She then that the Physique class is not for her and instead started to concentrate on Bodybuilding. She hopes to to make a contribution to the development of women’s bodybuilding. She states, "Maybe someday some girl will see my photos or video and say: “Now I know who I want to be’’.". She is currently preparing for the IFBB Pro League Tampa Pro.