Shaposhnikova trained at
Dynamo in Rostov-on-Don under Honoured Trainer of the USSR
Vladislav Rastorotsky, who also trained her compatriots
Ludmilla Tourischeva and
Natalia Yurchenko. She was one of the world's strongest gymnasts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, especially on
vault. She was known for her difficulty and originality, especially her one-armed handstands on beam. At the 1979 European Championships, she performed one of the first triple twists on floor, and her opening tumbling pass on floor at the
1980 Olympic Games was a roundoff 1.5-twisting layout immediately into a roundoff back handspring double pike. At the 1980 Olympics in
Moscow, she contributed to the Soviet team's gold medal and won an individual gold medal on vault. She also took home bronze medals on floor and beam, and missed a medal in the all-around by just 0.05. Shaposhnikova came close to winning gold on beam at the 1978 World Championships, entering the final with a slight lead over
Nadia Comăneci of
Romania. However, Peter Shilston wrote in an April 1980 profile in
British Gymnast magazine: "There was a fiercely partisan section of the audience determined that Comăneci should win to make up for her previous disappointing performances. When Natasha (Natalia?) came up, needing a score of 9.8 to take the gold, she faced a very hostile reception which clearly got on her nerves. She made a series of mistakes, all jeeringly received, and slumped from first place to eighth." Shilston called the loss "probably the saddest experience of Natasha's (Natalia's?) life".
Eponymous skill Shaposhnikova invented a complex transition skill on the
uneven bars—a
clear hip circle on the low bar with flight backward to the high bar—and it is named after her in the
Code of Points. The skill, sometimes referred to colloquially as the "Shaposh", is still widely performed today; it is credited as a D element in the 2013–16 Code of Points. Since the 1990s, other gymnasts have developed variations of the Shaposhnikova, including: • Americans
Amy Chow (
stalder entry) and
Kristen Maloney (toe-on entry) • Russians
Svetlana Khorkina (hip circle entry with half turn in flight) and
Viktoria Komova (inbar stalder entry and inbar stalder with half turn in flight) • Dutch gymnast
Laura van Leeuwen (toe-on entry with half turn in flight) • Russia's
Aliya Mustafina and China's
Yao Jinnan (stalder entry with half turn in flight) • Germany's
Elisabeth Seitz (toe-on entry with full turn in flight). ==Coaching career==