Olha Bryzhina

Olha Bryzhina
Personal information
Born (1963-06-30) June 30, 1963
Height 1.71 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Weight 63 kg (139 lb)
Sport
Country  Soviet Union
 Ukraine
Sport Track and field
Event(s) 4 × 100m relay
Medal record
Olympic Games
Representing  Soviet Union
1988 Seoul 400 m
1988 Seoul 4x400 m relay
Representing  Unified Team
1992 Barcelona 4x400 m relay
1992 Barcelona 400 m
World Championships
Representing  Soviet Union
1987 Rome 400 m
1991 Tokyo 4x400 m relay
1987 Rome 4x400 m relay

Olha Bryzhina (Ukrainian: Ольга Бризгіна, maiden name Olga Arkad'evna Vladykina; Russian: Ольга Аркадьевна Владыкина; born June 30, 1963 in Krasnokamsk, Perm Oblast) is a retired athlete who represented Soviet Union (until 1991) and later Ukraine.

Career

She trained at Dynamo in Voroshilovgrad. Competing in the 400 metres and 4 x 400 metres relay, she was a particularly successful Olympian with three gold medals and one silver. At the 1988 Olympics the Soviet relay team set a new world record of 3:15.17 minutes which is still unbeaten (as of 2012).[1] Bryzhina also became world champion in 1987.

Bryzhina successfully defeated Florence Griffith Joyner at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in the 4 × 400 m relay. Both runners ran the final leg of the relay and took the baton at about the same time. "Flo-Jo" ran a well paced race, chasing Bryzhina closely, and tried to challenge Bryzhina at the 300m point. However, the challenge from Flo-Jo was unsuccessful and Bryzhina won by a 4m margin, taking gold for the Soviet Union along with a new world record for the USSR team. Bryzhina's time of 47.7 seconds in the 1988 Olympic relay is one of the fastest relay legs ever run by a woman in the history of track and field.

Bryzhina's 400m personal best of 48.27 seconds is the women's 4th best result of all time in a laned 400m race.[2][3][4] She achieved this in the same race that Marita Koch set the current 400m world record of 47.60 seconds on 6 October 1985 at the Bruce Stadium in Canberra (Australia).[3][4]

Bryzhina's husband Viktor Bryzhin was also a champion track athlete, winning gold in the 4 × 100 m relay event at the 1988 Olympics. Together they have a daughter, Yelizaveta Bryzhina,[5][6][7] who is also a successful track runner, specialising in the 200m sprint event (Yelizaveta competes for Ukraine).

Bryzhina and her daughter Yelizaveta both had a best performance of 22.44 seconds over 200m as of December 2012.[8][9]

Personal bests

Achievements

Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
Representing  Soviet Union
1985 World Cup Canberra, Australia 2nd 400 metres 48.27
1986 European Championships Stuttgart, Germany 2nd 400 metres 49.67
DISQ 4 × 400 m relay
1987 World Championships Rome, Italy 1st 400 metres 49.38
2nd 4 × 400 m relay 3:19.50
1988 Olympic Games Seoul, South Korea 1st 400 metres 48.65
1st 4 × 400 m relay 3:15.17 WR
1991 World Championships Tokyo, Japan 4th 400 metres 49.82
4 × 400 m relay 3:18.47
Representing  Unified Team
1992 Olympic Games Barcelona, Spain 2nd 400 metres 49.05
1st 4 × 400 m relay 3:20.20

References

  1. ↑ "Athletics - World Record progression" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. Retrieved September 12, 2006.
  2. 1 2 3 IAAF profile for Olga Bryzgina
  3. 1 2 2012 Olympic Games Statistics - Women’s 400m, Athletics Weekly
  4. 1 2 START LIST 400 Metres Women - Round 1, Daegu 2011 (27 August 2011)
  5. ↑ Romanization of Russian differs from Romanization of Ukrainian
  6. ↑ Russia dominates on day of upsets in Bergen - European Team Champs Day 2, International Association of Athletics Federations (June 21, 2010)
  7. ↑ (Ukrainian) Єлизавета Бризгіна: Головне — не участь, а перемога, Ukrayina Moloda (July 23, 2010)
  8. ↑ Chris Tomlinson secures European long jump bronze, BBC (August 1, 2010)
  9. ↑ Lewis-Francis accepts blame for 4x100m relay disaster, BBC (July 31, 2010)
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