Aleksandra Georgievna Chudina (russian: Александра Георгиевна Чудина; 6 November 1923 – 28 October 1990) was a Soviet athlete who excelled in field hockey, volleyball, and various track and field events.

Field hockey

Chudina took a wide range of sports and excelled first in field hockey, where she started playing as a defender in 1937 and later changed to a forward. With her team Dynamo Moscow she won several major tournaments at the city and national levels between 1937 and 1947.

Athletics

Chudina then changed to athletics, and had a first international success in 1946, when she finished second in the high jump at the European championships. At the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

she won silver medals in the javelin throw and long jump and a bronze in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

.Aleksandra Chudina
sports-reference.com On 22 May 1954, she set a new world record in the high jump at 1.73 meters. The same year she won two European medals in the pentathlon and long jump, but finished only sixth in the high jump.

Volleyball

Between 1947 and 1963 Chudina was also a member, and often the captain, of the Dynamo and national volleyball teams. With the national teams she won world championships in 1952, 1956 and 1960, and European championships in 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1958, finishing second in 1955.

Personal life

Chudina was one of the most popular Soviet sportspersons of the 1950s, and was then used by the Soviet media as an example of superiority of the national sport programs. She was a colorful person who had a coarse low voice, enjoyed alcohol drinking and playing cards in a company, and was a careless car driver. After retiring from competitions (as she was suspected in being an Intersex person) she worked as a sports administrator and was soon forgotten. She had developed tuberculosis and lost one leg due to

gangrene Gangrene is a type of tissue death caused by a lack of blood supply. Symptoms may include a change in skin color to red or black, numbness, swelling, pain, skin breakdown, and coolness. The feet and hands are most commonly affected. If the ga ...

. A chain smoker through much of her life, she died of a stomach cancer, aged 66.Boris Valiev (12 October 2002
Супервершины Александры Чудиной
sovsport.ru

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chudina, Aleksandra 1923 births 1990 deaths People from Tula Oblast Soviet women's volleyball players Soviet pentathletes Soviet female javelin throwers Soviet female high jumpers Soviet female long jumpers Olympic athletes for the Soviet Union Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists Dynamo Sports Club sportspeople Recipients of the Order of Lenin Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Deaths from cancer in Russia Deaths from stomach cancer Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Deaths from cancer in the Soviet Union