Irina Anatolyevna Privalova (russian: Ирина Анатольевна Привалова; on 22 November 1968) is a Russian Olympic gold medallist

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

. Her

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

debut was in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

in the sprint events, where she won two medals— a bronze in the 100 m and running the anchor leg in the 4x100 team, a silver — and came fourth in the 200, representing the Unified Team. With three European individual championships and three individual world medals, Irina Privalova had been a formidable competitor during most of the 1990s (see #Sprints) but had not yet won an outdoor international event gold medal (as an individual athlete, she had won relay gold in 1993). In 2000, she switched to the 400 m

hurdles Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

discipline winning the gold medal in 53.02 s (see #400 m Hurdles) and a bronze in the 4 x 400 m

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

team for Russia. Irina Privalova is currently the world indoor record holder in the 50 m (5.96 s) and 60 m (6.92 s) sprints (See #World Indoor Records). She has also been the world indoor champion at the 60 m (7.02 s in 1991), 200 m (22.15 s in 1993), and 400 m (50.23 s in 1995) events - the first athlete to win titles, indoors or outdoors, at three different distances. Privalova achieved her best time (10.77 s) in the 100 m in 1994 - the fastest time for nine years. In 2008, aged 39, she reached the semi-finals of the 100 m at Russian championships in attempting to qualify for her fourth Olympics. She had tried moving to the 800 m to qualify for the 2004 Olympics. In 2020, Privalova stood for the presidency of the Russian Athletics Federation. She failed to win but became vice-president. She later was called to stand-in as acting president when the elected president was forced to step down (See #Russian Athletics Federation Presidency).

Sprints

Privalova came to international recognition in 1991 at the World Indoor Championships that year. Racing as Irina Privalova-Sergeyeva, in the 60 m she defeated the great Jamaican sprinter

Merlene Ottey Merlene Joyce Ottey (born 10 May 1960) is a Jamaican-Slovenian former track and field sprinter. She began her career representing Jamaica in 1978, and continued to do so for 24 years, before representing Slovenia from 2002 to 2012. She is ran ...

who reached the final undefeated in 82 successive races. Ottey had her revenge in the 200 m with Privalova coming second, Ottey equalling the world record in her victory. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, racing as Irina Privalova, she won a bronze medal in the 100 m. The race was incredibly tight -

Gail Devers Yolanda Gail Devers ( ; born November 19, 1966) is an American retired track and field sprinter who competed in the 60 metres, 60 m hurdles, 100 m and 100 m hurdles. One of the greatest and most decorated female sprinters of all time, she was t ...

won in 10.82 s, Juliet Cuthbert was second in 10.83 s, and Privalova third in 10.84 s. Privalova also came fourth in the 200 m. At the 1993 World Indoor Championships, Privalova narrowly lost to Gail Devers in the 60 m, 6.95 s to 6.97 s, but won the 200 m title (in 22.15 s, then the second fastest time ever; she want faster in 1995 at 22.10 s, second fastest time ever to the world record of 21.87 s). In the 1993 World Athletics Championships, Privalova won her only gold medal at a world championship in the 4x 100 m relay. She narrowly held off the United States's Gail Devers on the anchor leg - both teams recording a championship record time of 41.49 s. In 1994, in August at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

, for Russia she won gold in the 100 and 200 m and silver in the 4x100 m relay; in September, at the

1994 IAAF World Cup The 7th IAAF World Cup in Athletics was an international track and field sporting event sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations, held on September 9–11, 1994, at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, Engl ...

, representing Europe, she won the 100 m and 400 m, and came third in the 200m. In 1995, Privalova moved up to the 400 m for the World Indoor Championships that year where she won in her first major race over the distance - she had not even contested the Russian championships at that distance. Her campaign at the 1996 Olympics was curtailed by injury. She was eliminated at the semi-final stage in the 100 m, did not start the 200 m , but was part of the Russian team that came fourth in the 4x100 m relay. In 1997, Privalova suffered a torn muscle in the final of 60 m at the World Indoor Championships. She was out for 18 months but returned to win the 200 m at the European Championships in 1998. In the individual events she camoe fourth in the 100 m and won bronze in the 200 m. In 1998, at the European Championships, Privalova found a time of 10.83 s was only good enough for silver in 100 m, being defeated by Christine Arron's European record winning time of 10.73 s. However, she successfully defended her European title in the 200 m and also won Silver in the 4x100 m relay. In 1999, her World Championships ended prematurely when she had to withdraw from all her events after completing the first round of the 100 m. She did not compete again until the 2000 indoor season.

400 m Hurdles

In 2000, Privalova switched to the 400 m hurdles as her main event targeting the 2000 Olympics. This followed a year out of the sport with injury, forcing her to miss the 1999 World Championships. She worked on the switch with her coach and husband, Vladimir Paraschuk. Paraschuk chose the 400 m hurdles because it was an event that reduced the risk of injury, was within Privalova's capabilities as an existing 400 m runner , and it had at the time a comparative lack of formidable competitors. In addition, she had tried athletics multi-events so had had some experience with hurdling. She achieved Olympic gold after running only 6 races previous to arriving at the games. Injury and motherhood forced her retirement after 2000 and so she was never able to train to try the challenge of breaking the 400 m hurdles world record: in 2001, she suffered a knee ligament injury and then gave birth in December 2001 to her second child, forcing her to miss the 2002 season. In 2004, she attempted a switch to 800 m to attempt to qualify for the Olympics that year but failed in her attempt. She had already stopped racing the 60 m ('her favourite event') to avoid injuries and was using the 800 m as part of her training schedule.

Russian Athletics Federation Presidency

In 2020, Privalova stood for the presidency of the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF). She was chosen as first vice-president after coming third in the vote. In February 2021, the winner Peter Ivanov relinquished his authority until December 2022 to take up a position with a government agency with Privalova taking charge.

World Indoor Records

Privalova achieved world record times indoors on six occasions: * 6.05 s for the 50 m sprint in Moscow on 2 February 1993. * 6.04 s for the 50 m sprint in Grenoble on 7 February 1993. * 6.03 s for the 50 m sprint in Moscow on 1 February 1994. * 5.96 s for the 50 m sprint in Madrid on 9 February 1995. * 6.92 s for the 60 m sprint in Madrid on 11 February 1993. * 6.92 s for the 60 m sprint in Madrid on 9 February 1995. She also two other times that would have been records but were not ratified due to faults with the timing: * 6.00 s for the 50 m sprint in Moscow on 2 February 1993 - photo-finish device was not lined up correctly. * 5.99 s for the 50 m sprint in Vienna on 6 February 1994 - time recorded during a 60 m race. In addition, she shares the world's best time for the unofficial distance (for record purposes) of 300 m. Her time of 35.45 s was achieved on 17 January 1993 in Moscow (it was equalled by

Shaunae Miller-Uibo Shaunae Miller-Uibo (born 15 April 1994) is a Bahamian track and field sprinter who competes in the 200 and 400 metres. She is a two-time Olympic champion after winning the women's 400 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics and again at the 2020 Tok ...

in 2018).

Personal life

Privalova originally competed under her married name of Sergeyeva. Her first pregnancy forced her to miss the 1988 Olympics. After a separation and divorce, she competed under her maiden name of Privalova. Privalova married her coach, Vladimir Paraschuk, and in 2000 they lived in Moscow with sons from previous marriages. Paraschuk was also, at that time, coach of track and field at

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

from which Privalova has a degree in journalism (graduated in 1995). Under the tutelage of Paraschuk, Privalova trained alone, using the somewhat spartan facilities of the university, rather than attending a sports institute like most of her compatriots. In 2008, she is described as the mother of three children: Alexei, aged 20; Maria, aged 6; and Katya, then 2 years old.

Accolades and Awards

In 1994, Privalova was awarded European Athlete of the Year trophy for women. In 2001, she was awarded the Silver Order of Merit by the IAAF (

World Athletics World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

) for an 'exceptional contribution to the world athletics movement'.

World Rankings

Privalova was ranked among the best in the world in both the 100 and 200 m sprint events in the 1990s, then again later in the 400 m hurdles when she switched to that event in 2000. This is according to the votes of the experts of

Track and Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on runni ...

References