Olena Krasovska, née Ovcharova ( uk, Олена Красовська, born 17 August 1976,

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

) is a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

hurdler best known for winning a silver medal at the

2004 Olympic Games The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

with a personal best time of 12.45 seconds.

Career

She was born in

, and represents the sports club

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Union, Soviet Dynamo Sports Club, Dynamo Sports Soc ...

. In her early career she won the bronze medal in

60 metres hurdles 60 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling which is generally run in indoor competitions. It is equivalent with the first 5 hurdles of a standard outdoor hurdle race. The current women's and men's world records are 7.68 seconds ( Susanna K ...

at the 2000 European Indoor Championships. She also competed at the 1995 World Championships, the

1996 Olympic Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, the 1997 World Indoor Championships, the 1998 European Championships, the

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

, the 2001 World Indoor Championships and the 2001 World Championships without reaching the final. She ran in 12.88 seconds as early as in June 1995 in

Villeneuve-d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; pcd, Neuvile-Ask) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area ( ...

, but did not improve this time until August 2000 in Kyiv, when she ran in 12.82 seconds. In 2001, she ran in 12.87 seconds in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

in June. Also, in the

4 x 100 metres relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

she competed at the

without reaching the final. In 2002, she won the silver medal at the 2002 European Championships, finished eighth at the IAAF Grand Prix Final and fourth at the

2002 IAAF World Cup The 9th IAAF World Cup in Athletics was an international track and field sporting event sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was hosted by Madrid, September 21–22, 2002, in the Estadio La Peineta. The IAAF worl ...

. She came close to setting a new personal best with 12.85 seconds in June 2002 in

Luzern , neighboring_municipalities= Adligenswil, Ebikon, Emmen, Horw, Kriens, Malters, Meggen, Neuenkirch Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a ...

. but 2003 was a substantially weaker year with only 13.06 seconds. She competed at the 2003 World Championships without reaching the final. In 2004, she won the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

competition in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

, clocking in 12.78 seconds, before winning the silver medal at the

with a personal best time of 12.45 seconds. She only finished fifth at the 2004 World Athletics Final. In the next year she reached the semi-final of the 2005 World Championships, and had a season's best of 12.75. She has not run a sub-13 second hurdles race since, but came close with 13.01 seconds at

DN Galan BAUHAUS-galan, formerly known as DN-Galan is an annual, international athletics meeting that takes place at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. Previously it was one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events until 2010, and has since been part of th ...

in 2008 and 13.00 seconds in

Yalta Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crimea ...

in June 2009. 12.45 seconds puts Krasovska in a joint 18th place on the all-time world list. It is also the fastest time achieved by a hurdler representing Ukraine—yet she does not hold the Ukrainian record, as the Ukrainian record holder Nataliya Grygoryeva achieved her time of 12.39 seconds whilst representing the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Other personal bests include 8.01 seconds in the 60 metres hurdles (indoor), achieved in February 2000 in Kyiv; 7.35 seconds in the 60 metres (indoor), achieved in January 2001 in Kyiv; and 11.53 seconds in the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

, achieved in May 2002 in Kiev. She jumped 6.52 metres in the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

, indoor, in February 1999 in Lviv.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krasovska, Olena 1976 births Living people Ukrainian female hurdlers Ukrainian female sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Ukraine Athletes from Kyiv Dynamo Sports Club sportspeople European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Ukraine Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) FISU World University Games silver medalists for Ukraine 20th-century Ukrainian women 21st-century Ukrainian women Ukrainian Athletics Championships winners