Tatyana Nikitichna Sevryukova (russian: Татья́на Ники́тична Севрюко́ва; 30 June 1917 – 1981) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who competed mainly in the

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

. She was the gold medallist at the

1946 European Athletics Championships The 3rd European Athletics Championships were held from 22 August to 25 August 1946 in the Bislett Stadion in Oslo, Norway. For the first time it was a combined event for men and women, and for the first time a city in Scandinavia hosted the champ ...

and broke the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

for the event in 1948.

Career

Early career

Born in

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

in the Uzbek SSR, she was a member of various sports clubs during her career with the main ones being

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

-based:

Spartak Spartak may refer to: In sports *Spartak (sports society), an international fitness and sports society that unites some countries of the former Soviet Union In Russia *FC Spartak Moscow, a football club *FC Spartak Kostroma, a football club *PFC ...

from 1937 to 1945 and Dynamo Sports Club from 1946 to 1952. She was trained by Oleg Lakerbay and Dmitri Markov during those periods. As a teenager she quickly established herself among the best shot putters in the world, with a throw of in 1935. A mark of the year after was the best during that wartime year and she also ranked number one in 1943 and 1944.Tatyana Sevyukova
Track and Field Brinskter. Retrieved on 2015-12-28. She placed herself at the peak of the sport nationally with wins at the

Soviet Athletics Championships The Soviet Athletics Championships (russian: link=no, Чемпионат СССР по лёгкой атлетике) was an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Soviet Athletics Federation, which served as the Soviet natio ...

in 1939 and 1940, then again in 1944 and 1945. With the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she added nearly a metre to her personal best in October 1945 with a throw of , then improved further to later that month. This was better than the official

IAAF 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 ...

women's shot put world record, but because the Soviet Union was not an IAAF member at that point the marks were not officially recognised.

European champion

The 1946 season was Sevryukova's first full season in peacetime and she proved to be the world's best shot putter. She ranked number one globally with her season's best of and won her fifth Soviet title. The

was her first major international competition and she was a comfortable winner by more than a metre ahead of minor medallists

Micheline Ostermeyer Micheline Ostermeyer (23 December 1922 – 17 October 2001) was a French athlete and concert pianist. She won three medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in shot put, discus throw, and high jump. After retiring from sports in 1950, she became a full ...

and Amelia Piccinini – her best of was a

championship record The sports under the umbrella of athletics, particularly track and field, use a variety of statistics. In order to report that information efficiently, numerous abbreviations have grown to be common in the sport. Starting in 1948 by Bert Nelson a ...

.European Championships (Women)
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-12-28. She was also entered into the discus throw event and was the third best qualifier before throwing shorter in the final and finishing sixth overall.

World record

Sevryukova ranked number one for two more years with marks of in 1947 and in 1948, making it six consecutive years as the world's number one. With the Soviet Union having given recognition to the Soviet Athletics Federation, she finally gained official status as the world record holder with a mark of in 1948, adding twenty one centimetre's to the previous best by

Gisela Mauermayer Gisela Mauermayer (24 November 1913 in Munich – 9 January 1995 in Munich) was a German athlete who competed mainly in the discus. She won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany Germany,, offic ...

. She achieved the mark at a competition especially organised as an alternative to the

1948 London Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

, at which the Soviet's did not compete, and Sevryukova's mark was easily better than Ostermeyer's winning Olympic record throw. Her world record stood for a little over a year before Soviet rival Klavdiya Tochonova claimed the world record for herself, although it was not until 1950 that

Anna Andreyeva Anna Semyonovna Andreyeva (russian: Анна Семёновна Андреева; 23 June 1915 – 1997) was a Soviet track and field athlete who competed mainly in the shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwi ...

improved the record beyond Sevryukova's unofficial best. Sevryukova also had unratified world indoor records in the shot put, with throws of and in February 1947, then in February 1948. Sevryukova won her sixth and final national title at the 1947 Soviet Championships. She still ranked in the top three nationally in the three following years, with Anna Andreyeva and Klavdiya Tochonova placing above her at the national championships. The trio were the world's best, as reflected by their taking the top three spots on the global rankings from 1949 to 1951. The rise of two further throwers in 1952,

Galina Zybina Galina Ivanovna Zybina (russian: Гали́на Ива́новна Зы́бина, born 22 January 1931) is a retired Soviet and Russian athlete and coach. She competed in the shot put at the 1952, 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics and finished in fir ...

and

Tamara Tyshkevich Tamara Andreevna Tyshkevich ( be, Тамара Андрэеўна Тышкевіч, russian: Тамара Андреевна Тышкевич; 31 March 1931 – 27 December 1997) was a Soviet shot putter. She won an Olympic gold medal in 1956 an ...

, saw Soviets occupy the top five spots and Sevryukova pushed down to fourth (her lowest placing since 1935). Ironically, Sevryukova achieved her career best mark that year, with a throw of . She had her last top three world ranking at the age of 36 in 1953 before her performances declined. She retired after the 1955 season.

Legacy

Sevryukova's career set the stage for future Soviet dominance of the women's shot put. She was the first ever Soviet woman to win a major international gold medal in the event and also the first ever Soviet to hold the official world record for the discipline. After her world record in 1948, the mark remained exclusively in Soviet hands until 1968: Tochonova, Andreyeva, Zybina,

Tamara Press __NOTOC__ Tamara may refer to: People * Tamara (name), including a list of people with this name * Tamara (Spanish singer) (born 1984) * Tamara, stage name of Spanish singer Yurena (born 1969) * Tamara, stage name of Macedonian singer Tamara Tod ...

and

Nadezhda Chizhova Nadezhda Vladimirovna Chizhova (russian: Надежда Владимировна Чижова, born 29 September 1945) is a retired Russian shot putter who won three Olympic medals and four European titles, and set seven new world records. She b ...

were the successive holders.

Natalya Lisovskaya Natalya Venediktovna Lisovskaya (russian: Наталья Венедиктовна Лисовская; born 16 July 1962) is a Soviet former athlete who competed mainly in shot put. Lisovskaya trained at Spartak in Moscow. Career Born in Aleg ...

regained the title for the Soviets in 1984 and she remains the world record holder. The Soviet Union was similarly dominant at major international competitions: after Sevryukova's European gold in 1946, only two athletes from outside the Soviet Union (

Marianne Werner Marianne Werner (; Schulze-Entrup, later Ader, born 4 January 1924), is a retired West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its ...

and

Margitta Gummel Margitta Gummel (née Helmbold, 29 June 1941 – 26 January 2021) was a German Olympic gold medal-winning shot putter. She competed for the Unified German team in the 1964 Summer Olympics, East Germany in the 1968 Summer Olympics, and East Ger ...

) managed to win an Olympic or European gold medal in the thirty years after that.Athletics Women's Shot Put Medalists
Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2015-12-28.

Personal bests

*Shot put: (1952) *Shot put indoor: (1948) *Discus throw: (1939)

National titles

**Shot put: 1939, 1940, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947Динамо. Энциклопедия
. ОЛМА Медиа Групп, 2003, pg. 186. Retrieved on 2015-12-28.

International competitions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sevryukova, Tatyana 1917 births 1981 deaths Athletes from Tashkent Soviet female shot putters Soviet female discus throwers European Athletics Championships medalists World record setters in athletics (track and field)