Vilhelmina "Vilma" Bardauskienė (born 15 June 1953) is a former

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 ...

er from Lithuania, who represented the

Soviet Union 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, ...

in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She twice set the women's

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 ...

in the long jump, and won the European title in 1978 (

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

). She was born in

Pakruojis Pakruojis () is a city in Lithuania. It is situated on the Kruoja River, which has a dam above the city. Forty three buildings of the manor, mentioned in 1531 still survive. History Pakruojis and it neighbourhood are within the boundaries of the ...

. Bardauskienė was the first female athlete to break the 7m barrier in long jump (7.07m). Eleven days later she broke her own record by two centimetres (7.09m) at the European Championships in Prague.

Biography

Since the age of 14, she competed in

long jumping 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 ...

. She was trained by Y.Y. Goodvich and

Igor Ter-Ovanesyan Igor Aramovich Ter-Ovanesyan (russian: Игорь Арамович Тер-Ованесян, born 19 May 1938) is a Ukrainian former competitor and coach in the long jump. Competing for the Soviet Union, he was a five-time European and two-time O ...

. Because of the injury and the birth of the son (1975), she had a break in 1974-1976. In 1987, the IAAF named Bardauskienė among the 10 best jumpers of the world in history (the fifth place).

References

Profile

1953 births Living people Soviet female long jumpers Lithuanian female long jumpers World record setters in athletics (track and field) People from Pakruojis European Athletics Championships medalists {{Lithuania-athletics-bio-stub