Nijolė Sabaitė (born August 12, 1950 in

Raseiniai Raseiniai (; Samogitian: ''Raseinē'') is a city in Lithuania. It is located on the south eastern foothills of the Samogitians highland, some north from the Kaunas–Klaipėda highway. History Grand Duchy of Lithuania Raseiniai is one of th ...

Lithuanian SSR The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; lt, Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika; russian: Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Litovskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialistiche ...

) is a retired Lithuanian middle distance runner who represented internationally the

USSR 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 nationa ...

. She trained at VSS Nemunas in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

. Sabaitė began athletics in 1967 and was a member of the USSR National Team since 1970. She competed mainly in the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since t ...

, and won an Olympic silver medal in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

, between Germans Hildegard Falck (gold) and Gunhild Hoffmeister (bronze). She also won 800m silver at the

1973 Summer Universiade The 1973 Summer Universiade, also known as the VII Summer Universiade, took place in Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The c ...

behind

Lilyana Tomova Lilyana Tomova-Todorova ( bg, Лиляна Томова-Тодорова), born 9 August 1946) is a retired Bulgarian sprinter and middle-distance runner who specialized in the 400, 800 and 1500 metres. Lilyana was born in Plovdiv, and represen ...

from

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

, studying in Vilnius Pedagogical Institute. In 1972 she was awarded the

Order of the Badge of Honor The Order of the Badge of Honour (russian: орден «Знак Почёта», orden "Znak Pochyota") was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding ...

References

External links

* * * * * * 1950 births Living people Lithuanian female middle-distance runners Soviet female middle-distance runners Olympic athletes for the Soviet Union Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union People from Raseiniai Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade silver medalists for the Soviet Union Medalists at the 1973 Summer Universiade Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences alumni {{Lithuania-athletics-bio-stub