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 gr ...

er from

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, who represented the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 organizatio ...

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

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

). 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 th ...

. 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. Because of the injury and the birth of the son (1975), she had a break in 1974-1976. In 1987, the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

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 Sportspeople from Šiauliai County European Athletics Championships medalists Soviet Athletics Championships winners {{Lithuania-athletics-bio-stub