Tamara Bykova
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Women's Athletics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 1988 Seoul | High Jump | |
Tamara Bykova (Russian Тамара Быкова; b. December 21, 1958 in Rostov on Don, Rostov Oblast, Russian SFSR) is a former Russian track and field athlete and Olympic medal winner.
Bykova had a long and successful sport career with three world records in the high jump. She won an unbelievable amount of awards and medals, especially since her biggest competitor was the German Ulrike Meyfarth, who most often won during head-to-head competitions.
At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow she participated in her first big international event, but with a jump of only 1.88 meters she was not in the best form. She finished in 9th place. Six weeks later she won the Soviet championship with a jump over 1.97 meters. At the 1981 World championship in Rome she and Meyfarth were the only athletes to jump over 1.96 meters, but this was only good enough for second place for Bykova as Meyfarth went on to set a new world record with a jump over 2.02 meters. At the 1982 European championship in Athens she jumped 1.97 again but still finished second to Meyfarth. Then, at the 1983 European Indoor Championship in Budapest, she was finally able to jump over 2.03 meters, which won her the gold and also was a new world indoor record.
At the World Championship in Helsinki the last two jumpers were Meyfarth and Bykova. Both had jumped over 1.99 meters, but Bykova had needed one more attempt. After both she and Meyfarth were unable to jump over 2.01 meters she had to settle for second place. The next meeting between the two came at the European Cup in Crystal Palace in London. This time Meyfarth set a new world record by jumping over 2.03 meters, but only a few minutes later the Russian jumped over the same height, however she had needed one more attempt than the German and had to settle yet again for second place. Only four days later the two met again, this time in Pisa. Once again the two were the last two jumpers. This time though, Bykova came out on top with a new world record of 2.04 meters.
At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul she won the bronze medal in the high jump behind the American gold medal winner Louise Ritter and the Bulgarian silver medallist Stefka Kostadinova.
She received a three months ban when she tested positive for the drug ephedrine at the Goodwill Games in 1990, and missed the European Championships held later that year.
This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.
