Tatiana Grigorieva

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Medal record
Women's athletics
Olympic Games
Silver	2000 Sydney	Pole vault
World Championships
Bronze	1999 Seville	Pole vault
Goodwill Games
Bronze	1998 New York City	Pole vault
Commonwealth Games
Gold	2002 Manchester	Pole vault
Silver	2006 Melbourne	Pole vault

Image:Tatiana Grigorieva.jpg

Tatiana Grigorieva

Tatiana Grigorieva (Russian: Татьяна Григорьева; born October 8, 1975 in Leningrad, Russia)

As a former national level 400m hurdler in Russia, Tatiana Grigorieva took up Pole Vaulting when she migrated to Australia in 1997. Within 12 months of picking up a pole, she had become one of the world's best, placing 3rd in the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York. In her first appearance at the World Championships in 1999, she won the bronze medal.

But it was the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney when she stepped into the spotlight and became a household name. On a night when the whole of Australia was watching Cathy Freeman win gold, they had a real bonus in seeing Tatiana jump a personal best and win silver. The ensuing notoriety saw Tatiana take up a number of off-field commitments whilst still continuing to train and compete internationally.

At the 2001 World Championships in Canada, competing against the odds due to an injury restricted campaign, Tatiana equalled her personal best to claim fourth. In the final competition of the season, as she had done in the Olympics, she edged very close to the World Record with a clearance of 4.56m (a personal best jump) in Yokohama.

At her first Commonwealth Games in 2002, she went into the competition as the overwhelming favourite. With enormous pressure on her, Tatiana's goal was to win gold and set a new Games Record - she achieved both.

In 2003 and 2004, despite maintaining a high standard and a place amongst the World's best, injury, illness and the emotional strain of her marriage breakup, resulted in her missing opportunities to represent Australia in the World Championships and Olympics. In 2005, she put all that behind her, changing her training regime, place of residence and focus in life. She had a successful season, making the finals of the World Championship and winning the Osaka GP to retain her Japanese Record set in 2001.

In 2006, her focus was defending her title at the Commonwealth Games in front of her homecrowd. The untimely, mysterious loss of her vaulting poles and a nagging hamstring injury days before the event, saw her competing at a slight disadvantage. However, as the consummate big-time performer, she walked away with a silver medal in a performance that as close to her very best.

Tatiana has clearly had her best ever international season in 2006, jumping over 4.5m 6 times and recording 2 new personal best heights within days of each other and regained her place in the top 10.

After making countless appearances at schools and charity functions, she formed her own foundation Gift for Dreams whilst still supporting 3 of her favourite charities - Camp Quality, Variety Club and Kids Helpline.

Since 2000, Tatiana has appeared in numerous magazines and television ad campaigns and graced a number of magazine covers from New Idea and Black+White (in which she also appeared fully nude) to GQ in Italy and Esquire in United Kingdom. Her practical experience and desire to help others is now backed by her continuing studies towards a Health Science degree at the Australian College of Natural Medicine. She also has completed qualifications in Reiki, Pilates and Yoga.

In early 2007, she took part in the Seven Network's dance show, Dancing With The Stars

[edit] Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result	Event
1998	Goodwill Games	New York City, New York	2nd	Pole vault
1998	Australian Championships		2nd	Pole vault
1999	Australian Championships		3rd	100 m
1999	Australian Championships		1st	Pole vault
1999	World Indoor Championships	Maebashi, Japan	9th	Pole vault
1999	World Championships	Seville, Spain	3rd	Pole vault
2000	Australian Championships		2nd	Pole vault
2000	Olympic Games	Sydney, Australia	2nd	Pole vault
2001	Australian Championships		1st	Pole vault
2001	World Championships	Edmonton, Alberta	4th	Pole vault
2002	Australian Championships		1st	Pole vault
2002	Commonwealth Games	Manchester, England	1st	Pole vault
2003	Australian Championships		2nd	Pole vault
2006	Commonwealth Games	Melbourne, Australia	2nd	Pole Vault