Klara Guseva

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Olympic medal record
Women's Speed Skating
Competitor for  Soviet Union
Gold	1960 Squaw Valley	1,000 m

Klara Ivanovna Guseva (Russian: Клара Ивановна Гусева) (born 8 March 1937 in Tambov Oblast^[1]) is a former speed skater. After her marriage, she was also known as Klara Nesterova (Russian: Клара Нестерова).

Born in the Russian SFSR, Klara Guseva competed for the Soviet Union. She trained at Spartak in Ryazan.^[1] She won a silver medal at the Soviet Allround Championships in 1960 and participated one month later in the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley. These were the first Winter Olympics where speed skating for women was on the programme. Guseva participated in the 500 m and finished 6th. The next day, she finished 4th on the 1,500 m. The day after that, she started in the first pair on the 1,000 m and skated a new Olympic record time of 1:34.1. Nobody was able to beat that time and Guseva was Olympic Champion on the 1,000 m, ahead of silver medallist Helga Haase, who had become the first female Olympic Champion in speed skating when she won the 500 m two days earlier.

After that, Guseva participated in the World Allround Championships once, the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, and a few more Soviet Allround Championships, but she did not win any more medals.

[edit] References

• Klara Guseva at SkateResults.com
• Soviet Championships results (in Russian)

v • d • e Olympic champions in women's 1000 m speed skating 1960: Klara Guseva · 1964: Lidia Skoblikova · 1968: Carry Geijssen · 1972: Monika Pflug · 1976: Tatyana Averina · 1980: Natalya Petrusyova · 1984: Karin Enke · 1988: Christa Luding · 1992: Bonnie Blair · 1994: Bonnie Blair · 1998: Marianne Timmer · 2002: Chris Witty · 2006: Marianne Timmer