Tatyana Kazankina

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Tatyana Kazankina

Tatyana Kazankina in November 2019
Medal record
Women's Athletics
Representing the  Soviet Union
Olympic Games
	1976 Montreal	800 m
	1976 Montreal	1500 m
	1980 Moscow	1500 m
World Championships
	1983 Helsinki	3000 m

Tatyana Vasilyevna Kazankina (Russian: Татья́на Васи́льевна Каза́нкина; born 17 December 1951 in Petrovsk, Saratov Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Soviet/Russian former runner who set seven world records and won a total of three gold medals at the Olympic Games. She was also awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and the title Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR in 1976. Kazankina competed for VSS Burevestnik.

A month before the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Kazankina became the first woman to run 1500 m in under 4 minutes, her time of 3:56.0 beating Ludmila Bragina's world record by 5.4 seconds. She won the 1500 m and 800 m golds in the Montreal games, setting a world record in the latter. In 1980, she ran the 1500 m in 3:52.47, becoming the first woman to run the distance faster than Paavo Nurmi. This stood as a world record for thirteen years.

Her career came to an abrupt end in September 1984 when she was suspended for 18 months for refusing to undertake a drugs test after winning a 1,500m race in 3:58.63 in Paris.

Apart from her sports achievements, Kazankina is known for her scientific works. She graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the Leningrad State University in 1975. Later she defended her dissertation for the Candidate of Pedagogical Science degree at the Lesgaft Institute of Physical Education and worked as a lecturer until 1997. She is the author of more than 20 scientific works.

Kazankina lives in Saint Petersburg where she worked at the State Committee of Physical Culture and Tourism of Russian Federation.

In 2023, she criticized the International Olympic Committee for requiring Russian athletes to compete under a neutral flag and called "absurd" the idea of them condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[1]

• List of doping cases in sport

• L. Yu. Leonidov (1982). Tatiana Kazankina. Heroes of the Olympic Games (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. Archived from the original on 2007-05-02.

• Almost Forgotten Star: Interview with Tatiana Kazankina
• Detailed biography (in Russian)
• http://www.alltime-athletics.com/w_1500no.htm

Records
Preceded by Valentina Gerasimova	Women's 800 metres World Record Holder 26 July 1976 – 12 June 1980	Succeeded by Nadezhda Olizarenko
Preceded by Ludmila Bragina	Women's 1,500 m World Record Holder 28 June 1976 – 11 September 1993	Succeeded by Qu Yunxia
Preceded by Svetlana Ulmasova	Women's 3,000 m World Record Holder 26 August 1984 – 12 September 1993	Succeeded by Zhang Linli
Sporting positions
Preceded by Svetlana Ulmasova	Women's 3,000 m Best Year Performance 1983 – 1984	Succeeded by Mary Slaney
Awards
Preceded by Faina Melnik	Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year 1976	Succeeded by Rosemarie Ackermann