Kazankina, Tatyana (1951—)
Kazankina, Tatyana (1951—)
Soviet runner who won two Olympic gold medals in the 1,500 meters. Born on December 17, 1951; married; children.
Won the gold medal in the 800 meters and 1,500 meters in Montreal Olympics (1976); won the gold medal in the 1,500 meters in Moscow Olympics (1980).
With an impressive leap over her previous performances, Tatyana Kazankina set a world record for the 1,500-meters in 1976 with a time of 3:56.0. That same year, she won the gold medal in 1,500 meters in the Montreal Olympics with a time of 4:05.5; she also won a gold medal in the 800 meters with a world record time of 1:54.94. In the Moscow Olympics in 1980, two years after the birth of her daughter, Kazankina repeated her conquest of the 1,500 meters (3:56.6) with another gold. In the 3,000 meters at the Helsinki World championships in 1983, she came in third behind Mary Decker (Slaney) and Brigita Kraus . But Kazankina's greatest success had come at Zurich Letzigrund on August 13, 1980, when she ran the 1,500 in 3:52.47, faster than the men's record set by Paavo Nurmi in 1924.