Tatyana Averina

Tatyana Borisovna Averina ( _ru. Татьяна Борисовна Аверина) (25 June 1950 in Gorky – 22 August 2001 in MoscowGreat Russian Encyclopedia (2006), Moscow: Bol'shaya Rossiyskaya Enciklopediya Publisher, vol. 1] ) was a Soviet Russian speed skater. After getting married, her name would also appear as Tatyana Barabash ( _ru. Татьяна Барабаш).

hort biography

She trained at Burevestnik Voluntary Sports Society in Gorky.cite book|title=All about Olympic Games.|author=Boris Khavin|publisher=Fizkultura i sport|edition = 2nd ed.|pages=p. 528|year=1979|location=Moscow|language=Russian] Averina made the USSR National Team in 1970 and was coached by Boris Stenin. Between 1974 and 1975 she broke the World Record eleven times: four times in 1000 m event [cite web|title=Speed skating, 1000 m - World Record progression|work=International Olympic Committee|url=http://www.olympic.org/common/asp/download_report.asp?file=en_report_169.pdf&id=169|accessdate=January 9|accessyear=2006] , twice in 1,500 m event [cite web|title=Speed skating, 1500 m - World Record progression|work=International Olympic Committee|url=http://www.olympic.org/common/asp/download_report.asp?file=en_report_170.pdf&id=170|accessdate=January 9|accessyear=2006] , twice in 500 m event. [cite web|title=Speed skating, 500m - World Record progression|work=International Olympic Committee|url=http://www.olympic.org/common/asp/download_report.asp?file=en_report_173.pdf&id=173|accessdate=January 9|accessyear=2006] and three times in mini combination. In 1976 she earned the title Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR. Competing for the Soviet Union, Tatyana Averina participated in the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck and won medals (two gold and two bronze) on all four distances. Ironically, the Swiss newspaper "Sport" had written shortly before the Olympic Games, "Narrow specialisation has solidly taken root in the skating sport and these days it will be very hard to find an athlete who will compete in all distances and achieve successes in all, similar to Clas Thunberg and Lidia Skoblikova."

Averina would participate in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid as well, but did not win any medals there. After having won 3 silver medals in earlier years (1974, 1975, and 1976), Averina became World Allround Champion in 1978. In 1979, she became Soviet Allround Champion. Earlier, she had become Soviet Sprint Champion three times (1973, 1974, and 1975).

Medals

An overview of medals won by Averina at important championships she participated in, listing the years in which she won each:

Note that Averina's personal record on the 3,000 m was not a recognised as a world record by the International Skating Union (ISU). Also note that the 5,000 m was suspended as a world record event at the 1955 ISU Congress and was reinstated at the 1982 ISU Congress.

Averina has an Adelskalender score of 184.589.

References

* [http://www.skateresults.com/skater/show/29 Tatyana Averina at SkateResults.com]
* [http://www.sskating.com/index.php?name=BARABASJ-AVERINA&fname=Tatjana&nat=URS&lm=l Personal records from Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database]
* [http://web.telia.com/~u46130641/adel.htm Evert Stenlund's Adelskalender pages]
* [http://www.peoples.ru/sport/skating/averina/ Short biography of Tatyana Averina] (in Russian)