Name Irina Privalova Role Olympic athlete | Height 1.74 m Weight 54 kg | |
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Olympic medals Athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metres Similar People | ||
Olympic 400 m hurdles (Sydney 2000)
Irina Anatolyevna Privalova (Russian: Ирина Анатольевна Привалова; née Sergeyeva on 22 November 1968) is a Russian athlete who has won a gold medal at the Olympics.
She first competed in the sprint events, winning two Olympic medals in the 100 m and 200 m in 1992 whilst representing the Unified Team. Irina Privalova had been a formidable competitor during most of the 1990s but had not yet won an outdoor world championship gold medal. In 2000, she gambled successfully and switched to the 400 m hurdles discipline winning the Olympic title in Sydney 2000 in 53.02 s and a bronze in the 4 x 400 m relay team for Russia. It has been suggested that this change at the late age of 31 was because her chances of defeating Marion Jones (the overwhelming favourite for the 100 m/200 m double) were slim and the 400 m was also a repeat showdown between Marie-José Pérec and Cathy Freeman from the 1996 Atlanta Games. (That repeat showdown would not happen after Pérec left the Sydney games.)
Irina Privalova is currently the world indoor record holder in the 50 m (5.96 s), 60 m (6.92 s) sprints. She has also been the world indoor champion at the 60 m (7.02 s in 1991), 200 m (22.15 s in 1993), and 400 m (50.23 s in 1995) events.
Privalova achieved her best time (10.77 s) in the 100 m for nine years in 1994.
