Sport Athletics Role Olympic athlete Event(s) 1500 m, 3000 m Height 1.65 m | Club Dynamo Krasnodar Weight 57 kg Name Lyudmila Bragina | |
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Born 24 July 1943 (age 80) ( 1943-07-24 ) Sverdlovsk, Russia Personal best(s) 1500 m – 4:01.38 (1972)
3000 m – 8:27.12 (1976) Olympic medals Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 1500 metres Similar People Paola Pigni, Tatyana Kazankina, Gunhild Hoffmeister | ||
Lyudmila Ivanovna Bragina (Russian: Людмила Ивановна Брагина, born 24 July 1943) is a retired Russian middle distance runner. She competed for the Soviet Union in the 1500 m at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics; she won the event in 1972 and finished fifth in 1976. In July 1972 she set a new 1500 m world record at the Soviet championships, and then progressively improved it in round 1, semifinal and final of the 1972 Olympics. The same year she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. She also set three world records in the 3000 m, in 1972, 1974 and 1976. At the European Championships, Bragina won four silver medals: in the 3,000 m outdoors (1974), and in the 800 m (1970) and 1,500 m indoors (1971–72).
In 1960 Bragina started training in the high jump, and changed to running only in 1964. Born with weak lungs in the cold Urals, she had a career-threatening bout of pneumonia in 1966. After recovering she moved to the south of Russia, in Krasnodar, where she later worked as an athletics coach.