Name Mariya Kuchina Weight 60 kg (132 lb) Height 1.8 m | Sport Track and field Events High jump Personal best(s) 2.01 m | |
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Mariya kuchina 1 97 world junior best
Mariya Aleksandrovna Lasitskene (Russian: Мария Александровна Ласицкене; née Kuchina Russian: Кучина; born 14 January 1993) is a Russian track and field athlete who specialises in the high jump. She won the gold medal at the 2015 and 2017 and and the 2019 World Championships.
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Career
Lasitskene won her first international medal at the 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics, where she cleared a personal best of 1.85 m to take the silver medal behind Italian Alessia Trost. She was also the silver medallist at the 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival and 2009 Gymnasiade.
In the inaugural Summer Youth Olympics, Lasitskene won a gold medal in the girls' high jump with a clearance of 1.86 m, ahead of Alessia Trost.
She started her 2011 season with a major scalp in the form of Yelena Slesarenko, who she defeated with an indoor best jump of 1.90 m. A greater effort soon followed on the Moravia High Jump Tour meet in Třinec, as she cleared 1.97 m to claim the world junior indoor best which Desislava Aleksandrova had held since 1994.
Lasitskene won the gold medal at the 2015 World Championships with a personal best of 2.01 m. Lasitskene has also won the gold medal both at the 2014 World Indoor Championships and at the 2015 European Indoor Championships. Lasitskene has also won the silver medal at the 2014 European Championships.
Following her world championships win, she was considered a favorite to win the Olympic title at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. However, her dreams were cut short when the CAS upheld their decision to ban the Russian Track and Field Federation from the Games. At a domestic competition she jumped a height of 2.00m—a height that would've easily won gold in Rio—only 2 hours after she learned that she would not get to compete at the Olympics. In April 2017, her application to compete as a neutral athlete until Russia is reinstated was accepted; this allows Lasitskene to resume competition despite the Federation's ban. Her first competition back was the third Diamond League in the series at Eugene. She won the women's high jump with a personal best and world leading height of 2.03m.
She improved to 2.04m on 11 June 2017 in Hengelo. On 6 July 2017 she set a new personal best at the Diamond League in Lausanne with a height of 2.06m, a Diamond League record. She followed up her strong performances in the Diamond League competitions by defending her world title later in London on 12 August 2017 with a height of 2.03m.