Olga MINEYEVA

Olga Mineyeva did not emerge as a significant force in international women's

distance running until comparatively late in her career, when she set a personal

best of 1min 57.8sec over 800m in 1979 at the age of 27. Olga further reduced

this to 1min 55.1sec when she beat a crack field of Soviet runners at the

Znamenskiy Brothers memorial meet in Moscow on 6 July 1980. This spring boarded

Mineyeva to one of the favourites for the 800m crown at the Moscow Olympic Games

held later that month, which she confirmed by winning the first semi-final in 1min 57.5sec.
The other semi-final was won by compatriot Nadezhda Olizarenko, who immediately

dashed to the lead in the final held two days later on 27 July. Mineyeva held back

in the early stages, before moving up to second place after 300m, but she

(see photo above, No. 278) was unable to catch the flying Olizarenko (No. 281),

who went on to break the world record. Olga's silver medal-winning time of

1min 54.81sec was also under the existing world mark.

Mineyeva's silver medal performance at Moscow was somewhat tarnished by her

involvement in the controversy that surrounded the 4 x 400m relay. Mineyeva and

teammate Lyudmila Chernova were members of the Soviet Union team which won its

semi-final of the 4 x 400m relay on 31 July and advanced to the following day's final.

Absent from the semi-final line-up were Irina Bagryantseva and Nina Zyuskova,

who had respectively finished fourth and fifth in the individual 400m event.

Needless to say, there was considerable consternation when Mineyeva and

Chernova produced medical certificates to explain their inability to compete

in the final, and were replaced by the fresh Zyuskova and Bagryantseva,

who proceeded to help the Soviet squad to a narrow victory over East Germany.

(Ron Casey)