Irina PRIVALOVA

Despite having successfully returned in 1998 from the injury that caused her to miss the entire 1997 outdoor season, Irina Privalova continued to be plagued with injuries during 1999, and she competed sparingly during that year. She won the 100m in the Russian national championships at Tula on 29 July in a fast time of 11.05sec, but, although she was entered in the 100m at the World Championships in Seville, she subsequently withdrew from that competition.

Although Privalova had recovered from injury by the beginning of 2000, she was starting to take stock of her athletic career. Despite having been highly competitive in Olympic Games and World Championships finals for a decade, she had yet to win an individual gold medal, having won a silver medal, three bronze medals, and produced four fourth place finishes. The chances of her winning a gold medal in her regular events at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney seemed slim, with Marion Jones (USA) considered a certainty for the 100m/200m double, and the 400m shaping up as a match race between Cathy Freeman (Australia) and Marie-Jose Perec (France).

Privalova thus undertook the ambitious aim at 31 years of age of winning an Olympic gold medal in a new event, the 400m Hurdles. She debuted at this event with a very impressive 54.49sec at Moscow on 12 July. She improved on this to 54.21sec at Tula on 25 July, and then to 54.06sec when beating a quality field at Monaco on 18 August. At Sydney on 27 September, Privalova's story had a fairy tale ending, when she easily won the Olympic Gold medal (see photo above) in a sensational 53.02sec. To top it off, she anchored the Russian team to a bronze medal in the 4x400m relay three days later. (Ron Casey)