Irina Nikolaevna Belova (; née Ilyichova born 27 March 1968 in

Angarsk Angarsk ( rus, Ангарск, p=ɐnˈgarsk) is a city and the administrative center of Angarsky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Kitoy River, from Irkutsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: History Ang ...

) is a retired heptathlete from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In her early career she represented USSR, with a fourth place at the 1990 European Championships and a bronze medal at the 1991 World Championships. Her career highlight came in 1992 as she won an Olympic silver medal. In February the same year she set the world record in indoor

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek language, Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) (). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Anci ...

with 4991 points. She "won" the pentathlon at the 1993 World Indoor Championships, but failed a

drug test A drug test (also often toxicology screen or tox screen) is a technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, or saliva, oral fluid/saliva—to determine the presence or absence of specified parent ...

and received a four-year suspension and her performance for the competition was nullified and she was forced to return the gold medal (yet she kept the silver medal from the Olympics obtained in the previous year).Sports Reference - Irina Belova
Upon returning she won two silver medals at the European and World Indoor Championships respectively. She retired after the 2001 season.

Personal bests

Achievements

References

External links

*
Irina Belova
at All-Athletics.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Belova, Irina 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Angarsk Russian heptathletes Russian sportspeople in doping cases Soviet heptathletes Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Doping cases in athletics Olympic athletes for the Unified Team Olympic silver medalists for the Unified Team World Athletics Championships medalists Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) CIS Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics 20th-century Russian sportswomen

Personal bests

Achievements

See also

References

External links