Yelena Nikolayevna Nikolayeva (, born 1 February 1966 in Akshiki,

Chuvashia Chuvashia, officially known as Chuvash Republic — Chuvashia, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is the homeland of the Chuvash people, a Turkic languages, Turkic ethnic group. Its capital city, capital i ...

) is a Russian

race walker Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asses ...

. Her first international achievement was a fifth place at the 1987 World Championships, something which happened again at the 1991 World Indoor Championships. One year later she won an Olympic silver medal behind Chen Yueling. Success followed over the next years, and in 1996 she became the second and last Olympic champion in the 10 kilometres distance, which was replaced by 20 km. Proving to handle the longer distance as well, she won the title at the 2003 World Championships in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

International competitions

References

* 1966 births Living people People from Mariinsko-Posadsky District Athletes from Chuvashia Russian female race walkers Soviet female race walkers Olympic female race walkers Olympic athletes for Russia Olympic athletes for the Unified Team Olympic gold medalists for Russia Olympic silver medalists for the Unified Team Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Goodwill Games medalists in athletics Competitors at the 1998 Goodwill Games Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Russia World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships winners World Athletics Indoor Championships winners World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships winners European Athletics Championships medalists CIS Athletics Championships winners Russian Athletics Championships winners Soviet Athletics Championships winners 20th-century Russian sportswomen {{Russia-racewalk-athletics-bio-stub