Yelizaveta Aleksandrovna Yermolayeva (; born 2 April 1930) is a former

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, ranging from 500 metres up to . The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distanc ...

. Yermolayeva won the

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

at the 1957 World University Games in

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, her first international success. She also won at the 1958 European Championships in

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, beating

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Diane Leather Diane Susan Leather Charles née Leather (7 January 19335 September 2018) was an English athlete who was the Mile run world record progression#Women, first woman to run a sub-5-minute mile. Inspired to take up running aged 19 after watching t ...

in the championship record time of 2:06.3;

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

n sports statistician Jan Popper ranked her the world's best at the distance that year. Yermolayeva was one of the favorites for the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

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, but was unable to compete due to injuries.

References

1930 births Living people Soviet female middle-distance runners Athletes from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast European Athletics Championships medalists Athletes from Minsk {{USSR-athletics-bio-stub