Olga Bryzgina

Olha Bryzhina

Personal information
Born	(1963-06-30) June 30, 1963 (age 53)
Height	1.71 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Weight	63 kg (139 lb)
Sport
Country	Soviet Union  Ukraine
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	4 × 100m relay
Medal record Olympic Games Representing  Soviet Union 1988 Seoul 400 m 1988 Seoul 4x400 m relay Representing  Unified Team 1992 Barcelona 4x400 m relay 1992 Barcelona 400 m World Championships Representing  Soviet Union 1987 Rome 400 m 1991 Tokyo 4x400 m relay 1987 Rome 4x400 m relay

Olha Bryzhina (Ukrainian: Ольга Бризгіна, maiden name Olga Arkad'evna Vladykina; Russian: Ольга Аркадьевна Владыкина; born June 30, 1963 in Krasnokamsk, Perm Oblast) is a retired athlete who represented Soviet Union (until 1991) and later Ukraine.

She trained at Dynamo in Voroshilovgrad. Competing in the 400 metres and 4 x 400 metres relay, she was a particularly successful Olympian with three gold medals and one silver. At the 1988 Olympics the Soviet relay team set a new world record of 3:15.17 minutes which is still unbeaten (as of 2012^[update]). Bryzhina also became world champion in 1987.

Bryzhina successfully defeated Florence Griffith Joyner at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in the 4 × 400 m relay. Both runners ran the final leg of the relay and took the baton at about the same time. "Flo-Jo" ran a well paced race, chasing Bryzhina closely, and tried to challenge Bryzhina at the 300m point. However, the challenge from Flo-Jo was unsuccessful and Bryzhina won by a 4m margin, taking gold for the Soviet Union along with a new world record for the USSR team. Bryzhina's time of 47.7 seconds in the 1988 Olympic relay is one of the fastest relay legs ever run by a woman in the history of track and field.

Bryzhina's 400m personal best of 48.27 seconds is the women's 4th best result of all time in a laned 400m race. She achieved this in the same race that Marita Koch set the current 400m world record of 47.60 seconds on 6 October 1985 at the Bruce Stadium in Canberra (Australia).

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