Tatiana KOLPAKOVA

Tatyana Kolpakova took up athletics at age 15 and was selected for the Soviet national team in 1979, after finishing fourth at the 1979 Soviet Championships. Kolpakova was only a last minute replacement for the 1980 Soviet Olympic team, but was chosen after Soviet-Lithuanian Vilma Bardauskienė was injured before the Olympics. In the Olympic final, Kolpakova jumped 7.06 in the final round, only three centimetres short of the world record to win a surprising gold medal. After the Olympics, Kolpakova won gold at the 1981 Universiade and a bronze medal at the 1981 European Cup. She then married fellow Soviet-Kyrgyz horizontal jumper Shamil Abbyasov, who won triple jump gold at the 1981 European Indoor championships, and retired from sports, working as an athletics coach in her native Kyrgyzstan until 2001, when she and her family moved to Korolyov, Russia. From 2001-04 Kolpakova worked as a director of the sports school in Korolyov and beginning in 2004 she worked with the Committee for Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korolyov. She has also been a deputy director of football club Metallist Korolyov.

Personal Best: LJ – 7.06 (1980).