Valentyna TSERBE-NESSINA

A debutante on the World Cup circuit in 1994, Valentyna Tserbe had hardly shown impressive results before coming to the Olympics. Her best had been 22nd in the sprint event at the Antholz World Cup, but in that same event in Lillehammer, she did much better. An early starter, Tserbe hit all targets and led for much of the competition, before being beaten by Svetlana Paramygina and Myriam Bédard by 0.1 and 1.2 seconds, respectively. Her bronze medal was the first ever Olympic medal for Ukraine as an independent nation, and it would remain Tserbe's greatest career success. At the 1996 World Championships, she won another bronze, this time with the Ukrainian relay team. The relay also gave Tserbe her only World Cup win, in 1997. Retiring after the 1998 season, she settled in Pryluky (Ukraine).