Men have always competed, who is stronger in wrestling, in swimming, who is faster in running, who can jump higher or further. These competitions did not leave indifferent women. Many chose gymnastic exercises and, of course, the "queen of sports", which we do not quite rightly call athletics. Those who have achieved some results in this sport will never call it easy. But still this does not stop the girls. And they continue to choose for themselves entertaining disciplines. Running, jumping, throwing, performed with a high level of skill, leave no one indifferent: both the participants themselves and numerous spectators.
The heroine of this article is the Olympic champion in the triple jump (London, 2012), twice winner of the bronze medal in Beijing 2008 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the 2010 world champion indoors, repeated winner and winner of various international competitions , once began its ascent to the heights of the world fame of the “queen of sports”. Almost all athletics fans now know this star, not only in the countries of the former Soviet Union, but also far beyond their borders. This is a native of Kazakhstan Olga Rypakova.
Biography
Olga was born in a sports family on November 30, 1984, in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakh SSR. She started athletics under the control and on the recommendation of her parents. Olga's dad was involved in decathlon and at the age of eight brought her to the athletics sectors. The first coach in her youth was Tatyana Nazarova, a pupil of her father. Olga Sergeevna Rypakova was initially engaged in long jumps and heptathlon. The first international start of the athlete was the youth world championship, which was held in 2000 in South America, the city of Santiago (Chile). There she made her long jump debut and took only 23th place so far. From the athlete’s memories, this was her great achievement at that time, because all the other participants in the competitions were several years older than her.
First achievements
Olga Rypakova at the age of eighteen became the champion of Kazakhstan in the heptathlon among adult participants. In Kingston (Jamaica) that same year she won a silver medal at the World Junior Championships . Having become the gold medalist of the Asian Games in Doha (Qatar) in the heptathlon, the athlete nevertheless in 2007 decided to focus on the long jump. Since these disciplines require very high performance in the sprint, and not the technical jumping abilities of the athlete, then, given the physical inclinations, it was reasonable to choose the kind of athletics where rivals could be beaten more by technique than speed. And of course, the choice ultimately fell on the triple jump - this is a sophisticated kind of athletics, which consists of the phases of run, jump, step, jump and touchdown. To achieve significant results in this form, the athlete requires speed training, jumping ability, coordination and the ability not to extinguish the speed of the run when performing the jump itself.
Triple jump record holders
If men competed in the triple jump from the very beginning of the Olympic Games of our time (1896), then for women this discipline was introduced into the Olympic program of competitions only after a hundred years in Atlanta (USA), in 1996. The first Olympic champion in this discipline was the Ukrainian jumper Inessa Kravets, who a year earlier in Gothenburg (Sweden) had set a world record in the discipline of triple running distance among women (15 meters 50 centimeters). In men, the world record belongs to the Englishman Jonathan Edwards (18 m 29 cm). It was installed in the same 1996, at the same world championship in athletics at the royal stadium of Sweden. Many people are surprised at the fact that Jonathan is not an athlete by profession, for him it's just a hobby since childhood.
Let's get back to our heroine. Olga Rypakova began her cultivation in the triple jump and on the way to Olympus.
Rypakova - Olympic champion
For each athlete, the most outstanding achievement is a victory at the Olympics. The 2008 Beijing Olympics brought Olga the fourth position, but then she still got the bronze medal, which deprived the Greek athlete for convicting of using illegal drugs. And here at the next Olympics, the athlete was already determined. At the stadium of Misty Albion - London - in 2012 Olga Rypakova won her first Olympic triple jump Olympic gold medal with a result of 14 meters 98 centimeters. In Rio de Janeiro (2016), Olga completes a series of her jumps and ends up in the top three with a bronze medal. Olga’s personal achievement in long jumps is 6.85 m. And in the triple jump in Split (Croatia), the athlete showed her best result - 15.25 m, which is the official record of Asia.
Kazakhstan sports legend
In 2016, Olga received the title "major" ahead of schedule (representing the CSKA Army Club). The track and field center in her native city of Ust-Kamenogorsk was named in her honor, where many competitions are held and Olga Rypakova's international competitions have already been held several times. The director of the center is her husband Denis Rypakov, a professional 400 meter runner, winner of the World Universiade. They have two children growing up - daughter Nastya and son Cyril. Parents do not mind that children will follow in their footsteps. The daughter, doing athletics, still preferred another sport - volleyball.
Future plans
The family promotes a healthy lifestyle. Athletics in Kazakhstan is developing rapidly, mainly due to the achievements of Olga Rypakova, which inspire modern youth. Currently, Olga is training under the guidance of her father and husband and is the record holder for medals in victories at international starts among athletes of Kazakhstan. She is not going to give up her sports career and is preparing to perform this year at the World Championships in London. He will also take part in the Asian Games and at the subsequent Olympics in 2020, which will be held in Tokyo (Japan).