Olha Bryzhina

Olha Bryzhina (, née Olga Arkad'evna Vladykina; ; born June 30, 1963, in Krasnokamsk, Perm Oblast) is a retired athlete who represented the Soviet Union (until 1991) and later Ukraine.

Career Bryzhina trained at Dynamo in Voroshilovgrad. Competing in the 400 metres and 4 × 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 (2025). Bryzhina also became world champion in 1987.

Bryzhina 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 300 m 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 400 m personal best of 48.27 seconds makes her the 6th fastest performer of all time in a laned 400 m race. She achieved this in the same race that Marita Koch set the current 400 m world record of 47.60 seconds on 6 October 1985 at the Bruce Stadium in Canberra (Australia). who are also successful track runners (competing for Ukraine).

Bryzhina and her daughter Yelizaveta both had a best performance of 22.44 seconds over 200 m as of December 2012.

Personal bests 200 metres - 22.44 (1985) 400 metres - 48.27 (1985)

Achievements