Anna Chicherova is a Russian athlete who was born on July
22, 1982 in Erevan, Armenia, who specializes in high jump. She started high
jumping at the age of seven under her father, who was a professional high
jumper at the time. Due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, Chichervoa
and her family moved to Russia. There she began training with Alexei Bondarenko
because her father had to start working to support their family. At 17, she
went to Moscow to enter the Russian Sports Academy, and won the World Youth
Championships in Poland with a jump of 6’2. In 2000 she finished 4th
at the World Junior Championships in Santiago, Chile. However, by the
end of 2002, her personal best of 6’3 was a minor improvement from her
jumps in 1999.
In August of 2002, she began training for the indoor season. By
2003, she had improved her personal best by 3 centimeters. On January 7, 2003,
at the Christmas Cup in Yekaterinburg, Chicherova jumped a national record 6’7
feet. The bronze medal from the 2003 World Indoor Championships, in Birmingham,
was the first serious adult medal for Chicherova. From there, she went on to
the 2004 Athens Olympics, but due to aponeurosis plantaris that she had 3 months
prior to the Olympics, she placed 6th. In 2005 she won the European
Indoor Championships, in Madrid with a jump of 6’6 feet. After this win, her
career dwindled, and she couldn’t jump higher than 6’4. However, she managed to
recover at the national trials for the 2007 World Championships in Osaka,
taking first place in the high jump. The year 2008 for Chicherova was full of
ups and downs. She missed most of the indoor season, including the World
Championships, in Valencia. She started the outdoor season with good jumps,
but went down at the Moscow Open in June, and stopped competing for two weeks
to recover her technique. She did go to the 2008 Olympics as an underdog, and
received a bronze medal, with a jump of 6’7. In 2009, she was out for most of
the indoor season because of surgery on an ankle joint. However, at the Russian trials in 2009,
Chicherova jumped 6’5. She came to the World Championships in Berlin, and
performed a season best 6’6 and won the silver medal.
In 2010, Chicherova took a maternity leave, missing the
European Championships, in Barcelona. In the fall, she gave birth to her
daughter Nika. She continued training after she gave birth to her daughter, and
began jumping again the summer of 2011. At the World Championship in Daegu, she
earned the gold medal in high jump with a jump of 6’7. After this victory, she
went on to train for the 2012 London Olympics. She took home a gold medal with
a winning jump of 6’7.
"IAAF: Athlete
Profile for Anna Chicherova." Iaaf.org. International Association of
Athletics Federations, n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
<http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/russia/anna-chicherova-136903>.
"London Olympics
(Aug. 11, 2012)." Anderson Independent Mail. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
<http://www.independentmail.com/photos/galleries/2012/aug/11/london-olympics-aug-11-2012/88055/#section_header>.
"Russia's Most
Successful Female Athletes." RIA Novosti. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
<http://en.ria.ru/photolents/20120306/171759649_13.html>
