Friday, May 9, 2014

Anna Chicherova



            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>