Stefka Kostadinova
Stefka Kostadinowa in 2012
Stefka Kostadinowa ( Bulgarian Стефка Костадинова, English transcription Stefka Kostadinova; born March 25, 1965 in Plovdiv ) is a former Bulgarian high jumper. Kostadinowa 1996 Olympic gold medalist. Since 30 August 1987, she holds with 2.09m high jump world record.
Life and career
Originally Stefka Kostadinowa wanted to be a basketball player, but then switched to athletics, where there was less competition. It began with regular training at Dobri Ivanov and E. Todorov at the Children's and Youth Sports School in her hometown of Plovdiv and counted the German high jumper and two -time Olympic champion Ulrike Meyfarth to their role models. At the age of 15, she jumped 1.84 meters.
The two- meter mark crossed Kostadinowa the first time in 1984. Subsequently, they became the dominant high jumper. 1986 equaled Kostadinowa first with 2.07 m two -year-old world record her compatriot Lyudmila Andonowa. Six days later, they improved it by one centimeter. In the same year she won the title at the European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart. Your athletic development they crowned at the World Athletics Championships 1987 in Rome. With the world record height of 2.09 m, it was title holder. She won in the 1980s 34 high jump competitions in a row and after a defeat against Heike Redetzky (later Henkel) was followed by another series of victories with 19 successes. From 1989/90 Kostadinowa could not build on his earlier successes, after which it was replaced by Heike Henkel as the dominant high jumper after a serious knee injury, a broken foot and following operations. Originally they had planned to increase the world record in high jump in the style of Serhiy Bubka to 2.15 m. Fierce criticism brought her the time of Socialism in Bulgaria her sharp business sense, since they did not participate in meetings, when appeared to her the appearance money to be too low.
Kostadinowas Olympic career was initially disappointing. In 1984, she was not allowed to participate because of the boycott of the games in Los Angeles by the Eastern Bloc countries. At the 1988 Games in Seoul and 1992 Barcelona remained under their form and took only a second and a fifth. Then Kostadinowa interrupted her career for the birth of their child.
In 1995, however, she returned to the international athletics scene and followed up on their earlier successes. At the World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg she won the title before the Germans and the Ukrainian Alina Astafei Inha Babakowa. Kostadinowa kept their good form and won at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 with 2.05 m for the first time the Olympic gold medal.
The following year, she won her fifth title at the World Indoor Championships in Paris. In the summer of 1997, she injured her left foot. After two surgeries, she ended her active career in 1998. Overall, it managed to successfully jump over 2.00 meters, as often as any other high jumper 197 times. Four times they won the election Sportsman of the Year in their home country, more often than any other Bulgarian athlete.
At a height of 1.80 meters Kostadinowas competition weight was 60 kg. She went to for their home club Trakia Plovdiv and was later coached by Nikolai Petrov, whom she married in 1989. Kostadinowa distinguished primarily by their start-up speed (100 - m personal best: 11.68 seconds ) from. Problems they had in competitions under rainy conditions after they had been injured at the beginning of her career on a wet surface.
On 11 November 2005 Stefka Kostadinowa was elected president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee. Previously, she had begun to her days as a high jumper with organizing sports events for orphans in their homeland.
In October 2012 Kostadinowa was included in the IAAF Hall of Fame.
World record development
- 2.07 m, May 25, 1986, Sofia Setting the world record of Lyudmila Andonowa
- 2.08 m 31 May, 1986 Sofia
- 2.09 m, August 30, 1987, Rome
Awards
- Bulgaria's Sportswoman of the Year: 1985, 1987, 1995, 1996
- 2012: Inclusion in the IAAF Hall of Fame