Tatyana Averina


Tatyana Borisovna Averina was a Soviet Russian speed skater. After getting married, her name also appeared as Tatyana Barabash.

Biography

Averina was trained by Boris Stenin at Burevestnik Voluntary Sports Society in Gorky. In 1970 she was selected for the USSR National Team. She finished in 12th place at the 1970 World All-around Championships and next year won a bronze medal in the 1,000 m at European Championships. In 1972, she won the 500 m event at the Winter Universiade.
Between 1974 and 1975 Averina broke world records eleven times: four times in the 1000 m, twice in the 1,500 m, twice in the 500 m and three times in the mini combination. In 1976 she earned the title Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR. She participated in the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck and won medals on all four distances. The Swiss newspaper Sport had written shortly before the Olympic Games, "Narrow specialisation has solidly taken root in the skating sport and these days it will be very hard to find an athlete who will compete in all distances and achieve successes in all, similar to Clas Thunberg and Lidia Skoblikova."
Averina took part in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, but did not win any medal. After having won 3 silver medals in earlier years, Averina became World Allround Champion in 1978. In 1979, she became Soviet Allround Champion. Earlier, she had become Soviet Sprint Champion three times.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Averina at important championships she participated in, listing the years in which she won each:
ChampionshipsGold medalSilver medalBronze medal
Winter Olympics1976
1976 		–1976
1976
World Allround19781974
1975
1976		–
World Sprint–––
European Allround–––
Soviet Allround1979––
Soviet Sprint1973
1974
1975		––

World records

Over the course of her career, Averina skated eleven world records:
EventResultDateVenue
1,500 m2:14.001 April 1974Medeo
1,000 m1:26.402 April 1974Medeo
Mini combination180.0892 April 1974Medeo
500 m41.7011 March 1975Medeo
1,500 m2:09.9011 March 1975Medeo
1,000 m1:26.1212 March 1975Medeo
Mini combination176.93012 March 1975Medeo
1,000 m1:25.2822 March 1975Medeo
500 m41.0629 March 1975Medeo
1,000 m1:23.4629 March 1975Medeo
Sprint combination168.28529 March 1975Medeo

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Averina skated her personal records.
EventResultDateVenueWR
500 m41.0629 March 1975Medeo41.69
1,000 m1:23.3 2 October 1979Medeo1:23.46
1,500 m2:07.8812 January 1979Medeo2:07.18
3,000 m4:38.4813 January 1979Medeo4:31.00
5,000 m9:04.9 29 November 1981Moscow9:01.6 

Note that Averina's personal record on the 3,000 m was not a recognised as a world record by the International Skating Union. Also note that the 5,000 m was suspended as a world record event at the 1955 ISU Congress and was reinstated at the 1982 ISU Congress.
Averina has an Adelskalender score of 184.589.