Galina Zybina

Galina Zybina
	Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	80 kg (176 lb)
Sport
Sport	Shot put; Discus throw; Javelin throw
Club	Zenit St. Petersburg; Trud St. Petersburg
Coached by	Viktor Alekseyev
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	17.50 m (SP, 1964); 48.62 m (DT, 1955); 54.98 m (JT, 1958)
Medal record
Representing Soviet Union
Olympic Games
European Championships

Galina Ivanovna Zybina (Russian: Гали́на Ива́новна Зы́бина, born 22 January 1931) is a retired Soviet and Russian athlete and coach. She competed in the shot put at the 1952, 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics and finished in first, second, seventh and third place, respectively; in 1952 she also finished fourth in the javelin throw. Between 1952 and 1956, she set eight consecutive world records^[3] and 14 national records in the shot put.^[4] In 1953, she became the first woman to throw over 16 meters when she threw 16.20 m.^[5]

Biography

As a child Zybina was much weakened by hunger and cold during the Siege of Leningrad in World War II, which killed her mother and brother,^[4] while her father died at the front lines.^[6] Yet, by 1950, she had become a top Soviet thrower and won a bronze in the javelin at the European championships. During her entire career as a competitor and coach Zybina accentuated on technique rather than strength. Owing to her age, she was left out of the Soviet team before the 1968 Olympics and retired in 1969, although she was still the second-best Soviet shot putter at the time. In retirement she worked as athletics coach in Värska, Estonia, which was then under the Soviet occupation.^[5]

Zybina was married to Yury Fyodorov, a Russian captain and commander of the Russian cruiser Aurora in 1964–85. The cruiser was famous for starting the 1917 October Revolution, but by 1960s was a museum ship.^[5] In 1959 she gave birth to a son, which caused her to demonstrate a sub-par performance at the 1960 Olympics (seventh place).