Mariya Lasitskene


Mariya Aleksandrovna Lasitskene, née Kuchina, is a Russian athlete who specialises in the high jump. She won the gold medal at the 2015, 2017 and the 2019 World Championships.

Career

Lasitskene won her first international medal at the 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics, where she cleared a personal best of 1.85 m to take the silver medal behind Italian Alessia Trost. She was also the silver medallist at the 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival and 2009 Gymnasiade.
In the inaugural 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, Lasitskene won a gold medal in the girls' high jump with a clearance of 1.89 m, ahead of Alessia Trost.
She started her 2011 season with a major scalp in the form of Yelena Slesarenko, who she defeated with an indoor best jump of 1.90 m. A greater effort soon followed on the Moravia High Jump Tour meet in Třinec, as she cleared 1.97 m to claim the world junior indoor best which Desislava Aleksandrova had held since 1994.
Lasitskene has also won an ex-aequo gold medal at the 2014 World Indoor Championships and a silver at the 2014 European Championships. At the 2015 European Indoor Championships she won gold as she did later at the 2015 World Championships with a personal best of 2.01 m.
Following her world championships win, she was considered a favorite to win the Olympic title at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. However, she was barred from competing when the CAS upheld their decision to ban the Russian Track and Field Federation from the Games for systematic doping. At a domestic competition she jumped a height of 2.00 m—a height that would've easily won gold in Rio. In April 2017, her application to compete as a neutral athlete until Russia is reinstated was accepted; this allows Lasitskene to resume competition despite the Federation's ban. Her first competition back was the third Diamond League in the series at Eugene. She won the women's high jump with a personal best and world leading height of 2.03 m.
She improved to 2.04 m on 11 June 2017 in Hengelo. On 6 July 2017 she set a new personal best at the Diamond League in Lausanne with a height of 2.06 m, a Diamond League record. She followed up her strong performances in the Diamond League competitions by defending her world title later in London on 12 August 2017 with a height of 2.03 m.
Lasitskene wrote on Instagram that she was “totally not surprised about this outcome” and planned to compete under a neutral flag. “The only thing that confuses us is that the athletes are alone in their struggle, and the leaders of our sport all this time have been protecting us only in words,” Lasitskene said.

International competitions

Personal bests

Winning streak (45)

From 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2018 Lasitskene won 45 tournaments in a row. On 13 July 2018, the streak breaking was interrupted in Rabat, one of the IAAF Diamond League meetings, where she claimed bronze.
  1. V All-Russian Summer Universiade – Smolensk, Russia
  2. Russian Cup – Zhukovsky, Russia
  3. Stars of 2016 – Moscow, Russia
  4. Y. Lukashevich and V. Seredkin Memorial – Chelyabinsk, Russia
  5. N. G. Ozolin and V. M. Dyachkov Memorial – Moscow, Russia
  6. Governor Cup – Volgograd, Russia
  7. Russian Winter Meeting – Moscow, Russia
  8. Merited Master of the USSR V. I. Alekseev Memorial – Saint Petersburg, Russia
  9. 2017 Russian Indoor Athletics Championships – Moscow, Russia
  10. Prefontaine Classic – Eugene, USA
  11. 12th Opole Festival of Jumpers – Opole, Poland
  12. Golden Gala Pietro Mennea – Rome, Italy
  13. FBK Games – Hengelo, Netherlands
  14. Paavo Nurmi Games – Turku, Finland
  15. V. M. Evstratov Memorial – Zhukovsky, Russia
  16. Bauhaus-Galan – Stockholm, Sweden
  17. Moscow Oblast Championships – Zhukovsky, Russia
  18. Brothers Znamensky Memorial – Zhukovsky, Russia
  19. Athletissima – Lausanne, Switzerland
  20. Anniversary Games – London, Great Britain
  21. Russian Cup – Yerino, Russia
  22. Atletica Mondiale – Padova, Italy
  23. Herculis – Monaco
  24. 2017 Russian Athletics Championships – Zhukovsky, Russia
  25. 2017 World Athletics Championships – London, Great Britain
  26. Kamila Skolimowska Memorial – Warsaw, Poland
  27. Memorial Van Damme – Brussels, Belgium
  28. Christmas Starts – Minsk, Belarus
  29. Y. Lukashevich and V. Seredkin Memorial – Chelyabinsk, Russia
  30. N. G. Ozolin and V. M. Dyachkov Memorial – Moscow, Russia
  31. Battle of the Sexes – Moscow, Russia
  32. Stalingrad Cup – Volgograd, Russia
  33. Banskobystricka latka – Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
  34. Madrid Indoor – Madrid, Spain
  35. 2018 Russian Indoor Athletics Championships – Moscow, Russia
  36. Copernicus Cup – Torun, Poland
  37. Muller Indoor Grand Prix Glasgow – Glasgow, Scotland
  38. 2018 World Indoor Athletics Championships – Birmingham, Great Britain
  39. Shanghai Golden Grand Prix – Shanghai, China
  40. Golden Gala Pietro Mennea – Rome, Italy
  41. FBK Games – Hengelo, Netherlands
  42. Bauhaus-Galan – Stockholm, Sweden
  43. Opole Festival of Jumpers – Opole, Poland
  44. V. M. Evstratov Memorial – Zhukovsky, Russia
  45. Meeting de Paris – Paris, France

    Personal life

Lasitskene was awarded the rank of senior lieutenant after winning the 2017 Diamond League.
Russian sports journalist and Eurosport commentator of Lithuanian descent Vladas "Tashev" Lasitskas married Mariya on 17 March 2017. She then took her husband's family name.