Yelizaveta Bagryantseva

From a remote Siberian salt-mining town, Yelizaveta Bagryantseva skiied in her youth and took up the discus throw while studying at the Novosibirsk Technicum of Physical Culture (now Novosibirsk College of Olympic Reserve). After graduating in 1941, Bagryantseva worked as a physical education teacher in Irkutsk until 1949, when she enrolled at the Moskva Institute of Physical Culture. The same year Bagryantseva took part in the Soviet Championships for the first time, winning a silver medal, her only medal at that meet. Bagryantseva was on the Soviet national team from 1949-52 and her career apex was the 1952 Olympics, where she won a silver medal. She also won silvers at the 1949 and 1951 World Student Games. Later Bagryantseva married Yury Verkhoshansky, a renowned Soviet coach and physical education professor, and worked as an athletics coach alongside her husband in Russia and later in Italy.

Personal Best: DT – 49.20 (1953).