Klavdiya Boyarskikh

With three gold medals at the 1964 Olympics and two golds at the 1966 World Championships Klavdiya Boyarskikh established herself as the world’s leading female cross-country skier of the mid-1960s. Boyarskikh started to ski at a young age in her native Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), but did not rise to prominence until she won her first two Soviet Championship titles in the 5 km and relay in 1964 and qualified for the Olympic Games. At the 1964 Winter Olympic, Boyarskikh first won the 10 km, surprisingly beating her more famous teammates Yevdokiya Mekshilo and Mariya Gusakova, in a very close race. Four days later Boyarskikh won the 5 km, again narrowly defeating her closest rival Mirja Lehtonen from Finland. In the relay race, Boyarskikh, by then twice Olympic champion, skied the fastest leg of the competition to secure the Soviet gold medal, thus becoming the first female cross-country skier to win all available events at an Olympic Games. Boyarskikh did not perform well in 1965, winning only the 10 km race at Holmenkollen, but won again two Soviet titles in 1966, this time at 5 and 10 km. At the 1966 World Championships Boyarskikh won gold in the 10 km and relay race, but was beaten by her teammate Alevtina Kolchina in the 5 km race. In 1966 Boyarskikh also won a second consecutive Holmenkollen title at 10 km. In 1967 she won her last two Soviet titles, again in the 5 km and relay. She also won the 5 km race at Holmenkollen in 1967. Boyarskikh was not selected to the 1968 Soviet Olympic team, so she retired from sports and began working as a cross-country coach with Lokomotiv Sverdlovsk, a post she hold until her death. Since 1970, the Klavdiya Boyarskikh Cup in cross-country skiing is held every year in her hometown Yekaterinburg.