article by Nicholas Pucci
The greatest mystic of all times? Well, when it comes to Yana Klochkova the question has good credentials to find an answer in the affirmative, although it is always difficult to compare champions from different eras. And when it comes to mixed, the range of those who could aspire to that title is wide. Nonetheless this girl born on August 7, 1982 in Simferopol, Ukraine, she was the dominatrix of the specialty that combines the four styles of swimming at the beginning of the New Millennium.
Virtually unrivaled in the European field, where, just 15 years old, she conquered the bronze in the 200m behind Oksana Verevka and Martina Moravcova and the silver in the 400m medley beaten by the Irish Michelle Smith at the continental event in Seville in 1997, already the following year, 1998, Kolchkova is silver in 4’38 “60 on the 400m medley at the World Championships in Perth, in the wake of the Chinese Yan Chen, to then score twice over both distances both at the European Championships in Istanbul in 1999 and at those of Helsinki in 2000 (in which he also adds gold on the 400sl), in preparation for his first Olympic participation.
The Sydney 2000 Games represent the definitive consecration for Klochkova, confirming herself invincible both on the 200 (won by a large margin in the Olympic record of 2’10″68) that out of the 400m medley, which in this case also combines the world record of 4’33″59later adding to his collection of medals too silver on the 800slbehind the American Brooke Bennett.
Foray into freestyle that the not yet 20-year-old Ukrainian repeated the following year at the Fukuoka World Championships in 2001, making the gold on the 400sl in 4’07″30, while in the medley he suffers one of his rare defeats on the shorter distance of the 200m, overtaken by the American Maggie Bowen, instead having no difficulty in winning the 400m racereversing the order of arrival with the US.
Leaving aside the collection of European medals (there will be 16 at the end of his career, of which 10 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze), the last two years of Klochkova’s activity saw her undefeated in medleys, given that she achieved as many doubles 200/400 both at the 2003 Barcelona World Championship (2’10″75, championship record, and 4’36″74 respectively) than in his farewell pass at the 2004 Athens Gameswhere on the 200m she clocked 2’11″14 to hold off the ambitions of the American Amanda Beard and the representative of Zimbabwe, Kirsty Coventry, while on the 400m her 4’34″83 was enough to contain the assault by the American Kaitlin Sandeno, which reaches her only 0″12 cents away.
The phenomenal Ukrainian swimmer understands that the time has come to say enough, putting an end to a sensational career which, being studded with only individual medals, between the Olympics, World Cups and European Championships recites a booty that consists of 18 golds, 5 silvers and 4 bronzesas if to say that only the crumbs are really touched by the opponents.
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