View source for Valentina Tikhomirova

===Early life and European champion===
Born Valentina Lomakina ({{langx|ru|Ломакина}}) in [[Makhachkala]], [[Dagestan]] (then the [[Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic]] in the Soviet Union),<ref name=SR>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200418110631/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ti/valentina-tikhomirova-1.html Valentina Tikhomirova]. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2015-12-19.</ref> she began to establish herself in the [[women's pentathlon]] in the early 1960s.<ref name=Brink>[http://trackfield.brinkster.net/Profile.asp?ID=2755&Gender=W Valentina Tikhomirova]. Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2015-12-19.</ref>

Fellow Soviet [[Irina Press]] was among the world's leading athletes at that time, meaning Tikhomirova had strong competition at national level. In 1963 she placed fourth at the [[Soviet Spartakiade]], which was won by [[Tatyana Shchelkanova]]. She reached the national podium for the first time at the [[Soviet Athletics Championships]] in 1966, behind both Press and Shchelkanova.<ref name=AFTS>''USSR Athletics Statistics''. [[Association of Track and Field Statisticians]]. London 1988. Retrieved on 2015-12-19.</ref> Despite failing to break into the top two at national level, her season's best performances ranked her highly at global level: she was seventh in the world in 1964 with a personal best of 4775 points, then reached the top five in the 1965 season with a score of 4763 points.<ref name=Brink/>

The instigation of a controversial [[sex verification in sports|sex verification test]] by the [[International Amateur Athletics Federation]] for the [[1966 European Athletics Championships]] saw many key women miss the tournament in protest, among them Press and Shchelkanova.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-HhAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=x6MMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1810%2C4738602 Athletics - Top Athletes Miss European Games - Objections to Medical Test?]. [[Glasgow Herald]] (1966-08-30), p. 6. Retrieved on 2015-12-19.</ref> This left Tikhomirova as the Soviet Union's sole representative in the pentathlon and she duly won the gold medal with a score of 4787 points, extending Soviet dominance in the event since 1954 ([[Aleksandra Chudina]] and [[Galina Bystrova]] being her predecessors). She defeated West Germany's [[Heide Rosendahl]] by a margin of 22 points.<ref>[http://www.gbrathletics.com/ic/ecw.htm European Championships (women)]. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-12-19.</ref>