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Vita Semerenko

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Vita Semerenko
Personal information
Full nameVita Oleksandrivna Semerenko
Born (1986-01-18) 18 January 1986 (age 38)[1]
Krasnopillia, Sumy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR
Height1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Weight57 kg (126 lb)
Professional information
SportBiathlon
ClubDynamo
World Cup debut2006
Olympic Games
Teams3 (20102018)
Medals2 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams0 (20072013, 20192020)
Medals7 (0 gold)
World Cup
Seasons2005–2022
Individual podiums10 (incl. 3 at World Champ.)
Updated on 22 February 2020

Vita Semerenko (Ukrainian: Віта Олександрівна Семеренко; born 18 January 1986) is a Ukrainian biathlete. She is Olympic champion in women's relay, Olympic medalist and multiple World championships medalist. She is one of the most successful Ukrainian winter athletes.

Biathlete Valentyna is her twin sister.

Career

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When she was in the fourth grade of elementary school, she took up cross-country skiing together with her twin sister Valentyna. But later they decided to switch to biathlon. In 2005 she won two medals at Junior World Championships and one at Junior European Championships. Since the competition in Ukrainian national team was quite rigorous, only Valja managed to qualify for 2006 Winter Olympics.

In 2005–06 World Cup season she debuted in German Oberhof in women's relay which was her only World Cup race in that season. Next season she had her first World Cup race – individual race in Swedish Östersund where she with three misses finished 23rd as the best among Ukrainians. Her first World Cup podium came on 20 December 2008, in Austrian Hochfilzen, where she was second in sprint.

She also competes sometimes in summer biathlon competitions, including World and European championships. But Vita's greatest achievement in this modification of biathlon was in 2012 when she won City-Biathlon in Püttlingen, Germany, which was very popular among leading biathletes.

She won the silver medal in 4×6 km relay event at the Biathlon World Championships 2008. In the Olympic cycle between 2010 Winter Olympics and 2014 Winter Olympics she always was on the World Championships podiums winning bronze in individual in 2011, bronze in sprint in 2012 and bronze once again in sprint in 2013 (her teammate Olena Pidhrushna became then World Champion). Apart from her individual medals she also was second in women's relay in 2013.

She represented Ukraine at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.[2] In Vancouver she was one of national hopes for a medal but she didn't achieve high results.

Ukrainian stamp with 2014 Olympic champions (Vita – first from right)

On 9 February 2014, she got her bronze medal in women's sprint competition thus winning the first medal for Ukraine at the 2014 Winter Olympics. On 21 February, together with Juliya Dzhyma, Valj Semerenko and Olena Pidhrushna she won the gold medal in the Women's relay at the 2014 Winter Olympics, in Sochi, Russia.[3] This is still the greatest achievement for Ukraine in biathlon.

Due to illness, surgery and then pregnancy she missed almost three seasons, returning to competitions only in March 2016.

She qualified to represent Ukraine at the 2018 Winter Olympics.[4] She competed in all personal races at the Games with 14th place in sprint being her personal best.

She received the Best Athlete of a Month award from National Olympic Committee of Ukraine for four times – in March 2009, March 2010, March 2011, March 2012.

Personal life

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Vita is married to a footballer of a regional league Andriy Patsiuk. On 19 September 2016, she gave a birth to the son whose name is Mark.

She graduated from Sumy State Pedagogical Makarenko University.

Results

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Winter Olympics

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Year Event IN SP PU MS RL MRL
2010 Canada Vancouver, Canada 22 34 42 6
2014 Russia Sochi, Russia 29 3 10 16 1
2018 South Korea Pyeongchang, South Korea 63 14 18 24 11

World Championships

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Year Event IN SP PU MS RL MRL
2007 Italy Antholz-Anterselva, Italy 20 12 20 20 9
2008 Sweden Östersund, Sweden 13 35 DNS 4 2
2009 South Korea Pyeongchang, South Korea 12 26 19 4 DNF
2010 Russia Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia 6
2011 Russia Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia 3 18 17 25 DSQ 8
2012 Germany Ruhpolding, Germany 16 3 8 7 6 14
2013 Czech Republic Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic 5 3 9 4 2

World Cup

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Individual podiums

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Season Place Competition Rank
2008–09 Austria Hochfilzen, Austria Sprint 2
Canada Vancouver, Canada Individual 3
2009–10 Norway Oslo, Norway Mass start 2
2011–12 Russia Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia Sprint 2
Russia Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia Pursuit 3
2017–18 France Annecy, France Sprint 3
Germany Oberhof, Germany Pursuit 3

Relay podiums

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Season Place Competition Rank
2008–09 Germany Oberhof, Germany Relay 1
2010–11 Austria Hochfilzen, Austria Relay 2
Slovenia Pokljuka, Slovenia Mixed relay 2
2012–13 Austria Hochfilzen, Austria Relay 2
Germany Oberhof, Germany Relay 1
2013–14 Austria Hochfilzen, Austria Relay 1
Germany Ruhpolding, Germany Relay 3
France Annecy, France Relay 2
2017–18 Austria Hochfilzen, Austria Relay 2
Finland Kontiolahti, Finland Mixed relay 2

Positions

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Season Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass starts TOTAL
2006–07 38 51 52 40 46
2007–08 18 38 24 37
2008–09 6 10 18 17 13
2009–10 24 23 19 13 19
2010–11 7 18 18 18 15
2011–12 20 12 13 10 12
2012–13 16 10 14 3 10
2013–14 50 29 23 31
2014–15 missed
2015–16 missed
2016–17 missed

IBU Cup

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Relay podiums

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Season Place Competition Rank
2016–17 Estonia Otepää, Estonia Mixed relay 3
Estonia Otepää, Estonia Mixed relay 3

References

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  1. ^ "Vita SEMERENKO". sochi2014.com. Organizing Committee of the XXII Olympic Winter Games. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  2. ^ "Vita Semerenko, Biathlon". Vancouver 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  3. ^ "Vita Semerenko". SR/Olympic Sports. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  4. ^ "Ukrainian squad for the 2018 Winter Olympics". Ukrainian Biathlon Federation. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
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