Nataliya Dobrynska

Dobrynska in 2013
Personal information
Nationality	Ukrainian
Born	(1982-05-29) 29 May 1982 (age 42) Vinnytsia, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in)[1]
Weight	75 kg (165 lb)[1]
Sport
Country	Ukraine
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Heptathlon, pentathlon
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Ukraine Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Heptathlon World Indoor Championships 2012 Istanbul Pentathlon 2004 Budapest Pentathlon 2010 Doha Pentathlon European Championships 2010 Barcelona Heptathlon European Indoor Championships 2005 Madrid Pentathlon Hypo-Meeting 2009 Heptathlon 2004 Heptathlon

Nataliya Dobrynska (Ukrainian: Наталія Добринська; born 29 May 1982)^[2] is a retired Ukrainian athlete who competed in the combined events.^[3] She is the 2008 Beijing Olympic champion and also holds the heptathlon best in the shot put. Dobrynska was the world indoor record holder for the pentathlon with a score of 5013 points until March 2023.

She competed in the 2004 Olympics, finishing eighth. She won the silver medal in the pentathlon at the 2004 World Indoor Championships and the bronze medal at the 2005 European Indoor Championships. She finished sixth in the heptathlon at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. At the 2007 European Indoor Championships she finished fifth.^[1]

She won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Despite being one of the favourites in the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Dobrynska finished fourth just missing out on the medals. She returned to the podium at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships, taking second place in the pentathlon behind reigning heptathlon world champion Jessica Ennis.^[1]

Dobrynska competed at the 2010 Hypo-Meeting in May, but she was in sub-par form and managed only a score of 6023 for seventh place (over 600 points behind Jessica Ennis' winning mark).^[4][5] In spite of this she proved herself as a contender to the gold medal at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in July. After the first day, Dobrynska ran a 200 m best of 24.23 seconds and was in second place – 110 points behind the Ennis, who led the competition.^[6] The following day she scored a best in the javelin (49.25 m) and was 18 points behind Ennis with one event remaining. She finished the competition with an 800 m run of 2:12.06, another personal best. Her total score of 6778 points was her best ever performance and beyond Carolina Klüft's championship record. However, Ennis took the gold, also setting a personal best, leaving Dobrynska with the silver medal – her first podium finish at the European Athletics Championships.^[7][8]

She returned to competition at the 2010 Décastar meeting in September and was the runner-up behind Tatyana Chernova, having a total of 6309 points from the event.^[9] The following year she finished in fifth place at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, getting a total of 6539 points and setting personal bests in the hurdles (13.43 seconds) and 800 metres (2:11.34 minutes).^[1]

At the beginning of the 2012 season she won the Ukrainian indoor title with a national record score of 4880 points.^[10] She produced an even better performance at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Although defending champion Ennis was the pre-event favourite, Dobrynska had a consistent tally, including personal bests in the long jump (6.57 m) and 800 m (2:11.15 min) to become the first woman ever to score over 5000 points for the indoor pentathlon. Her world record mark of 5013 points bettered Irina Belova's twenty-year-old score from 1992.^[11] Later that month, Dobrynska's coach and husband, Dmitry Polyakov, died of cancer.^[12][13] Dobrynska stood for election to the Ukrainian Parliament in the October 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election as a candidate for the Party of Regions in Ukraine's 11th electoral district (first-past-the-post wins a parliament seat) located in her native Vinnytsia Oblast.^[14] However, she failed to win the seat, finishing in fifth place with 6.45% of the votes.^[15]

Dobrynska announced her retirement from the sport in 2013.^[3] A special ceremony was held at half-time during a Ukrainian Premier League match between Dynamo Kyiv and FC Illichivets Mariupol at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv on October 20, 2013, marking her retirement from athletics.^[3] It was venue she trained and competed at for many years and set her first Ukrainian record.^[3]

Representing  Ukraine

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
2003	European U23 Championships	Bydgoszcz, Poland	5th	Heptathlon	5798 pts
2004	World Indoor Championships	Budapest, Hungary	2nd	Pentathlon	4727 pts
	Hypo-Meeting	Götzis, Austria	3rd	Heptathlon	6387 pts
	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	8th	Heptathlon	6225 pts
2005	European Indoor Championships	Madrid, Spain	3rd	Pentathlon	4667 pts
	Hypo-Meeting	Götzis, Austria	7th	Heptathlon	6299 pts
2007	European Indoor Championships	Birmingham, United Kingdom	5th	Pentathlon	4739 pts
	Hypo-Meeting	Götzis, Austria	10th	Heptathlon	6112 pts
2008	World Indoor Championships	Valencia, Spain	4th	Pentathlon	4742 pts
	Hypo-Meeting	Götzis, Austria	9th	Heptathlon	6268 pts
	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	1st	Heptathlon	6733 pts PB
2009	Hypo-Meeting	Götzis, Austria	1st	Heptathlon	6558 pts
	World Championships	Berlin, Germany	4th	Heptathlon	6444 pts
2010	World Indoor Championships	Doha, Qatar	2nd	Pentathlon	4851 pts
	Hypo-Meeting	Götzis, Austria	7th	Heptathlon	6023 pts
	European Championships	Barcelona, Spain	2nd	Heptathlon	6778 pts PB
2011	World Championships	Daegu, South Korea	5th	Heptathlon	6539 pts
2012	World Indoor Championships	Istanbul, Turkey	1st	Pentathlon	5013 pts WR
	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	–	Heptathlon	DNF

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nataliya Dobrynska.

• Nataliya Dobrynska at World Athletics

Records
Preceded by Irina Belova	Women's Pentathlon World Record Holder March 9, 2012 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent