Does anyone remember Russian 1,500 champ Ekaterina Kostetskaya attending HS in US?

It must have been 2001 in Raleigh where she was the double finalist ... as a sophomore in HS. Like I said earlier... who is that chick!

Nice FloTrack interview of her before the indoor NCAA in 2007 when she had the fastest time going into the meet.

http://www.flotrack.org/speaker/88-katya-kostetskaya/video/275-katya-kostetskaya

Ah yes, clearly 2002 was her big year at AOC in Raleigh that I remembered. Doubled in the hurdles and 800M.

Results here:

http://dyestat.rise.espn.go.com/search.jsp?meetID=19390

Think her hs coach was married to Earl Bell's brother.

Galina Bukharina was her coach at SW Texas St-San Marcos. Also coached Lavona Martin-Floreal to silver in Barcelona.

Thanks for the correction - 2002.

I know right. I am about sick of all the russian women dopers. I knew Katya back in the day and clearly she is like every other russian and has a clever way of doping. oh well..thats the game i guess.

Looks like she is in the 1500.

coachkritter wrote:

Looks like she is in the 1500.

Semi's

all her major HS results:

http://dyestat.rise.espn.go.com/search.jsp?athID=29012

Lasse Viiren didn't go to high school here ,but did briefly attend BYU.

Viren and also Vasala were at BYU for a semester, I think. They couldn't stomach the zoobies.

haha wrote:

I know right. I am about sick of all the russian women dopers. I knew Katya back in the day and clearly she is like every other russian and has a clever way of doping. oh well..thats the game i guess.

Katya is the real deal. She was a national level runner as a sophomore in HS, has a 55 second 400 meter hurdle time (8th in NCAA in college) and a 1:56 800. She has one of the most graceful and efficient strides ever and isn't doing crazy numbers like others.

But haters are going to hate.

high school is prime time for doping. why do you think people are so good in HS and then go to college and never make it anywhere? Did she ever win nationals in college? NO! Why? because she wasnt doping because she was saving up so she could run in the russian championships and in europe to make money. but nice try sticking up for her!

Just look at her American results, then go look at her results in the Russian Championships. Do you really think somebody can decrease their time like that...yaaaaaa

has anyone seen the movie salt?

I remember Kostetskaya from H.S., she was definitely talented. I thought she would be an NCAA all-American and make some national teams, but I didn't see 1:56 coming. Kostetskaya kind of followed the trditional Russian mode for female middle distance athletes by running 2 flat in the 800m and 4:05 in the 1500 one year and 1:57 and sub-4 the next year. Leading up to a WC or Olympic year they go away to the national training center in the fall and pretty much dissapear until the national championships, run incredible times in the natonal championships, but fail to make the finals in the WC or Olympics and underperform on the DL circuit. I think it was 2007 when Russia had 4 women run 1:57, but only one made the WC 800m finals and no medals.

With all of that said, the Russian women are definitely talented and work hard. Some of them would have 53x 400 speed and moved up in distance and when you get a group of 2 flat women, with good speed training together for half a year, something good is going to come out of it.

I once had an assistant coach who was a former Russian athlete and she said Russian girls don't by into the American wholesome and enjoyable nature of sport. The best Russian female athletes were usually poor and success in sports was a way out of a potentially miserable life. Apparently Russian men don't treat their women very well. In her hometown, there was no concept of a housewife, women were expected to work a job and be totally responsible for taking care of the house and children.

Btw, this women was a very good no nonsence coach, but she thought it was stupid that her athletes wanted to wear matching socks and ribbons in their hair. She said if America took all of the 52x 400m runners who are never going to make a national team and trained them for the 800m, we would dominate that event. She siad, in Russia, no coach would allow you to be average in an event, when you could excel at another one. She also said that the Russian H.S. and college syetem was not nearly as organized as in the U.S. and if you didn't think you could make a national team, there was no purpose to running. What's sad is that this women ran 2:01 and 4:08 at age 20, got pregnant and lost her national team training stipend and was told to quit.

run with the wom wrote:

Nice FloTrack interview of her before the indoor NCAA in 2007 when she had the fastest time going into the meet.

http://www.flotrack.org/speaker/88-katya-kostetskaya/video/275-katya-kostetskaya

Her mom ran 3:54 for 1500m.

'She siad, in Russia, no coach would allow you to be average in an event, when you could excel at another one.'

Funnny how the steroids I mean the same approach does not work on their men

By the way when Russian women say their men don't treat them well they mean they don't have enough money!

Exactly. If there ever was a spoiled bunch of gold diggers, look no further than a Russian or Ukrainian girl out of the big city. You ain't seen nothin'. They're smoking hot, but the juice definitely isn't worth the squeeze.

Knew her in college. biggest.golddigger.ever! hence marrying carrot top.