Inna Kapishina

Who is Inna Kapishina?

Inna Vitalievna Kapishina is a Belarusian swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. She is a multiple-time Belarusian champion and three-time national record holder in her respective discipline.

Kapishina made her official debut at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where she qualified for two swimming events. In the 100 m breaststroke, she won the second heat by approximately two seconds ahead of Cuba's Imaday Nuñez Gonzalez in 1:10.66. Her storming victory in the heats missed out a spot in the semifinals, as she finished eighteenth overall by a third of a second outside the top-16 field. In her second event, 200 m breaststroke, Kapishina secured a penultimate spot to complete the semifinal line-up with a preliminary heat time of 2:31.26, but was disqualified for not following the proper form.

Four years later, Kapishina qualified for her second Belarusian team, as a 23-year-old, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She cleared FINA B-standard entry times of 1:09.16 and 2:31.02 from the FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. In the 100 m breaststroke, Kapishina challenged seven other swimmers on the fourth heat, including two-time Olympian Diana Gomes of Portugal. She edged out Turkey's Dilara Buse Günaydın to take the fourth spot by three tenths of a second in 1:10.15. Kapishina also won the third heat of the 200 m breaststroke, but missed the semifinals by six hundredths of a second, in a personal best of 2:27.34.