Aksana Miankova

Who is Aksana Miankova?

Aksana Miankova, also transliterated as Oksana Menkova, is a Belarusian hammer thrower. She won the gold medal at 2008 Beijing Olympics with a throw of 76.34 metres, an Olympic record. Her personal best of 78.69 m ranks her as the second best woman of all-time.

Miankova began learning the hammer throw in her late teens. Women's hammer competitions were still a developing sport at that point and she soon won a number of regional competitions. She competed in the qualifying rounds of the 2002 European Athletics Championships and, after a silver medal at the 2003 European Athletics U23 Championships, she represented Belarus at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. Her health suffered in the winter months during this period, however, and her lack of training time hindered her performance in her early career.

She finished fifth at the 2005 Summer Universiade and took part in the 2007 World Championships without reaching the final. She missed some of the 2010 season due to taking maternity leave from the sport. She gave birth to a daughter, Arina Menkova, in September that year and she vowed to return to top form in 2011.

She had a personal best throw of 78.19 metres in April 2012 in Brest. This was the third longest throw by a woman. She equalled this feat at the Olympic Champions meeting in Minsk two months later, then improved to 78.69 m in July, moving up to second of all time behind Betty Heidler.