Yulia Nestsiarenka

Who is Yulia Nestsiarenka?

Yulia Nestsiarenka, née Bartsevich is a Belarusian sprinter and a gold medalist in the 2004 Summer Olympics champion.

Nestsiarenka won the women's 100 metres race at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens in 10.93 seconds, becoming the first non-black and first non-U.S. athlete to win this event since the 1980 Summer Olympics. She ran all four times under 11 seconds, and became one of the biggest sensations of the Olympic Games in Athens.

After the Olympic games in Athens there was almost a year-long pause. Finally, she came to Helsinki, where at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics she reached the final in the 100 metres, though came only 8th. But she managed to win a bronze medal in another event, 4 × 100 metres relay, together with her compatriots Natallia Solohub, Alena Neumiarzhitskaya and Aksana Drahun. At the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg she was sixth in the 100 m final and won a bronze medal in 4 × 100 m relay.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing Nestsiarenka competed at the 100 m sprint. In her first round heat she placed second behind Kim Gevaert in a time of 11.40 to advance to the second round. There she improved her time to 11.14 seconds, finishing only in fourth place of her heat, normally causing elimination. However her time was the fastest losing time and enough to qualify for the semi finals, in which she came close to reach the final and to defend her title. Her time of 11.26 was the fifth place in her race, while the first four athletes qualified for the final. Together with Aksana Drahun, Nastassia Shuliak and Anna Bagdanovich she also took part in the 4 × 100 m relay. In their first round heat they placed sixth with a time of 43.69 seconds, which was the 9th time overall out of sixteen participating nations. With this result they failed to qualify for the final.