Childhood & Early Life
Anna Chicherova was born on July 22, 1982 in the Yerevan region of Soviet Union. She belonged to a family with sports background as her father was a professional high jumper himself. Anna started her trainings in high jump from the early age of 7 under the guidance of her father.
Her training sessions went smoothly, until Soviet Union collapsed and her family had to move to a small Russian town, Belaya Klitva, in Rostov. There, Anna pursued her trainings under the guidance of coach Alexei Bondarenko, as her father had to seek an alternative livelihood of a railway station worker.
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Career
Anna Chicherova started her athletic career at the early age of 16 when she joined the Russian Sports Academy. Here, she was trained under the guidance of Alexander Fetisov. Under his guidance, she won the 1999 World Youth Championships, held in Bydgoszcz, Poland, with a jump of 1.89 m.
In the 2000 World Junior Championships, held in Santiago, Chile, she achieved the 4th position with a jump of 1.85 m.
By 2002, her personal best was 1.92 meters which was only 3cm higher than her jump at the 1999 World Youth Championship meet. During this time, she asked Yevgeny Zagorluko to coach her and she started training under his guidance.
In 2003, Anna’s career took a major turn when she improved her personal best in high jumps by 12 cm and won the Christmas Cup in Yekaterinburg, with a jump of 2.04m. In the same year, she came 3rd at the World Indoor Championships, held in Birmingham, with a jump of 1.99m and won gold at the Military World Games in Catania, Italy, with a jump of 1.89m.
In 2004, she won silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary, with a jump of 2.0m. She participated in 2004 Athens Olympics but her performance was not much to be said about and she finished sixth.
In 2005, she won gold medals at European Indoor Championships (2.01m), held in Madrid, Spain and Universiade (1.90m), held in Izmir, Turkey.
In the 2007 World Championships, held in Osaka, Japan, she won silver medal with her jump of 2.03m
She participated in 2008 Beijing Olympics and bagged bronze medal with an effort of 2.03m
Anna once again bagged silver medal in the 2009 World Championships, held in Berlin, Germany. This time her effort was 2.02m.
She missed the 2010 season due to her pregnancy.
In the 2011 World Championships, held in Daegu, South Korea, she finally managed to win the gold medal, with a jump of 2.03m
The most significant victory of her career came in 2012, when she won the gold medal at the London Olympics, with a jump of 2.05m
In 2013, she won a bronze medal at the World Championships, held in Moscow, Russia with a jump of 1.97m.
