Smetanina, Raisa

Raisa Smetanina, in full Raisa Petrovna Smetanina, (born February 29, 1952, Komi, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Russian cross-country skier who was the first woman to win 10 career medals at the Olympic Winter Games.

A champion in both the individual and team events, Smetanina won a silver medal in the 5-km race and gold medals in the 4  × 5-km relay and the 10-km event at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. She took the gold in the 5-km race and a silver in the 4 × 5-km relay at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, New York, U.S., and at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now in Bosnia and Herzegovina), she won silver medals in the 10- and 20-km cross-country events. Smetanina repeated her silver-medal-winning performance in the 10-km event at the 1988 Games in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and took a bronze in the 20-km race. She was 39 years old when she competed in her final Olympics at the 1992 Games in Albertville, France, where she won a team gold medal in the 4  ×  5-km relay, making her the oldest female gold medalist in Winter Olympic history.

A star of the powerhouse Russian women’s ski team, Smetanina was a national champion in 1974, 1976, and 1977 and a world champion in 1974 and 1978. Smetanina’s 10 Olympic medals were the most won by a female athlete in Winter Olympic history; later Stefania Belmondo and Marit Bjørgen, both of whom were also cross-country skiers, tied her record. In addition, Smetanina’s first and last medals were won over a span of 16 years—a feat made even more impressive by the fact that she medaled in every Olympic Games in between.