MUNICH 1972 Canoeing K-1 500m Yulia Ryabchinskaya

1. Yulia Ryabchinskaya (URS) 2. Mieke Jaapies (NED) 3. Anna Pfeffer (HUN) Yulia Ryabchinskaya (January 26, 1947 - January 13, 1973) was a canoeist from Ukraine and Olympic champion. She represented the USSR at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, winning the gold in the K-1 500 m event. Only four months after her Olympic victory, Ryabchinskaya was taking part in winter training at Lake Paleostomi in the Soviet republic of Georgia when she fell into the water and died from abrupt cooling. An international competition is held in her honor in Moscow every spring.