Lyudmila Bragina

Lyudmila Ivanovna Bragina (Людмила Ивановна Брагина, born 24 July 1943) is a retired Soviet and Russian middle distance runner. She competed for the Soviet Union in the 1500 m at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics; she won the event in 1972 and finished fifth in 1976. In July 1972 she set a new 1500 m world record of 4:06.9, at the Soviet championships, and then progressively improved it in round 1 (4:06.47), the semi-finals (4:05.07}, and the final (4:01.38), of the 1972 Olympics. The same year she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. She also set three world records in the 3000 m: 8:53.0 in 1972, 8:52.74 in 1974 and 8:27.12 in 1976. At the European Championships, Bragina won four silver medals: in the 3,000 m outdoors (1974), and in the 800 m (1970) and 1,500 m indoors (1971–72).

In 1960 Bragina started training in the high jump, and changed to running only in 1964. She had a career-threatening bout of pneumonia in 1966. After recovering she moved to the south of Russia, in Krasnodar, where she later worked as an athletics coach.