Nadiya Volodymyrivna Tkachenko (Ukrainian: Надія Володимирівна Ткаченко) or Nadezhda Vladimirovna Tkachenko (Russian: Надежда Владимировна Ткаченко) (born 19 September 1948) is a Ukrainian former pentathlete who won gold at the 1980 Olympics.[1][2] She was born in Kremenchuk, then in the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union,[1] and took up pentathlon aged 18 training at the Vanguard Voluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet Union in Donetsk Oblast.[1][2] She came second in pentathlon in the Soviet championships of 1971 and 1972,[2] and competed three times for the Soviet Union at the Olympics.[1][2]
 Tkachenko at the Moscow Olympics, 1980 | ||
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's Athletics | ||
Representing the  Soviet Union | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
 | 1980 Moscow | Pentathlon |
| Universiade | ||
| 1973 Moscow | Pentathlon |
| European Championships | ||
| 1974 Rome | Pentathlon |
She set her first world record (4839 points) winning the 1977 European Cup.[1][3] She won the 1974 European title, but was stripped of the 1978 title after testing positive for anabolic steroids and given an 18-month ban.[4][5] In May 1980, just after the ban, she scored 4880 points, which was not ratified as a record because the races were hand timed.[6] In July she won the 1980 Olympic title with 5083 points,[1][7] becoming the only woman ever to break 5000 points outdoors,[n 1][1] with the final world record before the event was replaced in 1981 by the heptathlon.[1] The Soviet government awarded her the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and the title Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.[2]
Since retiring from competition she has worked as a youth sports coach in Donetsk, of which she was named an honorary citizen in 2005.[2] A youth athletics competition in the city is named after her.[2]