Background
Bykova was born in Azov, Rostov, Russia and first came to international attention at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, where she finished ninth in the final with 1.88 meters.
Bykova was born in Azov, Rostov, Russia and first came to international attention at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, where she finished ninth in the final with 1.88 meters.
She is also a former world record holder, with clearances of 2.03 and 2.04 metres in 1983 and 2.05 metres in 1984. At the 1981 World Cup in Rome, she cleared 1.96 m to finish second to West Germany"s Ulrike Meyfarth, who set a new world record with a jump of 2.02 meters. At the 1982 European championship in Athens, Bykova cleared 1.97 m to again finish second to Meyfarth.
The next meeting between the two came one month later at the European Cup in Crystal Palace in London.
This time Meyfarth set a new world record by jumping over 2.03 meters, but only a few minutes later the Russian jumped over the same height to equal the world record, however she had needed one more attempt than the German and had to settle yet again for second place. Only four days later the two met again, this time in Pisa.
This time though, Bykova came out on top with a new world record of 2.04 meters. In June 1984, Bykova once again broke the world record with a clearance of 2.05 metres.
This height would remain her lifetime best.
The record would stand for only a month, as Bulgaria"s Lyudmila Andonova cleared 2.07 metres in July. Bykova was prevented from competing at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles due to the Soviet boycott. Bykova received a three-month ban when she tested positive for the drug ephedrine at the Goodwill Games in 1990, and missed the European Championships held later that year.