Career
Soon afterwards the teenager broke Soviet records in the 200 m and then the long jump. That same year she reached the podium at the World Student Games, taking the long jump bronze medal behind fellow Soviet Aleksandra Chudina and Hungary"s Olga Gyarmati. Khnykina trained at Dynamo in Tbilisi.
The Journal of Olympic History listed her as having died in 1994, but this report was in error as the Georgian Olympic Committee celebrated her 80th birthday in 2013.