Elena Plastinina

{{Short description|Ukrainian athlete}}

Elena Plastinina (also known as Olena Plastynina or Yelena Plastinina, {{langx|uk|Олена Пластиніна}}; born Nov. 5, 1963) is a Ukrainian athlete who in 1989 became the Ukrainian 10K Champion when she raced to a 33:55.06 finish in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Plastinina was the sole representative for her country in the 1995 World Marathon Cup. She also competed in the 1995 and 1997 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.{{cite web

|title=Athletics - IAAF World Half Marathon Championships - 1997

|publisher=Thesports.org

|date=1 September 2021

|location=Quebec, Canada

|url=https://www.the-sports.org/athletics-iaaf-world-half-marathon-championships-results-1997-women-epf16275.html#92278

|access-date=2 September 2021

|language=en

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711015912/https://www.the-sports.org/athletics-iaaf-world-half-marathon-championships-results-1997-women-epf16275.html

|archive-date=11 July 2021

|url-status=live

}}

She won several races in her career, including the 1998 Grandma's Marathon (in Minnesota along the shore of Lake Superior),{{cite news

|title=Grandma's Marathon: Tanzanian Takes It

|publisher=The New York Times

|via=Associated Press

|date=1 September 2021

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/21/sports/track-roundup-grandma-s-marathon-tanzanian-takes-it.html

|access-date=2 September 2021

|language=en

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123012909/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/21/sports/track-roundup-grandma-s-marathon-tanzanian-takes-it.html

|archive-date=23 November 2010

|url-status=live

}} the 1993 Kosice Marathon, the 1996 Istanbul Marathon, the 2000 Hartford Marathon in Connecticut, and the 2003 Philadelphia Marathon.{{cite web

|title=Elena Plastinina

|publisher=Association of Road Racing Statisticians

|date=1 September 2021

|location=Mattole Valley, California

|editor1=Ken Young

|editor2=Andy Milroy

|url=https://more.arrs.run/runner/1645/1/position/asc

|access-date=1 September 2021

|language=en

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902163102/https://more.arrs.run/runner/1645/1/position/asc

|archive-date=2 September 2021

|url-status=live

}} Another of her other notable performances includes the 2000 Reading Half Marathon in the United Kingdom. In the final mile, Elena, then 44, dueled with Ethiopian Birhan Dagne and Lynne MacDougall to finish third in the race's closest-ever woman's finish.{{cite book

|first=Stan

|last=Eldon

|title=Life on the Run

|publisher=Arthur H. Stockwell Limited

|date=2002

|edition=First

|location=United Kingdom

|isbn=9780722345535

}}