Tatyana Lebedeva set to return to action in January | 08.11.2011

Former Olympic triple jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia.

Russia's phenomenal long and triple jumper Tatyana Lebedeva, who has won World Championships and Olympic Games gold medals plans to return to competition and jump indoors in 2012 after giving birth to her second daughter Aleksandra on 9 April.

She and husband, the former 400m hurdler Nikolay Medveyev, also have another daughter, Anastasiya, who was born in 2002.

Lebedeva has won triple jump medals at the last three Olympic Games and also the 2004 Olympic long jump title. She is aiming to compete in her fourth Olympics in London next summer, when she will have just turned 36.

Her last competitions were in the summer of 2010 when she had two long jump contests before announcing her pregnancy.

“But I did not stop with training. I was active until last possible moment and I started to train right after the birth. The main issue was to get back to my usual weight but now everything is fine and I will travel shortly to training camp in Tsakhadzor (in Armenia),” said Ledebeva.

Lebedeva plans four or five competitions during the indoor season and will begin in Gubernator Cup meeting in her home city of Volgograd on 22 January.

“I hope finally get a triple jump gold after two silver medals and a bronze at the last three Olympic Games,” added the 2006 European Athletics Championships triple jump gold medallist.

Lebedeva remains very active as a vice-president of the Russian athletics federation and is the chairperson of its Athletes Commission but otherwise will concentrate fully on athletics in 2012 as her post-graduate studies in international relations are now finished.