Mariya Kuchina

Mariya Aleksandrovna Kuchina (Russian: Мария Александровна Кучина; born 14 January 1993) is a Russian track and field athlete who specialises in the high jump. She won the gold medal at the 2015 World Championships.

Kuchina won her first international medal at the 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics, where she cleared a personal best of 1.85 m to take the silver medal behind Italian Alessia Trost. She was also the silver medallist at the 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival and 2009 Gymnasiade.

In the inaugural Summer Youth Olympics, Kuchina won a gold medal in the girls' high jump with a clearance of 1.86 m, ahead of Alessia Trost.

She started her 2011 season with a major scalp in the form of Yelena Slesarenko, who she defeated with an indoor best jump of 1.90 m. A greater effort soon followed on the Moravia High Jump Tour meet in Třinec, as she cleared 1.97 m to claim the world junior indoor best which Desislava Aleksandrova had held since 1994.

Kuchina won the gold medal at the 2015 World Championships with a personal best of 2.01 m. Kuchina has also won the gold medal both at the 2014 World Indoor Championships and at the 2015 European Indoor Championships. Kuchina has also won the silver medal at the 2014 European Championships.

Following her world championships win, she was among the leading hopefuls to win the Olympic title at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. However, her dreams were cut short when the CAS upheld their decision to ban the Russian Track and Field Federation from the Games. Interestingly, at a domestic competition she jumped a height of 2.00m—a height that would've easily won gold in Rio—only 2 hours after she learned that she would not get to compete at the olympics. In April 2017, her application to compete as a neutral athlete until Russia is reinstated was accepted; this will allow Kuchina to resume competition despite the federation's ban.