Yolanda Chen began her journey to the sporting heights with figure skating. Later, she switched to athletics and concentrated on long jumps, where she achieved success. Chen has three world records and several medals from various championships. After leaving athletics, she came to television, where she was able to build a very successful career.
Biography: early years
Yolanda Evgenievna Chen was born on July 26, 1961 in Moscow. She owes her rare name to her ancestors through her father, who is half Chinese. But he never lived in the Middle Kingdom. Yolanda’s great-grandfather in the 1920s served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in China, and later became a revolutionary. After the massacre in Shanghai, his children fled to the USSR, where they settled. Yolanda's father was born already on Soviet soil. He named his daughter in honor of a cousin who was a famous cameraman.
When Yolanda was born, her father, Eugene Chen, was already a successful athlete. He repeatedly became the champion of the Union in triple jumps, also set world records.
It was father who brought young Yolanda to the sport. At first she was fond of figure skating, where she showed good results. Yolanda was flexible and artistic. This allowed her to successfully perform in ice dancing. She quickly completed all age categories in this sport.
When she turned 12 years old, her father convinced her to do athletics. First, Yolanda accepted the offer with hostility. But then she still listened to her father’s advice. In one of their interviews, Chen said that ice dancing is a very subjective discipline and there is a so-called turn on the pedestal in it. And it was her father who convinced her to engage in such a sport, where everything is decided by a specific result and everything depends only on himself. Subsequently, Yolanda realized that her father was right.
Sports career
Chen left the figure skating pentathlon. Soon, she switched to long jump. Her coach was Vyacheslav Sokolov. In 1988, Yolanda set her first long jump record.
The very next year, Chen successfully performed at the European Indoor Championships, where she won the silver award. In 1993, Yolanda took two “silver” world championships: one was held in Stuttgart, and the other indoors - in The Hague.
In 1995, Chen expected great success. At the world championship in Barcelona, which took place indoors, she won the “gold”. Yolanda also jumped to the mark of 15 m 2 cm. This became not only her personal, but also a new world record. On this major note, Chen left the big sport.
TV career
Yolanda came to work on television in 1996 at the invitation of her friend Vasily Kiknadze. He then headed the sports department of the new STS channel. So Chen began to lead sports news. When the STS channel changed the concept, it switched to NTV.
In addition to reading the news, Yolanda often commented on various sports broadcasts. Among them are the Olympic Games, world and European championships in athletics.
In 2015, Yolanda became a commentator on the Match Channel. She worked on it a little over a year. After scandalous statements addressed to the Russian Olympic Committee, it was withdrawn for the staff of the Match.
