Prior to last summer’s Olympic Games, Natalya Dobrynska hadn’t won a single major international multi-event competition. Indeed, heading to Beijing, her modest accomplishments kept her well off the radar screen as a potential successor to Carolina Klüft. But when she crossed the line of the 800m the 26-year-old Ukrainian loomed large, standing before a trail of exhausted bodies as the Olympic Heptathlon champion.

Arriving in the Chinese capital armed with just an 6387 career best tally which dated back to 2004, Dobrynska needed the performance of a lifetime to even threaten for a podium finish. And that was precisely what she would produce.

Setting five personal bests in the seven events, she managed to deliver when it mattered most, collecting world-leading 6733 points for a massive 346 point improvement on her previous best, culminating in one of the biggest surprises to emerge from the Olympic Games. The only person who wasn’t particularly astounded by her performance, it seemed, was Dobrynska herself.

Did she expect to set an avalanche of personal records on the world’s biggest stage?

“Yes, of course,” she said. “I even expected to set personal best in all events.”

She only came up short of that goal in the High Jump and 800m, where season’s bests and near-PBs would suffice.

“Everything was perfect,” at the Bird’s Nest, she said. “Beijing was a perfect competition for me.”

A sporting family provided crucial support

The road to that “perfect competition” began 18 years earlier soon after her first visit to an athletics field. The product of an active family, sport was always a part of Dobrynska’s younger years. Her mother played handball and was a shot putter, her father a skier and long distance runner. It was her father that took her to a track for the first time, and she was hooked immediately.

“I thank to my parents for their kind assistance and participation in my sports life,” she said.

While many multi-eventers begin as jacks-of-all-trades, Dobrynska saw herself as a pentathlete and heptathlete from the get-go as an eight-year-old.

“My first coach was an expert in the Heptathlon and from the first moment I was engaged with Heptathlon,” she remembers. “In Pentathlon my results improved very fast, it was very interesting and exciting.”

Her first national competition in the seven-eventer came in 1999, when, just a week shy of her 17th birthday, a 5226 point tally brought her her first national junior title. But she walked away with more than just her first medal. “What I remember most of all is the competition and spirit to fight, because my first competition at the national level was with adult athletes.”

First breakthrough in 2004

She improved steadily over the next few seasons, topping the 5700 and 5900 point barriers in 2001 (5742) and 2002 (5936), with her best big meet finish coming at the 2003 European Under 23 Championships, where she was fifth.

A silver medal in the Pentathlon at the 2004 World Indoor Championships brought her first taste of international success, laying the groundwork for her first breakthrough. She finally smashed through the 6000 point barrier with a third place finish at the Multistars meet in Gotzis, Austria, later that spring, where her 6387 point tally, coming a day after her 22nd birthday, would bring her Olympic aspirations to life. She went on to finish eighth at the Athens Games, a learning experience, she said, that would bode well four years later in Beijing.

“I was working hard preparing for the Olympic Games and what I remember now is that I was very tired. I over-trained and I had no strength to compete. The most important thing I learned is that it is better not to be over-diligent, and not be able to demonstrate the results you are ready for.”

“I (also) understood,” she continued, “that the Olympics are the same competition as others. I should not be overly scared or excited. Just to show all my best.”

When she stepped off the track in Athens, she didn’t make any solid promises to herself about what she would accomplish in Beijing, but did decide to dedicate the next four years to making her next Olympic appearance count.

“I did not make any concrete promises, but I decided to do my best for the next Olympics, because time goes fast and I needed to improve myself very quickly and not loose any opportunity.”

However, dogged by a series of minor, but nagging injuries, progress didn’t come rapidly. She remained mired in the 6300-point range for the next three seasons, unable to improve upon her pre-Athens best from Gotzis. But she didn’t let frustration get the better of her.

“I was always sure of myself,” she said. “I was training hard and I was sure that I was able to break this barrier. But in all of 2006 and 2007 I had different injuries which prevented me from improving my results.”

She was a disappointing sixth at the 2006 European Championships with a 6356 tally and eighth at the World Championships in Osaka the following year, scoring just 6327. She wasn’t particularly pleased with either performance, especially with the latter.

“Two weeks before the championships I got awful injury and this competition was very hard for me. Of course, I had higher expectations, if not for that injury.”

2008 and Beijing triumph

She began 2008 with a personal best of 4758 in the Pentathlon in Tallinn before finishing fourth a the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, but her first outdoor outing of the season, a distant ninth place finish in Gotzis with a 6268 score, certainly didn’t raise any eyebrows. But to Dobrynska that lacklustre performance is already –and literally - a forgotten memory.

“When I scored 6268 I was very ill, with pneumonia and bronchitis, and only three days after I had a fever. I don’t even remember that competition, it was as in a dream.” But not necessarily a bad one.

“I was not over-trained this time. All competitions before the Olympics were planned well in advance, and everything was under control.”

“I was not surprised with my performance in Beijing, it was foreseen. I was in good shape physically and psychologically. The experience of previous Olympics and previous international competitions and challenges were helpful.”

What were the primary differences prepping for 2008?

“Of course, it was much easier psychologically,” she said, “because behind was a huge experience of participation in international meetings. We have used different oriental methods of concentration and for improving self-confidence. In the training process we stressed the sprint and technical events. And now you can see the result.”

One thing she did miss in Beijing was competing against Klüft.

“Yes, I did miss her. She is very communicative and friendly with rivals. Who knows what would happen if she had participated in the Olympics? Maybe I would have shown better results, because the competition would be tighter.”

Looking forward – 7000 points?

Dobrynska’s immediate plans for the winter season include some single event outings, perhaps at the European Indoor Championships in Turin in March, where she has yet to decide if she’ll try to improve upon her third place finish from 2005 and fifth place showing in 2007. But it’s the outdoor season and reaching another level in the heptathlon where her true ambitions lie.

Only three women have ever broken through the 7000 point barrier, and Dobrynska sees no reason why she shouldn’t join the elite club whose entry is limited to Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Klüft, and Larisa Turchinskaya.

“Yes, I think this (7000 point) goal is absolutely realistic,” she said. “Actually, this is my aim. I think I can do this, I do really want to reach this level.”

Bob Ramsak for the IAAF