"To die at such an age is really tragic," said Nazarenko, who is from St. Petersburg. "It makes you think twice about training hard."
For almost a year, Nazarenko, 46, has experienced heart difficulties of her own. She has been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.
"I went to see local doctors in St. Petersburg," she said. "They told me I needed a pacemaker, and I should go to America to have such an operation."
Nazarenko, a member of the Achilles Track Club in St. Petersburg, called Richard Traum, the New York-based president of the worldwide Achilles movement for disabled athletes.
"The total medical cost and living expenses were close to $30,000," said Traum in a telephone interview from his office. "George Hines, the chief of vascular surgery at Winthrop University Hospital in Long Island, New York, agreed to perform the surgery at no cost to Olga, and the hospital donated all the medical equipment."
New York's Achilles club paid for a two-week stay for Nazarenko and her husband, Mikhail Gorbunov.
A Moscow sports promotion firm, New Sport, and the Czech airline, CSA, helped with financing. The trip was on.
She went to New York in late October, hoping if all went well to participate in the city's 26th annual marathon two weeks later.
She got better news: She didn't need surgery. American doctors decided the irregularity should not prevent Nazarenko from resuming her training.
"A thorough checkup and testing revealed that Olga's heart has a life expectancy of 30 to 35 years," said Hines. "You don't do heart surgery on a person to enhance athletic performance."
An outstanding athlete in several sports, her best year was 1992. She won the gold medal in the 5-kilometer and silver in the 10-kilometer cross-country skiing events in the Para-Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France, in March. She came in fourth in the 1,500-meter run in Barcelona in the Summer Games the following September after suffering a muscle pull during the race.
Primarily a middle-distance runner, Nazarenko also has eight full marathons behind her, including a win in the blind division at the Boston Marathon last April.
Her latest sporting adventure is biathlon, which combines skiing and shooting.
"It's a bit different from the ones you see on television," she said. "We don't ski with a rifle on our back. A rifle is already at the range. We shoot using a sound target, and only in prone position."
On her first try, Nazarenko finished second last April in the 5-kilometer race at a meet in Beitostolen, Norway.
Then the heart trouble began, and Nazarenko, a mother of two -- Natalia, 20, and Margarita, 11 -- was hesitant to do any serious workouts.
"But after hearing such good medical news, we decided she could run in New York as well," said Gorbunov, who is also her coach.
Gorbunov, who is legally blind but has limited vision with special lenses, served as his wife's guide.
The plan was to finish the New York Marathon route in six to seven hours, but shortly after the start, the competitive nature in Nazarenko took over and she began to race harder. "With thousands of other runners and many more people on the sidewalk, cheering you on, the adrenalin goes up, and there's no turning back," she said after the race.
Nazarenko's finishing time was 5 hours, 44 minutes, about two hours over her personal best. Nevertheless, she was overwhelmed with joy.
"It gave me a fresh start, not only in my athletic career, but a new life as well," she said.
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