Born in the Soviet Union in 1950, Marina Stepanova competed in which athletics event?

Marina Ivanovna Stepanova (née Makeyeva (Russian: Марина Ивановна Степанова-Макеева) born May 1, 1950) is a Russian former athlete who competed for the Soviet Union in the 400 metres hurdles.

At the 1986 Goodwill Games in July, Stepanova won in 53.81 secs. A month later at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart, she won the gold medal in the world record time of 53.32 seconds. Three weeks later in Tashkent, Stepanova became the first woman in history to break 53 seconds in the 400 m hurdles, improving her world record to 52.94 seconds at the age of 36. This would remain the world record for seven years until Sally Gunnell ran 52.74 secs in 1993.

The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once around the stadium. Runners stay in their lanes the entire way after starting out of the blocks and must clear ten hurdles that are evenly spaced around the track. The hurdles are positioned and weighted so that they fall forward if bumped into with sufficient force, to prevent injury to the runners. Although there is no longer any penalty for knocking hurdles over, runners prefer to clear them cleanly, as touching them during the race slows runners down.