With three European individual championships and three individual world medals, Irina Privalova had been a formidable competitor during most of the 1990s but had not yet won an outdoor world championship gold medal.
In 2000, she gambled successfully and switched to the 400 m hurdles discipline winning the Olympic title in Sydney 2000 in 53.02 s and a bronze in the 4 x 400 m relay team for Russia.
Irina Privalova is currently the world indoor record holder in the 50 m (5.96 s), 60 m (6.92 s) sprints.
She has also been the world indoor champion at the 60 m (7.02 s in 1991), 200 m (22.15 s in 1993), and 400 m (50.23 s in 1995) events.
Privalova achieved her best time (10.77 s) in the 100 m for nine years in 1994.