| Inna Nikitina | |
| Fullname: | Inna Nikitina |
| Strokes: | Breaststroke |
| Club: | Dynamo Kryvyi Rih |
| Coach: | Viktor Zheltyakov |
| Birth Date: | 12 September 1982 |
| Birth Place: | Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Height: | 1.70NaN0 |
| Weight: | 590NaN0 |
| Show-Medals: | yes |
Inna Nikitina (Ukrainian: Інна Нікітіна; born 12 September 1982) is a Ukrainian former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events.[1] She is a 2000 Olympian, a fourth-place finalist at the European Championships, and a multiple-time national age group champion. During her sporting career, Nikitina trained for Dynamo Kryvyi Rih's swim team under her longtime coach and mentor Viktor Zheltyakov.[2]
Nikitina made her Olympic debut, as a 14-year-old teen, at the 1997 European Aquatics Championships in Seville, Spain, where she finished off the podium in the 200 m breaststroke with a fourth-place time of 2:29.76.[3] The following year, at the 1998 FINA World Championships in Perth, Australia, Nikitina placed eighteenth from the prelims in the 200 m breaststroke at 2:33.18.[4]
At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Nikitina competed only in the women's 200 m breaststroke. She achieved a FINA B-cut of 2:33.39 from the Ukrainian Championships in Kyiv.[5] She challenged seven other swimmers in heat two, including teenagers Nicolette Teo of Singapore (aged 14) and Siow Yi Ting (aged 16). Entering the race with a fastest entry time, Nikitina seized off a powerful lead at the final turn until she dropped her pace on the final stretch to a second seed in 2:34.20, almost a full second behind leader İlkay Dikmen of Turkey. Nikitina failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed twenty-sixth overall in the prelims.[6] [7]