Irina Avakumova comes from the small village of Mysa in Gatchina district near the southern outskirts of Saint Petersburg . In 2005 she switched from cross-country skiing to ski jumping and was accepted into the national team in 2009. She made her international debut as Irina Taktajewa on August 8, 2009 at the Ski Jumping Continental Cup in Bischofsgrün , where she was 47th. Just two weeks later, she won her first Continental Cup points in Lillehammer . The 2009/10 winter season began by winning three points in Rovaniemi, Finland . At the Nordic Junior World Ski Championships 2010 in Hinterzarten , she reached 38th place in the individual. She finished the season with six points in 61st place in the overall Continental Cup standings.
Avakumova has been competing in the newly established Women's Ski Jumping World Cup since the 2011/12 season . In her World Cup debut in Lillehammer on December 3, 2011, she turned 40. On February 4, 2012, she was 14th in Hinzenbach, winning World Cup points for the first time. She ended the 2011/12 season in 33rd place in the overall World Cup ranking. On September 23, 2012 she achieved her first podium finish in the Summer Grand Prix as second in Almaty . At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Val di Fiemme in 2013 , she finished 13th in the individual and ninth place with the Russian team in the first-ever mixed team competition. On March 9 and 10, she won three Continental Cup competitions in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden . She finished the 2012/13 season as 41st in the overall World Cup and as the winner of the Winter Continental Cup classification .
At the Winter Universiade 2013 in Predazzo she won the bronze medal in the individual and the gold medal in the mixed team competition with Mikhail Maximotschkin . Avakumova achieved her first podium finish in the World Cup with third place on December 21, 2013 in Hinterzarten. On January 4, 2014, she became the first Russian woman to win a ski jumping World Cup competition on the Sneschinka ski jump in Tchaikovsky, Russia. This ended Sara Takanashi's winning streak, which began at the beginning of the 2013/14 season . She was the only Russian participant to take 16th place at the Olympic premiere of women's ski jumping in Sochi . At the end of the season, she finished fourth in the overall World Cup with 731 points.
At the Winter Universiade 2015 in Štrbské Pleso , she won both the individual competition and, together with Anastassija Gladysheva, the team competition. She finished fourth in the mixed team competition. At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 in Falun she finished eleventh in the individual competition and was sixth in the mixed team competition with the Russian team. At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti in 2017 , she finished twelfth in the individual competition and again sixth in the mixed team competition. In the three seasons from 2015/16 to 2017/18 Avakumova regularly achieved top ten placements in the World Cup and jumped on the podium again and again. During this period, however, she did not get beyond second place and thus missed her second World Cup victory. In these three years she finished seventh, nine and five in the overall World Cup. In the 2017/18 season , she took second place with the Russian team in the first two team competitions in the women's World Cup in Hinterzarten and three in Zaō . At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , she competed as an Olympic athlete from Russia and finished fourth as the best Russian in the individual competition on the normal hill .
In the summer of 2018 Avakumova jumped in the Summer Grand Prix , which she finished 15th in the overall ranking. Before the start of the 2018/19 World Cup season , she decided to take a year off from competition. Nevertheless, she started at the World Cup jumping in Râșnov and at the Blue Bird Tour 2019 . She achieved her best result in March 2019 with an 18th place from Tramplin Stork in Nizhny Tagil .
Avakumowa lives in Chulkovo near Moscow and has been studying at the State Sports Academy МГАФК (Московская государственная академия физической кузической кульКуры, previously МОГИФКтуры, since 2009. She belongs to the experimental elite school for winter sports "Sperlingsberge" ( ЭШВСМ по зимним видам спорта "Воробьевы горы" ).
Until their wedding in December 2011 Avakumova started under her maiden name Taktayeva (Taktayeva), Russian Тактаева .
Russia
Örnsköldsvik
