A Snap SHOT of Olympic History - Women

MonteOlympia will play host to an important piece of sporting history when the Athletics celebrations of the XXVIII Olympic Games of the modern era whose centre is the Greek capital Athens, commence on Wednesday 18 August 2004.

The qualification and finals for both the men’s and women’s Olympic Shot Put competitions will take place on that day in the original Olympic stadium.

Continuing our series of lead-in stories to this momentous occasion for our sport, we now bring you the second of our two part history of Olympic Shot Putting - Women's competitions.

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For the history of the men's Olympic Shot Put click on the title below -

"A Snap SHOT of Olympic History - Men"

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WOMEN – A German and Eastern European duel

Micheline Ostermeyer’s Olympic win in 1948 with a put of 13.75, literally got the ball rolling with respect to women’s Olympic gold medal winning shot putting, as her first round put sealed victory.

However, in terms of subsequent Olympic history the French woman’s victory can only be seen as an aberration, for with the exception of West Germany’s win of the 1984 Olympic title at the hands of Claudia Losch (eastern block boycotted Games in Los Angeles), the women’s Shot title has otherwise been dominated by East Germans, and athletes from the old USSR, and a solitary win for Bulgaria.

That statement is not meant to lessen Ostermeyer’s achievement, because she was a superb athlete who earlier in the same London Games had also won the Discus gold. Yet the fact still stands that the three best Soviet athletes who were not at the 1948 Games (USSR did not compete at all in the London Olympics) were all 14m throwers.

Zybina and the 1950’s

The Games of 1952 and 1956 centred on the two USSR athletes, Galina Zybina and Tamara Tsyhkevich. Zybina stormed to the Olympic crown in Helsinki with a 15.00m effort in the first round, which she topped for good measure with a last round World record release of 15.28m!

Between her Olympic win and the following Olympics in Melbourne, Zybina was to improve the World record with another seven ratified marks to a staggering best of 16.76 in the October of 1956.

However, Tsyhkevich who had been considered the pre-meet favourite in 1952 mimicked her compatriot in Melbourne, by throwing her furtherest with her sixth round effort of 16.59m to deprive Zybina of a second Olympic gold. Zybina had been leading since the first round with a 16.35, had improved that to 16.48 in the fifth and again to 16.53 with her last, only to be passed by Tsyhkevich’s personal best and Olympic record in the same round.

Press and the 1960’s

If the 1950’s was synonymous with Zybina, then the decade of the 1960’s was all about Tamara Press.

A tally of six career World records began in 1959 for the Soviet thrower with 17.25m put which demolished Zybina’s previous World record by just under half a metre! Prior to the Rome Olympics of 1960, Press twice improved the mark – 17.42 and 17.78 – and was the outstanding favourite for gold. Her 17.32 effort which won in the Italian capital was the third longest of all-time.

Press, the sister of Irina the 1960’s Hurdles and 1964 Pentathlon winner, also sauntered to the 1964 Shot title (18.14 Oly rec), taking the double with the Discus crown in the same Games. She had managed the Discus silver four years before.

Zybina who had had a disasterously bad final in 1960 (7th) completed her career set of Olympic medals by taking the bronze in 1964 (17.45).

1968 – East German win

Even though the Soviet Union had already found its new heroine in Nadezhda Chizhova (World record 18.67) in March of 1968, the Olympic title of that year went to East Germany’s Margitta Helmbold (Gummel). She topped Chizhova’s World mark prior to the Mexico City competition and then won the Olympic laurels with not one but two World record throws – 19.07 and 19.61 – in the final (20 October 1968).

The Chizhova era - Munich

A year later and Chizhova was now back in full control of the World record heights. With 19.72 (1969) Chizhova set one of a further nine ratified World records in her career. Another of this series was more than good enough to beat Gummel at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Chizhova’s 21.03 heave came with her first round attempt and the German didn’t even approach 20m until her fourth round 20.22 easily secured silver.

Bulgarian win

Chizhova’s World record best was her 21.45 set in 1973 but by that time other countries in the Eastern Block not just the East Germans wanted a piece of the Soviet style dominance. The Czech Helena Fibingerova and Bulgarian Ivanka Khristova both set multiple World records in the event from 1974 to 1977, with the East Germans Marianne Adams and Ilona Slupianek also denting the USSR’s superiority in that decade.

It was then no surprise that Khristova and Slupianek took the 1976 and 1980 Olympic titles, with the then four-time European champion Chizhova having one last Olympic campaign in 1976 and holding off both Fibingerova (3rd) and Adams (4th) for the silver in the process.

The win of the West German Claudia Losch in the Soviet and East German boycotted Games of 1984 with a put of 20.48 was narrow, just one centimetre better than Romania’s Mihaela Loghin. However, Soviet thrower Natalya Lisovskaya had thrown a 22.53 World record at the end of April that year.

Lisovskaya who twice improved her World mark in one competition (22.60 & 22.63 – 7 June 1987 in Moscow) and still holds the current World record, got her moment of Olympic fame when in Seoul she took the gold with a mighty 22.24.

1992 to the present

Significantly, for this summer’s Games in Olympia, Svetlana Krivelyova of the Unified Team (former Soviet) won the 1992 Olympic title in Barcelona. Significant because the Russian last August in Paris returned to the top of the podium by winning the World Championships title in Paris.

The remaining two Olympic winners German’s three-time World champion Astrid Kumbernuss (Atlanta 1996) and Belarussia’s 2001 World champion Yanina Korolchik (Sydney 2000) are like Krivelova still active competitors and could both still figure in this summer’s Games.

Chris Turner
IAAF Editorial Manager

For other features in this series click on the titles below –

"Athletics prepares to return to its roots in Olympia"
- a short history of the ancient Olympic Games

"Views of Olympia"
- What they have to say - The athlete, the coach and the historian