Irena Szewinska
(IOC)
Updated: 2007-07-26 09:04
Mexico City, 17 October 1968, Games of the XIX Olympiad. Women's athletics, 200m heats: Irena KIRSZENSTEIN-SZEWINSKA of Poland 1st, Miguelina COBIAN HECHEVARRIA of Cuba 2nd and Una MORRIS of Jamaica 3rd. Credit: IOC Olympic Museum Collections
Other names: KIRSZENSTEIN, Irena
KIRSZENSTEIN-SZEWINSKA, Irena
Born: 24 May 1946
Birthplace: St. Petersburg (Russie)
Nationality: Poland
Sport: Athletics
ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Tokyo 1964
Mexico 1968
Munich 1972
Montreal 1976
Moscow 1980
AWARDS
Olympic medals:
Gold: 3
Silver: 2
Bronze: 2
Other results:
European Championships
Gold: 5 (66,74)
Silver: 1 (66)
Bronze: 4 (71,74,78)
Seven Medals in Five Different Events
Born to Polish parents in Leningrad in the Soviet Union, Irena Kirszenstein first competed in the Olympics as an 18-year-old at the 1964 Tokyo Games. She finished second in the long jump and the 200m and ran the second leg for the Polish 4x100m relay team that scored an upset victory in the final. In 1967 she married Janusz Szewińsk and arrived at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics as Irena Szewińska. She failed to qualify for the final in the long jump and picked up a bronze medal in the 100m. Then she overcame a slow start to win the gold medal in the 200m in world record time. After adding a bronze medal in the 200 at the 1972 Munich Games, Szewińska switched to the 400m in 1973 and the following year she became the first woman to break the 50-second barrier. At the 1976 Olympics, Szewińska won the 400m with another world record to bring her career total to seven medals in five different events. Between 1974 and 1978 she won 34 straight 400m finals. In 1980 she participated in the Moscow Olympics, but pulled a muscle in the semifinals of the 400 and was eliminated. Szewińska was named a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1998.
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