Esther Brand

Esther Brand

Esther Cornelia Brand , b. van Heerden , (born September 29, 1922 in Springbok ; † June 20, 2015 in Bloemfontein ) was a South African athlete .

As Esther van Heerden, she jumped 1.66 meters in Stellenbosch on March 29, 1941 . This achievement was not officially recognized as a world record in high jump until 1976 . Because Dora Ratjen had already jumped higher in 1938 with 1.70 meters. Ratjen's world record had to be canceled later because Ratjen was a man.

At the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 , Esther Brand competed in the discus throw, but was eliminated from the qualification there. In the high jump she won Olympic gold with 1.67 meters in front of the British Sheila Lerwill , who the year before with 1.72 meters had increased the world record set by Fanny Blankers-Koen by one centimeter.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .
• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Fields Athletics , Berlin 1999, published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brand at sports-reference.com
2. ↑ Olimpiese atleet Esther Brand (92) 'blaas stil laaste asem uit'