Marga Petersen

Margarete Petersen , b. Kalensee, called Marga Petersen , (born September 18, 1919 in Bremen , † September 22, 2002 in Ottersberg ) was a German athlete and Olympic medalist.

biography

Family and work

Petersen grew up in Bremer Neustadt and at the age of six was a member of the Bremen gymnastics and sports community from 1859 . She is said to have started running at the age of 15 when she stood in for another, older, sick girl. "I ran away from everyone in my dress and boots," she said. After finishing school she worked as an office clerk. She later married the runner Ewald Petersen († 1997), who was in the police sports club; Both had two sons. After 1997 she lived in Ottersberg near her son Günter, who also became a well-known runner.

Sports

Already in 1936, the then 17-year-old Kalensee Gau champion in the 4 x 100 meter relay race . Her later husband was the Lower Saxony runner-up over 100 meters with a time of 10.9 s.
At the German Athletics Championships in Frankfurt am Main in 1946 , she was German champion in the 100-meter run (12.2 s) and runner-up in the 4 x 100 meter relay of Werder Bremen (50.0 s) .
At the championships in Cologne in 1947 , she was able to repeat her result over 100 meters (12.0 s), and the relay was champion (48.7 s). In 1947 she was voted Sportswoman of the Year .
At the championships in Nuremberg in 1948 (100 meters in 12.3 s; relay 49.0 s) and
at the championships in Bremen in 1949 (100 meters in 12.1 s; relay 48.3 s) she was able to defend her title and win In 1949, with the Werder Bremen relay, he also won the title in the 4 x 100 meter relay in a new German record time.
At the championships in Stuttgart in 1950 she was third over 100 meters (12.2 s) and runner-up in the Werder relay (49.2 s).
At the 1951 championships in Düsseldorf , she again won the German championship title over 100 meters (12.2 s) and in the 4 x 100 meter relay (48.4 s). In the same year she was awarded the Silver Bay Leaf .
At the German indoor championships in Berlin in 1951 , she ran the European record in the 50-meter run and improved it on the same day.
At the 1952 championships in Berlin she was third over 100 meters (12.2 s) and with the relay German champion (49.1 s)

At the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 she won the silver medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay race (45.9 s, world record) together with her teammates Maria Sander , Ursula Knab and Helga Klein , behind the team from the USA (gold ) and in front of the team from Great Britain (bronze).
In recognition of her services, she then received the silver bay leaf for the second time , which is usually only awarded once.
In 1953 she was runner-up in the Werder relay over 4 times 100 meters (49.1 s).

Petersen was for many years a member of the board of directors of the community of Olympic fighters after active sport. She continued to work for SV Werder. At a height of 1.65 m, she had a competition weight of 52 kg.

Literature, sources

• Edith Laudowicz : Petersen, Margarete, b. Kalensee . In: Women's history (s) , Bremer Frauenmuseum (ed.). Edition Falkenberg, Bremen 2016, ISBN 978-3-95494-095-0 .

Web links

• Marga Petersen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )