1968 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Shot Put (Women)

sport	athletics
discipline	Shot put
gender	Women
Attendees	14 athletes from 9 countries
Competition location	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Competition phase	20th October 1968
Medalists Margitta Gummel ( GDR )   Marita Lange ( GDR )   Nadezhda Tschischowa ( URS )

The shot put women at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City was on 20 October 1968 at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario held. 14 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was Margitta Gummel from the GDR. She won with a new world record in front of her compatriot Marita Lange and Nadezhda Tschischowa from the Soviet Union.

The Federal Republic of Germany - officially Germany - was represented by Marlene Fuchs and Gertrud Schäfer . Fuchs finished seventh, Schäfer tenth.
In addition to the medal winners, Renate Garisch-Culmberger started for the GDR - officially East Germany - and finished fifth.
Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	18.87 m	Margitta Gummel ( GDR )	Frankfurt (Oder) , GDR (now Germany )	April 23, 1967
Olympic record	18.14 m	Tamara Press ( Soviet Union )	Tokyo finals , Japan	October 20, 1964

Conducting the competition

The athletes started the competition on October 20 at 2:30 pm (Mexico City time ( UTC −6). Due to the small number of participants, a qualifying round was dispensed with. Each athlete initially had three attempts. For the first time, the best were eight - and not like the top six until 1964 - women athletes then made three more attempts.

final

Date: October 20, 1968, 2:30 p.m.

The experts expected a duel between the old and the new world record holder . In April of the Olympic year, Nadezhda Tschischowa from the USSR improved this record in Sochi to 18.67 m. In September, Margitta Gummel, a GDR pusher in Frankfurt (Oder), achieved an increase to 18.87 m. The performance density in the female shot putter was not as high as in most other disciplines of athletics. This shows the difference in performance in the result of these games and is also made clear by the top rank of the next female athlete in the world's annual top list before the competition in Mexico City . Marita Lange from the GDR could have a width of 17.81 m here.

In lap one, however, Lange took the lead with an increase to 18.79 m. With that she had improved personally by more than a meter. But their competitors did not allow themselves to be shocked. Gummel and Tschischowa followed with widths of well over 18 meters. Nadezhda Tschischowa could not improve as a result and thus won the bronze medal. In the third attempt, Gummel climbed to the new world record distance of 19.17 m and was the first woman to push over 19 meters. In the fifth round she improved again to 19.61 m, a value that hardly anyone would have thought possible before. Margitta Gummel became an Olympic champion. Marita Lange won the silver medal with her distance from the first attempt. The results of the athletes in places four to seven were between 17.11 m and 17.72 m, which Judit Bognár from Hungary achieved in fourth place.

Margitta Gummel achieved the first German Olympic victory in this discipline.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Margitta Gummel	GDR	18.53 m	17.88 m	19.07 m WR	18.30 m	19.61 m WR	18.59 m	19.61 m	WR
2	Marita Lange	GDR	18.79 m	x	18.17 m	18.47 m	18.20 m	18.26 m	18.79 m
3	Nadezhda Tschischowa	Soviet Union	18.19 m	x	18.03 m	17.62 m	17.49 m	17.26 m	18.19 m
4th	Judit Bognár	Hungary	17.14 m	17.30 m	17.21 m	17.78 m	17.75 m	16.83 m	17.78 m
5	Renate Garisch-Culmberger	GDR	17.67 m	17.15 m	17.68 m	17.49 m	17.72 m	17.69 m	17.72 m
6th	Ivanka Christowa	Bulgaria	16.65 m	17.25 m	16.85 m	x	x	17.20 m	17.25 m
7th	Marlene Fuchs	BR Germany	17.11 m	16.56 m	x	x	x	16.19 m	17.11 m
8th	Els van Noorduyn	Netherlands	15.89 m	15.71 m	14.97 m	15.54 m	16.23 m	16.10 m	16.23 m
9	Irina Solonzowa-Kudrjawzewa	Soviet Union	x	15.88 m	15.76 m	not in the final of the eight best athletes			15.88 m
10	Gertrud Schäfer	BR Germany	14.70 m	15.26 m	15.10 m				15.26 m
11	Maren Seidler	United States	14.38 m	14.86 m	x				14.86 m
12	Rosa Molina	Chile	12.85 m	11.89 m	11.94 m				12.85 m
13	Baek Og-yes	South Korea	12.67 m	12.08 m	11.97 m				12.67 m
14th	Rosario Martínez	El Salvador	9.58 m	x	10.18 m				10.18 m

• 

  Olympic champion Margitta Gummel, GDR

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  Marita Lange from the GDR, winner of the silver medal

• 

  Renate Garisch-Culmberger from the GDR came in fifth

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  Elsemia van Noorduyn from the Netherlands reached eighth place

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 389f

Video

• women's shot put 1968 Olympics Games.flv , published October 10, 2011 on youtube.com, accessed November 12, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference Shot Put , accessed November 12, 2017
• Official report - summary p. 102f., English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 12, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1968 p. 537, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 12, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 647 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 12 November 2017
2. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 11, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 12, 2017 
3. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 537, engl./frz. (PDF), accessed on November 12, 2017 
4. ↑ IAAF world records. Shot put women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on November 12, 2017
5. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 389