1984 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 3000 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	3000 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	30 athletes from 22 countries
Competition location	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Competition phase	August 8, 1984 (preliminary round) August 10, 1984 (final)
Medalists Maricica Puică ( ROM )   Wendy Sly ( GBR )   Lynn Williams ( CAN )

The women's 3,000-meter run at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was held on August 8-10, 1984 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . Thirty athletes took part in the Olympic premiere of this distance.

The first Olympic champion was the Romanian Maricica Puică . She won ahead of British Wendy Sly and Canadian Lynn Williams .

The Federal Republic of Germany was represented by Brigitte Kraus . She qualified for the final but had to abandon her race.
The Swiss Cornelia Bürki also reached the final. She finished fifth.
Runners from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part. Athletes from the GDR were also not there because of the Olympic boycott.

Current titleholders

Olympic champion in 1980	Competition at the Olympic Games not yet held
World Champion 1983	Mary Decker ( USA )	8: 34.62 min	Helsinki 1983
European champion 1982	Svetlana Ulmassowa ( Soviet Union )	8: 30.28 min	Athens 1982
Pan American Champion 1983	Joan Benoit ( USA )	9: 14.19 min	Caracas 1983
Central America and Caribbean champion 1983	Sergia Martínez ( Cuba )	9: 36.75 min	Havana 1983
South America Champion 1983	Mónica Regonesi ( Chile )	9: 57.2 min	Santa Fe 1983
Asian champion 1983	Kim Lyong-soon ( North Korea )	9: 39.64 min	Kuwait City 1983
African champion 1982	Justina Chepchirchir ( Kenya )	9: 20.3 min	Cairo 1982

Existing records

World record	8: 26.78 min	Svetlana Ulmassowa ( Soviet Union )	Kiev , Soviet Union (now Ukraine )	July 25, 1982
Olympic record	Competition at the Olympic Games not yet held

Preliminary round

Date: August 8, 1984

For the preliminary rounds, the thirty participants were drawn into three runs. The first three athletes of each run qualified for the final. Furthermore, the three fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , advanced. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

The Romanian Maricica Puică achieved the fastest lead time with 8: 43.32 minutes in run 3. The slowest directly qualified athlete was the British Wendy Sly in run 2 with 8: 58.66 min. The fastest athlete who could not qualify was the British Jane Furniss, who retired in the first run with 8: 48.00 minutes.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Mary Decker	United States	8: 44.38 min	first OR
2	Lynn Williams	Canada	8: 45.77 min
3	Agnese Possamai	Italy	8: 45.84 min
4th	Aurora Cunha	Portugal	8: 46.38 min
5	Dianne Rodger	New Zealand	8: 47.90 min
6th	Jane Furniss	Great Britain	8: 48.00 min
7th	Bright Kimaiyo	Kenya	8: 57.21 min
8th	Róisín Smyth	Ireland	9: 01.69 min
9	Raida Abdallah	Jordan	10: 48.00 min
DNS	Helen Knight	Liechtenstein

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Brigitte Kraus	BR Germany	8: 57.53 min
2	Joan Hansen	United States	8: 58.64 min
3	Wendy Sly	Great Britain	8: 58.66 min
4th	Maria Albertina Machado	Portugal	9: 01.77 min
5	Donna Gould	Australia	9: 05.56 min
6th	Eva Ernström	Sweden	9: 06.54 min
7th	Annette Sergent	France	9: 15.82 min
8th	Susan French	Canada	9: 24.66 min
9	Liliana Góngora	Argentina	9: 41.14 min
10	Mwinga Mwanjala	Tanzania	9: 42.66 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Maricica Puică	Romania	8: 43.32 min	OR
2	Cindy Brakeman	United States	8: 43.97 min
3	Zola Budd	Great Britain	8: 44.52 min
4th	Cornelia Bürki	Switzerland	8: 45.82 min
5	Monica Joyce	Ireland	8: 54.34 min
6th	Geraldine Fitch	Canada	9: 07.18 min
7th	Marcianne Mukamurenzi	Rwanda	9: 27.08 min
8th	Geeta Zutshi	India	9: 40.63 min
9	Kriscia García	El Salvador	9: 42.28 min
DNF	Pink Mota	Portugal
	Mónica Regonesi	Chile

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Maricica Puică	Romania	8: 35.96 min	OR
2	Wendy Sly	Great Britain	8: 39.47 min
3	Lynn Williams	Canada	8: 42.14 min
4th	Cindy Brakeman	United States	8: 42.78 min
5	Cornelia Bürki	Switzerland	8: 45.20 min
6th	Aurora Cunha	Portugal	8: 46.37 min
7th	Zola Budd	Great Britain	8: 48.80 min
8th	Joan Hansen	United States	8: 51.53 min
9	Dianne Rodger	New Zealand	8: 56.43 min
10	Agnese Possamai	Italy	9: 10.82 min
DNF	Mary Decker	United States
	Brigitte Kraus	BR Germany

Date: August 10, 1984

All three US runners had qualified for the final. Further finalists were two British women and one athlete each from Germany, Romania, Switzerland, New Zealand, Portugal, Italy and Canada.

World champion Mary Decker from the host country was the favorite for the Olympic victory. However, there were a few other contenders who were tough competition for Decker. These included the South African Zola Budd, who started for Great Britain, who always ran barefoot and was number one in the world rankings over 5000 meters , the Romanian Maricica Puică, Vice European Champion 1982 , Vice World Champion Brigitte Kraus from Germany and the British World Cup fifth Wendy Sly. The lack of athletes from the boycott states was mainly due to the absence of Soviet runners. First and foremost, the 1980 Olympic champion over 1500 meters , at the same time World Cup third Tatjana Kasankina and European champion and World Cup fourth Svetlana Ulmassowa would have started promisingly.

In the final, Decker took the lead at the start of the race, followed by the Italian Agnese Possamai and Puică. In the second lap, Budd oriented himself further on the outside and cut back on the inside lane behind Decker, followed by Puică. Possamai lost ground, while Kraus continued to work his way forward. The 1000 meter split was 2: 50.44 minutes. The runners were still together. Movement came when first Sly and then Budd took the lead at the end of the fourth lap and pushed the pace. A group of four with Budd, Decker, Puică and Sly now clearly stood out. On the home stretch of this lap there was contact between Budd and Decker. The American stumbled, fell and was injured with a contorted face. Puică and Sly passed the briefly irritated Budd, but the little British girl was able to catch up immediately, took over the lead again and continued to ensure a high pace, so that the runners behind the now group of three could not catch up. The 2000 meter mark was passed in 5: 44.08 minutes. Up to the penultimate lap, the three athletes stayed closely together in the lead. Kraus had meanwhile given up on the race. Shortly before the start of the last lap, Sly and Puică accelerated the pace, Budd lost more and more ground. On the back straight, the Romanian attacked and started her final sprint, Sly could not follow the pace, while Budd was passed further and further back. Puică looked around a few times, her lead increasing with every step. Maricica Puică was the first to cross the finish line by a clear margin and was Olympic champion ahead of Wendy Sly. Bronze went to the Canadian Lynn Williams, who finished ahead of Cindy Bremser, USA. The Swiss Cornelia Bürki came fifth and the Portuguese Aurora Cunha came sixth. Zola Budd crossed the finish line in seventh place.

literature

• Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Sarajevo with contributions by Ulrich Kaiser and Heinz Maegerlein , eds. Manfred Vorderwülbecke , C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-570-01851-2 , p. 44f

Web links

• SportsReference 3000m , accessed January 14, 2018
• Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , p. 262, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 14, 2018

Video

• Women's 3000m LA 1984 , published January 18, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed January 14, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 795 , accessed on January 14, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , p. 262, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 14, 2018
3. ↑ SportsReference 3000 m , accessed on January 14, 2018