Shin Kim-dan

Shin Kim-dan , also Sin Kim-dan or Shin Geum-dan (born July 3, 1938 ), is a former North Korean athlete who caused a sensation in the early 1960s as a sprinter and middle-distance runner . She ran times that seemed unlikely at the time:

• 400 meters : In 1962 she was the first woman on earth to run this distance in less than 52 seconds. Until then, the Belarusian Marija Itkina was the fastest with 53.4 s (1959). On October 21, 1964 in Shanghai it even managed to improve to 51.2 s.
• 800 meters : Already in 1961 she achieved a time of 2: 01.2 minutes, which was more than three seconds below the world record of Lyudmila Shevtsova at the time . In 1963 she was the first woman on earth to run the 800-meter distance in less than 2 minutes with a time of 1: 59.1 minutes. A year later she pushed this record to 1: 58.0 min and was thus faster than Hildegard Falck in 1971 .

However, these fabulous times were not officially recognized, for two reasons:

• North Korea was not a member of the IAAF
• Shin Kim-dan's gender status was controversial.

As early as 1963 at a start in Moscow , Soviet athletes had refused to run in a group with Shin Kim-dan because she looked like a man. Shortly afterwards it was said that a South Korean had recognized her son, who had separated from him during the war.

North Korea as well as North Vietnam , South Africa , Indonesia and the People's Republic of China were excluded from participating in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo . In 1966, gender controls became mandatory at international championships, which could explain Shin's withdrawal from active competitive sports.

Thus, the first official 400-meter run by a woman in less than 52 seconds only dates back to 1969, when the two French women Nicole Duclos and Colette Besson finished the finals at the 1969 European Championships in Athens at the same time in 51.7 seconds. The 2-minute sound barrier was officially broken over 800 meters only in 1971 by Hildegard Falck (1: 58.3 min).

Web links

• 400 meter landmarks on iaaf.org
• 800 meter landmarks on iaaf.org ( Memento from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Preserving la Difference article from TIME from September 16, 1966 on gender controls at the European Athletics Championships

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Shin is the family name here, Kim-dan is the first name.