Irena Szewińska,
née Kirszenstein (Polish pronunciation:
[iˈrɛna ʂɛˈviɲska]; 24 May 1946 – 29 June 2018) was a Polish
sprinter who was one of the world's foremost athletes for nearly two decades, in multiple events.
[2][3][4][5][6][7] She is the only athlete in history, male or female, to have held the
world record in the 100m, the 200m and the 400m.
[8]
Between 1964 and 1980 she participated in five
Olympic Games, winning seven medals, three of them gold. She also broke six
world records and is the only athlete (male or female) to have held a world record in the 100 m, 200 m and the 400 m events. She also won 10 medals in
European Championships. Between 1965 and 1979 she gathered 26 national titles and set 38 records in the 100–400 m sprint and
long jump.
[14]
At her first Olympics in
Tokyo in 1964, she took a Silver medal in the Long Jump and 200 metres, and ran the second leg of the Gold medal winning 4 X 100 metre relay team.
In 1966, at the
European Athletics Championships she won Gold in the long jump, 200 metres and 4 x 100 metre relay; and took a Silver in the 100 metre sprint.
In the 1974 season, she became the first woman to break the 50-second barrier for 400 metres, and she set a new world record of 22.21 s for 200 metres. At the European Championships in the
Rome she won the sprint double of 100 metres and 200 metres, beating the favoured GDR sprinter
Renate Stecher; and ran the anchor leg on the 4 x 100 metre relay team which took the bronze. She was ranked number 1 in the world in the 100, 200 and 400 m events in 1974.
She was ranked number 1 in the world 7 times in the 200 metres; 4 times in the 400 metres, and 2 times in the 100 metres; as well as 3 times in the long jump. Over-all, she was ranked 15 years in the top ten at 200 metres, also 4 times number 2, twice at number 3, which just leaves 2 years outside the top 3; (from 1964 to 1977 she was ranked in the top 3 – 200 metre runners in the world) a remarkable achievement. She was ranked 12 times in the 100 metres, 8 times in the long jump and 6 times in the 400 metres (which she took up in 1974).
She was a member of the
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the IAAF Hall of Fame.
[18][19]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irena_Szewińska