Irena Szewinska
Sprinter celebrated as Poland’s greatest athlete who held world records at 100, 200 and 400 metres
IRENA SZEWINSKA, who has died aged 72, was a sprinter widely regarded as the greatest Polish athlete of all time. Her career spanned five Olympics in which she won seven medals, three of them gold, in events ranging from 100 to 400 metres and long jump. In an era otherwise dominated by Eastern European powerhouses like Renate Stecher and Marita Koch, her willowy, long-legged physique and graceful style brought her legions of fans.
At her peak, she transfixed crowds with an electrifying kick of pace which often left the rest of the field for dead, and she became the only athlete to hold world records at 100, 200 and 400 metres. Irena Szewinska also became a role model to generations of female runners and an ambassador for her sport, serving on numerous sporting organisations including the International Olympic Committee.
She was born Irena Kirszenstein on May 24 1946 to a Jewish couple living in a refugee camp in Leningrad. Her father Jakub, a sound engineer, was from Warsaw, her mother Eugenia, a cinematographer from Kiev. The pair had met while studying in Samarkand.
In 1947 they moved to Warsaw and encouraged their slight but ferociously competitive daughter to enjoy sport and the outdoors, though she had no formal athletics training until she was 14, when a PE teacher at her school timed her in a race. Incredulous at her time and convinced the stopwatch was broken, she made Irena run again, with the same result.
The 1964 Tokyo Olympics marked her first appearance on the international stage. She was part of Poland’s gold medal-winning 4x100 metres relay team and also took silver medals in the 200m sprint and the long jump, behind Mary Rand of Great Britain.
She continued training hard while studying at the University of Warsaw and also enjoying a romance with her coach Janusz Szewinski, a national standard hurdler who later became a successful sports photographer. It proved a fruitful partnership: she dominated the 1966 European Championships, taking gold in the long jump, 200m and 4x100m relay and silver in the 100m. The pair married the following year.
Carrying Polish hopes at her second Olympics, in Mexico in 1968, she experienced both triumph and disaster, failing to qualify for the long jump final but taking gold in the 200m in a world record time of 22.5 seconds When she dropped the baton in the sprint relay semi-final, however, she received hate mail and an avalanche of often anti-semitic abuse.
Within two years, Irena Szewinska had gained an MSC in Economics and given birth to her first son, Andrzej, who later represented Poland at volleyball then became a senator.
“I think that having a baby helped me physiologically and psychologically,” she insisted in 1975. “In Poland our doctors believe that you can be stronger after having a child.”
Within months of taking up the 400m in 1974, she became the first woman to break the 50-second barrier, then she took gold at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, in a world record time of 49.29 seconds. This remains the Polish national record to this day and was the most prestigious of the 36 consecutive 400m finals which Irena Szewinska won between 1974 and 1978.
“My heart always belonged to the sprint,” she said, “and I always treated the 400 metres as a sprint, which I think was why I was so successful at it.”
Apart from the world records, the abiding memories will be of her elegant style and her ability to produce a thrilling surge of speed when apparently on the point of defeat. She staged perhaps her greatest fightback in 1977 when seemingly outpaced by the young East German superstar Marita Koch off the final bend during the first International Association of Athletics Federations World Cup in Düsseldorf. Koch powered into the lead and looked unstoppable, but as though going into overdrive, Irena Szewinska sped past her with silky acceleration and streaked across the line to hysterical acclaim.
Irena Szewinska’s career ended at the 1980 Olympics when she pulled up in the 400m semi-finals after pulling a muscle, but she remained closely involved with athletics. She became a member of the International Olympic Commission in 1998 and was later elected to the IAAF Committee and to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. She was revered among her sporting peers and colleagues for her charisma, modesty and dedication.
Irena Szewinska, who continued running “for fun” in the woods and heathland near her home until months before her death, is survived by her husband and two sons.
Irena Szewinska, born May 24 1946, died June 29 2018