Marlies Göhr (née Oelsner, born 21 March 1958 in

Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...

Bezirk Gera The Bezirk Gera was a district (''Bezirk'') of East Germany. The administrative seat and main town was Gera. History The district was established, with the other 13, on 25 July 1952, replacing the old German states. After 3 October 1990 it was ...

) is a former

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete, the winner of the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

at the inaugural

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in 1983. She ranked in the top 10 of the 100 m world rankings for twelve straight years, ranking first in six of those years. During this time she won many

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

s as a sprinter at major international championships and set several world records.

Biography

The 1970s

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S0702-0019, 100m-Weltrekordlauf Marlies Oelsner, Zielfoto

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-T0528-0005, Marlies Göhr-Ölsner

Competing under her maiden name of Oelsner, Marlies finished second in the 100 m in her first major international at the

1975 European Athletics Junior Championships The 1975 European Athletics Junior Championships was the third edition of the biennial athletics (sport), athletics competition for European athletes aged under twenty. It was held in Athens, Greece.Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

. The following year, at the 1976 Olympic Games in

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, she qualified for the 100 m final, finishing eighth, but went on to win her first Olympic

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

on East Germany's victorious 4 x 100 m relay team. Her breakthrough year was in 1977, winning the 100 m title at the East German championships at

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

in a world record time of 10.88 s. This landmark performance was the first time a woman had run under 11 seconds with electronic timing. Later that year, she won the 100 m title at the inaugural

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

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, where she also won a silver medal in the relay. She had a unique style of running, dubbed 'sewing machine' (or 'staccato') for the high frequency of relatively short-paced strides (this is very easy to see in the 1977 World Cup ). Marlies continued to dominate in 1978, competing under her married name of Göhr. She won the gold medal in the 100 m in that year's

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

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and was just beaten by one hundredth of a second in the

200 m The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

Lyudmila Kondratyeva Lyudmila Andreyevna Kondratyeva (russian: Людмила Андреевна Кондратьева; born 11 April 1958) is a Russian former track and field athlete, who competed for the Soviet Union and is the 1980 Olympic 100 m champion. Kondra ...

(

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

). In 1979, at the

, she was beaten into second place in the 100 m by

Evelyn Ashford Evelyn Ashford (born April 15, 1957) is an American retired track and field athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash. She ran under the 11-second barrier over 30 times and was the first to run under 11 seconds in an Olympic Game ...

( U.S.), thus starting a competitive rivalry.

The 1980s

In early 1980 Göhr confirmed herself as the firm favourite for the Olympic 100 m title. During a two-week span in May she ran 10.98 s at

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, followed by an 11.00 s at

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

and at

she ran a fast 10.93 sec, second only to her own world record time of 10.88 s. At the

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

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Göhr's main opposition was

(

) who had beaten Göhr in the 200 m at the 1978 European Championships. Göhr got a bad start in the final and was edged out by Kondratyeva, who made a final lunge near the finish to win the gold medal, again by one hundredth of a second. Six days later, Göhr lined up for the 4 x 100 m relay final and anchored the team home to win the gold medal in a world record of 41.60 s. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1982-0701-039, Marlies Göhr, Sabine Rieger

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1982-0701-039, Marlies Göhr, Sabine Rieger

Göhr made a good start to the 1981 season winning her third consecutive European Cup 100 m title at

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in 11.17 s. Yet, on the world stage at the

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Göhr had to settle for less than gold, again beaten by

, as well as by Kathy Smallwood (

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). The following year at the 1982 European Championships in

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, Göhr won in 11.01 s, becoming the first woman to defend the title. The Göhr/Ashford rivalry blossomed in 1983, when both broke the world record. Firstly, Göhr broke her own world record at the Olympic Day meet in

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winning in a time of 10.81 s. This record lasted less than a month, however, since Ashford broke it with a 10.79 s. Both athletes were in top form leading up to the inaugural

, held in

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. Both Göhr and Ashford won their respective semi-finals. Unfortunately, the final was anticlimactic since Ashford tore her hamstring during the race. Göhr won the gold medal from compatriot

Marita Koch Marita Koch (later Meier-Koch; born 18 February 1957) is a German former sprint track and field athlete. During her career she collected 16 world records in outdoor sprints as well as 14 world records in indoor events. Her record of 47.60 in th ...

in 10.97 s, and she won a second gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay. Marlies Göhr and

continued their dominance of the 100 m in 1984, recording the season's fastest 10 times between them. Unfortunately, Göhr was unable to compete at that year's

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, because of the boycott by the Eastern Bloc countries. Ashford, unchallenged, went on to win the gold medal. Ashford's time of 10.97 secs was the first time a woman had run a legal sub-11 second clocking in the Olympic Games. They had a showdown in Zurich, in which Ashford won setting a new world record of 10.76 to Gohr's 10.84. In 1986, Göhr was focused on retaining her 100 m title at the

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

. She defended her title with a season's best time of 10.91 s and became the first woman to win three European 100 m titles. She then won a second gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay. In October 1986, she was awarded a

Star of People's Friendship The Star of People's Friendship (german: Stern der Völkerfreundschaft), Star of Nations' Friendship, was an order awarded by the German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Ge ...

in gold (second class) for her sporting success. Göhr's last two appearances in major international championships were at the

1987 World Championships in Athletics The 2nd World Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations were held in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy between August 28 and September 6, 1987. Men's results Track 1983 , 1987 ...

and at the

1988 Olympic Games 1988 Olympics refers to both: *The 1988 Winter Olympics, which were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada *The 1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1 ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

. She was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100 m in Rome but won a silver medal in the 4 x 100 m relay. At the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

, she was again eliminated in the 100 m semi-finals, but she won another silver in the relay. Ashford, anchoring the USA team, made up a three-metre deficit and won by a clear metre over Göhr.

Drug testing

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989,

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maintaining state autho ...

(secret police) files suggested widespread official doping under the East German regime. Despite these reports, Göhr only tested positive for androgenic steroids in 1975 as a 17-year-old, and has maintained she never used them again.

Achievements

World records

References

External links

* * *
Profile at Sporting-Heroes.net
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gohr, Marlies 1958 births Living people Sportspeople from Gera People from Bezirk Gera East German female sprinters Olympic athletes of East Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for East Germany Olympic gold medalists for East Germany Olympic silver medalists for East Germany World record setters in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold Universiade gold medalists for East Germany World Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 1979 Summer Universiade Olympic female sprinters Friendship Games medalists in athletics