Irena Szewińska (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Kirszenstein; Polish pronunciation: ; 24 May 1946 – 29 June 2018) was a Polish sprinter who was one of the world's foremost track athletes for nearly two decades, in multiple events. She won a total of seven Olympic medals including three golds. She is the only athlete in history, male or female, to have held the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

in the 100 m, the 200 m and the 400 m events. She was voted the Polish Sports Personality of the Year four times. In 2016, she was awarded Poland's highest decoration, the Order of the White Eagle.

Personal life

Irena Kirszenstein was born in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

to a Polish-

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family. Her father came from

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and mother from

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. They met in

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

where they studied at the time, and in 1947 moved to Warsaw. In 1967, she married her coach, Janusz Szewiński, who also competed in hurdles at the national level and later worked as a sports photographer. They have two sons, Andrzej Szewiński (born 1970), who played

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

for the

Poland men's national volleyball team The Poland men's national volleyball team (Polish language, Polish: ''Reprezentacja Polski w piłce siatkowej mężczyzn'') represents Poland in international volleyball competition. The team is directed by the Polish Volleyball Federation (''Pol ...

and later became a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

, and Jarosław (born 1981).SZEWIŃSKA (KIRSZENSTEIN) IRENA
pkol.pl In 1970, Szewińska graduated from the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

with an MSc degree in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

. On 29 June 2018, her death was announced by her husband Janusz Szewiński. She died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

aged 72 in

at the Military Institute of Medicine on Szaserów Street. Irena Szewińska was buried as a

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at the "Avenue of the Meritorious" in the Powązki Military Cemetery in

. In 2020, she was posthumously honoured with a

World Athletics World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

Heritage Plaque, one of the first ever awarded, during a ceremony before the Szewinska Memorial meeting in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

. In 2021, she was voted Polish Sportsperson of the Century by the readers of the ''

Przegląd Sportowy ''Przegląd Sportowy'' (, ''Sports Review'') is the oldest and now the only Polish sports daily, founded in 1921 in Kraków. In 1926 it initiated an annual, popular plebiscite for the Polish Sportspersonality of the Year. Its current editor-in-ch ...

'' magazine. During her career, she had been elected as Polish Sports Personality of the Year four times by the same magazine.

Career

Between 1964 and 1980, she participated in five

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, winning seven medals (the most by any Polish athlete), three of them gold. She also broke six

s 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 The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

.Irena Szewińska-Kirszenstein
. sports-reference.com At her first Olympics in

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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 × 100 metres relay team. She was a double sprint winner at the World Student Games in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

in 1965. In the same year she set her first world record, breaking Wyomia Tyus' 11.2 s from the previous year with an 11.1 s clocking in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, July 9, 1965. She won the British WAAA Championships title at the 1965 WAAA Championships. In 1966, at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for me ...

she won Gold in the long jump, 200 metres and 4 × 100 metres relay; and took a silver in the 100 metre sprint. At her second Olympics in Mexico, She won a bronze in the 100 metres, but failed to qualify for the Long Jump final. She recovered from that disappointment, to win the gold medal in the 200 metres in a new world-record time. In the sprint relay the Polish team dropped the baton on the final exchange in the semi-final and finished last. After giving birth to her son, in 1971, she managed a bronze medal in the long jump at the European Championships in

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. She would compete in the three events at the Munich Olympics in 1972, the two sprints and the long jump. She would come away with a bronze medal in the 200 metres. 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

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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 × 100 metres 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 would win her final Olympic medal in Montreal in 1976, by winning the gold in the 400 metres in a world record time of 49.28. At the inaugural World Cup of Track and Field in 1977, she would win both 200 metres and 400 metres; beating both favoured

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

runners Bärbel Wöckel and

Marita Koch Marita Koch (later Meier-Koch; born 18 February 1957) is a German former Sprint (running), sprint track and field athlete. During her career she set 16 List of world records in athletics, world records in outdoor sprints as well as 14 world re ...

respectively. She would be ranked number 1 in the world for 200 m and 400 m in 1976 and 1977. In her final appearance at the European Championships at 32 year of age, she managed to win a bronze in the 400 metres and the 4 × 400 metres relay. 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 obtained United Press International Athlete of the Year Award, Female 1974. She won the European Sportsperson of the Year presented by the Polish Press Agency twice in 1966 and 1974. In 1998, Szewińska became a member of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

. She was the president of the Polish Athletic Association 1997–2009. On 3 August 2005, she was elected as the third woman to the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

(International Association of Athletics Federations) Council during the first session of the 45th IAAF Congress in

. She was a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the IAAF Hall of Fame.

International competitions

¹Representing Europe

References

External links

* * *
Jews in Sports

International Who's Who. accessed 4 September 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Szewinska, Irena 1946 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Polish Jews Jewish track and field athletes Polish female sprinters Olympic athletes for Poland Olympic gold medalists for Poland Olympic silver medalists for Poland Olympic bronze medalists for Poland Polish International Olympic Committee members Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics Athletes from Saint Petersburg Polish female long jumpers European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Soviet emigrants to Poland Polish people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Deaths from cancer in Poland Track & Field News Athlete of the Year winners FISU World University Games gold medalists for Poland Medalists at the 1965 Summer Universiade Polish Athletics Championships winners 20th-century Polish sportswomen

Personal life

Career

International competitions

See also

References

External links