Marlies Göhr ( 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 ...

) is a former East German

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athlete, the winner of the 100 metres at the inaugural World Championships 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

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

Biography

The 1970s

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 in

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. 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

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

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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 in

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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. 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 in

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and was just beaten by one hundredth of a second in the 200 m by

Lyudmila Kondratyeva Lyudmila Andreyevna Kondratyeva (; 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. Kondratyeva began athletics at age 11 at the Children and Youth Sport ...

(

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). In 1979, at the World Cup in

, she was beaten into second place in the 100 m by Evelyn Ashford ( U.S.), thus starting a competitive rivalry.

The 1980s

In early 1980 Göhr confirmed herself as a favourite for the Olympic 100 m title. During a two-week span in May she ran 10.98 s at Potsdam, followed by an 11.00 s at Jena and at

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

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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 × 100 m relay final and anchored the team home to win the gold medal in a world record of 41.60 s. 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 World Cup in

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, Göhr had to settle for less than gold, again beaten by Evelyn Ashford, as well as by Kathy Smallwood (

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). The following year at the 1982 European Championships in

, 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 it 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 World Championships, 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 in 10.97 s and lifted a second gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay. Göhr and

in Los Angeles, because of the boycott by the Eastern Bloc countries, and Ashford won 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 European Championships in

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. 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 × 100 m relay. In October 1986, she was awarded a Star of People's Friendship 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 in

and at the 1988 Olympic Games in

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. She was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100 m in Rome but won a silver medal in the 4 × 100 m relay. At the Olympics, she was again eliminated in the 100 m semi-finals but won another silver in the relay.

Drug testing

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Stasi (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 that she never used them again.

International competitions

World records

References

External links

* * *
Profile at Sporting-Heroes.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gohr, Marlies 1958 births Living people Sportspeople from Gera Athletes from Thuringia Sportspeople from Bezirk Gera East German female sprinters Olympic athletes for 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 FISU World University Games gold medalists for East Germany World Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 1979 Summer Universiade Olympic female sprinters Friendship Games medalists in athletics East German Athletics Championships winners