The Olympic women’s 800m began in 1928, yet false claims of runner fatigue caused a 32-year pause fueled by bias. Brought back in 1960, leaders like Britain’s Ann Brightwell and Christina Boxer-Cahill beat records and tough limits regardless of public doubts. While Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 1983 score remains under ongoing drug doubts, today’s women’s 800m racing is grander than before Olympic Athletics Tickets.
False Fatigue Claims Caused a 32-Year Ban on Women’s Olympic 800m Race
This amazing story begins at the 1928 Olympic Games, which showed a huge, if temporary, step forward for women’s sports. The Amsterdam Games were the first to allow women to join track and field events. Five women’s events were added to the list: the 100m, high jump, discus, 4x100m relay and, controversially at the time, 800m.
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How the Women’s 800m Evolved From Kratochvílová’s Record to Today’s Elite Era
The progress, however, was short-lived. German athlete Karoline Lina Radke became the first woman to take Olympic gold in the 800m. But she would also be the last for another 32 years. The event was removed from the Games after reports, later proven false, claimed competitors suffered extreme tiredness after the race, and the International Olympic Committee thought women were too weak to compete over the two-lap distance.
Fast forward nearly 100 years and the event now gets headline status at major events. In recent times, it’s been the fight between Britain’s Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson and the Swiss European champion Audrey Werro that has thrilled fans. It was the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and Ann Brightwell had just crossed the finish line of the women’s 800m to win gold – and set a new world record.
Ann Brightwell Wins Olympic Gold as 800m Returns at Tokyo 1964 Games
In doing so, Brightwell became the first British woman to win an Olympic gold on the track, in a time of two minutes 01.1 seconds. She told BBC Sport My husband, who was my fiancé then, said to me, ‘You don’t understand what you’ve done’. I didn’t give it a thought at the time. But now I know I played a very small part in women running longer distances.
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Kratochvílová’s Legendary Time and the New Generation of Women’s 800m Runners
But the controversy hadn’t completely gone away. Brightwell knew all about the claims that had seen women unable to compete for 32 years after the 800m was removed from the Olympics. Men were not happy about women competing in these very high-profile events. We were considered too frail and too delicate. And they took it upon themselves to make it look really bad.
They were saying women were falling on the way round. But it was all a lie. After 1928, women’s middle-distance running shrank into the darkness for the next few decades. The 800m was finally brought back to the Olympic programme in 1960 and, four years later, the then 22-year-old Brightwell went to her first Olympics, fitting training around her job as a teacher.
Breaking the Two-Minute Barrier in Women’s Middle-Distance Running
Many people in my era either had to take unpaid time or resign, or they got sacked because they were trying to manage their sports with their career, she said. My school was very kind towards what I was doing, so I was fortunate. Going out for a run around the local streets or countryside. Which seems so commonplace today, was rare in the era Brightwell was competing.
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How Kratochvílová’s Landmark Record Shaped Today’s Women’s 800m Race
If I just felt like an easy run, I would run around my village, around the streets where people talked about it or sounded their horns. And it was funny looking back, but it never bothered me, the now 84-year-old told BBC Sport. Brightwell’s 800m time of 2:01.1 stood for nearly three years before Australian Judy Pollock broke that with a new time of 2:01 flat in 1967.
The next target was to go under two minutes. Records are great, and medals are the best, but when you break a barrier it’s a wonderful feeling, said Christina Boxer-Cahill. It was at the 1979 European Cup final in Turin that Boxer-Cahill looked up at the clock and noticed she’d gone under two minutes. I knew this would probably be my last shot, because there were other girls in Britain trying to do it.
Jarmila Kratochvilovas 1983 Record Still Clouded by Doping Doubts
In 1971, Germany’s Hildegard Falck had become the first woman to break the two-minute barrier. Eight years later, it was the 22-year-old Boxer-Cahill who became the first British woman to do so, in a time of one minute 59.05 seconds. It’s a bit like when Roger Bannister broke four minutes for the mile. Once he’d done it, everybody did it because you see what’s possible, Boxer-Cahill, who is now 69 years old, told BBC Sport. Read more about Olympic Athletics Tickets.
Kratochvílová’s Standing Record and the Modern Surge in Women’s 800m Racing
I just think I’m so lucky that I was in a sport where everybody accepted that you have men’s and women’s races in the Olympics. From 1971 to 1983, the women’s 800m world record was broken six times. But the 1983 record stands to this day. It belongs to Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova, who ran a time of one minute 53.28 seconds at a meet in Munich.
Kratochvilova’s record has been questioned, with claims that it was assisted by her country’s doping regime that existed at the time, something she has strongly denied. In 2017, European Athletics proposed wiping out records set before 2005, sending a clear sign that records set before then were disputable.
Modern Stars Like Hodgkinson Push the Women’s 800m to New Heights Today.
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Boxer-Cahill placed fourth in the 1500m, behind a Russian runner who was later banned for doping. I was running during that Eastern Bloc era when, you know, they’ve looked back and some of the performances, there’s kind of a shadow over them. I’d just have loved to have been on that podium.
I wish the Eastern Bloc system hadn’t been there, but that’s what it was. Politics in sport, when you’re the athlete, it bothers you. But if you get too upset, all it’s going to do is ruin your own performance. We’ve got not just two but several girls who are running under two minutes every time they compete, Brightwell told BBC Sport. It’s stronger than it’s ever been. Kratochvilova’s 43-year-old record is looking increasingly unstable.
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Q: Which year was the women’s 800m brought back to the Olympics?
This race came back into the Olympic schedule during the 1960 Rome Games.
Q: Who became the first UK female to win track gold in the 800m?
Ann Brightwell claimed gold plus set a world record at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Q: What runner was the top UK female under the two-minute barrier?
Christina Boxer-Cahill reached that fast milestone during the 1979 European Cup.
Q: What makes Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 1983 800m world record questioned?
That old record remains disputed because of ongoing drug claims tied to state programs.
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