Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metres

Women's 800 metres at the Games of the XVII Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	September 6 (heats) September 7 (final)
Medalists
Lyudmila Lysenko  Soviet Union Brenda Jones  Australia Ursula Donath  United Team of Germany

Video on YouTube Official Video

Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
80 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4×100 m relay	men	women
4×400 m relay	men
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Decathlon	men

The women's 800 metres middle distance event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between September 6 and September 7.^[1] This was the return of the event for the first time since 1928, when officials were concerned about winded athletes following the race and overreacted believing women were not capable of long distance running. This race was the first step in the progression of adding distance events, culminating in the first women's marathon in 1984.

Dixie Willis had the best time in qualifying, thus the Olympic record though Lyudmila Shevtsova had set the world record a month earlier in Moscow. In the final Willis took the race out, marked by Shevtsova. By the final straightaway, Brenda Jones was also with Shevtsova and looking fast challenging Willis for the lead. Suddenly Willis stepped on the curb and fell off the track into the infield. Shevtsova edged into the lead and dipped at the finish to equal her own world record and take the gold in 2:04.3. Jones was electronically timed at being .08 behind though electronic timing would not become official for another 17 years. Ursula Donath was the lucky (somewhat unified) German who was a step behind the top three when Willis exited to get the bronze. Less than two years later, Wilis would improve the world record by three seconds.

Results

Heats

The top two runners in each of the four heats (blue) and the next fastest one (pink) advanced to the final round.

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Antje Gleichfeld	United Team of Germany	2:11.05	OR
2	Brenda Jones	Australia	2:11.14
3	Zinaida Matistovich	Soviet Union	2:11.57
4	Maryvonne Dupureur	France	2:12.42
5	Diane Charles	Great Britain	2:14.24
6	Zofia Walasek	Poland	2:16.44
7	Lee Hak-ja	South Korea	2:28.4

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ursula Donath	United Team of Germany	2:07.92	OR
2	Beata Żbikowska	Poland	2:09.57
3	Florica Grecescu	Romania	2:10.10
4	Olga Kazi	Hungary	2:11.07
5	Gilda Jannaccone	Italy	2:13.72
6	Phyllis Perkins	Great Britain	2:15.41
-	Pat Daniels	United States		DQ

Heat three

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Lyudmila Lysenko	Soviet Union	2:09.31
2	Gizella Sasvári-Csóka	Hungary	2:09.77
3	Krystyna Nowakowska	Poland	2”09.81
4	Eleanor Haslam	Canada	2:10.17
5	Bedřiška Kulhavá	Czechoslovakia	2:10.23
6	Gerda Kraan	Netherlands	2:10.71
7	Nicole Goullieux	France	2:13.53

Heat four

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Dixie Willis	Australia	2:06.03	OR
2	Joy Jordan	Great Britain	2:07.29
3	Vera Kummerfeldt	United Team of Germany	2:07.34
4	Yekaterina Parlyuk	Soviet Union	2:07.71
5	Ine ter Laak-Spijk	Netherlands	2:10.36
6	Gül Çiray	Turkey	2:11.55

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Lyudmila Lysenko	Soviet Union	2:04.50	WR
	Brenda Jones	Australia	2:04.58
	Ursula Donath	United Team of Germany	2:05.73
4	Vera Kummerfeldt	United Team of Germany	2:06.07
5	Antje Gleichfeld	United Team of Germany	2:06.63
6	Joy Jordan	Great Britain	2:07.95
7	Gizella Sasvári-Csóka	Hungary	2:08.11
8	Beata Żbikowska	Poland	2:11.91
-	Dixie Willis	Australia		DNF

Key: WR = world record; OR = Olympic record; DNF = did not finish; DQ = disqualified

References