Jarmila Kratochvílová

Jarmila Kratochvílová

Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Czechoslovakia
Olympic Games
1980 Moscow400 m
World Championships
1983 Helsinki400 m
1983 Helsinki800 m
1983 Helsinki4x400 m relay
European Championships
1982 Athens400 m
1982 Athens4x400 m relay
European Indoor Championships
1981 Grenoble400 m
1982 Milan400 m
1983 Budapest400 m
Jarmila Kratochvilova, 1983

Jarmila Kratochvílová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjarmɪla ˈkratoxviːlovaː] ( listen); born 26 January 1951, in Golčův Jeníkov)[1] is a Czech former track and field athlete.[2] She won the 400 metres and 800 metres at the 1983 World Championships, setting a world record in the 400 m.[3] In 1983, she also set the world record for the 800 metres, which still stands and which is currently the longest-standing individual world record in athletics. Only two athletes, Pamela Jelimo of Kenya, in 2008, and Caster Semenya of South Africa, in 2018, have come within a second of Kratochvílová's mark since it was set.[4]

Biography

In 1983, Kratochvílová broke the 800 m world record with a time of 1:53.28. At the World Championships shortly afterwards, she won the 800 m and set a world record of 47.99 seconds to win the 400 m.[5]

Kratochvílová's 1983 400-metre world record of 47.99 seconds stood for only two years until it was broken by her great rival Marita Koch in 1985. Koch's 400-metre world record of 47.60 seconds still stands as of 2018.[6] Koch and Kratochvílová are the only women who have broken the 48 second barrier in a 400-metre laned race.[6] Her 800-metre world record is the longest standing track record in men or women's athletics, and was described by 1996 Olympic champion Svetlana Masterkova as ".. very fast. It's impossible for women to run so fast. It will last for 100 years."[7]

Kratochvílová was a late developer, not breaking 53 seconds for the 400 metres until she was 27, and she was 32 when she set her world records.[8] Her remarkably fast times, and her atypical muscular physique[9] spawned rumors of illegal drug use.[10] Kratochvílová has maintained her innocence, and although in 2006 the Prague newspaper Mladá fronta DNES claimed to have uncovered a doping program run by Czechoslovakia's Communist government, there was no link to Kratochvílová despite her being her country's highest profile athlete.[11] She and her coach of 20 years, Miroslav Kvac, maintain that it was rigorous training and high doses of vitamin B12 that account for her records, a claim treated with scepticism by several anti-doping campaigners.[12] In 2017 she criticized a proposal by European Athletics to remove suspicion about drug-taking by voiding all world records set before 2005.[12]

Since her retirement Kratochvílová has worked as an athletics coach and with the Czech national team.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Jarmila Kratochvílová Archived 2014-10-30 at the Wayback Machine.. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-09-28.
  2. ↑ "Jarmila Kratochvílová". databaseolympics.com. Roto Sports. Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  3. ↑ "Jarmila KRATOCHVILOVA". sporting-heroes.net. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  4. ↑ "Senior outdoor 800 metres women » All time best". iaaf.org. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Matthews, Peter (2012). Historical Dictionary of Track and Field. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-8108-7985-0. LCCN 2011048496.
  6. 1 2 http://www.iaaf.org/records/toplists/sprints/400-metres/outdoor/women/senior
  7. ↑ "Russians could break 800m record - Kratochilova". Supersports.com. 24 November 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  8. ↑ Turnbull, Simon (4 September 2010). "After a quarter of a century, Koch remains untouchable". The Independent. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  9. ↑ Edward McClelland (25 August 2011). "Unbreakable: The women's track and field record book needs to be expunged". Slate. Retrieved 23 July 2013. broad-shouldered […] more like a middleweight boxer's than that of a middle-distance runner
  10. ↑ David Wharton (August 4, 2009). "Doping at the L.A. Games? Ignorance was bliss". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  11. ↑ Gillon, Doug (30 July 2013). "With clear evidence of doping comes every justification for deleting records". Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  12. 1 2 "Track's Most Resilient (and Suspect) Record Is in Danger". New York Times. June 15, 2017. Retrieved 2018-07-22.
  13. ↑ "30 Years On". IAAF. 26 July 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
Records
Preceded by
Nadezhda Olizarenko		 Women's 800 metres World Record Holder
1983-07-26 —		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
Awards
Preceded by
Marita Koch		 United Press International
Athlete of the Year
1983		 Succeeded by
Martina Navratilova
Preceded by
Marita Koch		 Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year
1983		 Succeeded by
Evelyn Ashford
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