Women's track and field in the Olympics has provided some of the most inspiring and memorable moments of the modern Olympiad. Notables such as Babe Didrikson, Fanny Blankers-Koen, Wilma Rudolph, Irena Szewinska, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and dozens of others set world records and collected medals while gathering fans from around the world.
Early Days
Women's track and field events didn't appear in the modern Olympics until the 1928 games in Amsterdam, according to the International Association of Athletic Federations. The list of amazing Olympic women track and field athletes began four years later with Didrikson, a young American woman who won two gold medals and one silver medal at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. For several Olympic games, women had far fewer events than the men in which to compete. These days, the lineup of events are almost equal among men and women.
The Heptathlon
The five-sport pentathlon in women's track and field, which first appeared in 1964, gave way to the seven-sport heptathlon in 1984. It was created as the women's answer to the men's 10-sport decathlon. The heptathlon includes the 100-meter hurdles; 200-meter sprint; high jump; long jump; shot put; javelin throw; and the 800-meter run. The first gold medalist was Australia's Glynis Nunn in 1984, but the woman who set the standard for the heptathlon was Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1988 and 1992, when she won gold medals and scored more than 7,000 points in each Olympic victory.
Scandal
One of the most popular and successful women's Olympic track stars was the personable Marion Jones, who won five track and field medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. However, when an investigation implicated her in a performance-enhancing drug scandal, Jones eventually admitted taking banned substances before the games and wound up forfeiting her medals. Other famous women track stars have been found guilty of doping or been strongly associated with it. Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey was temporarily stripped of her medals because of a failed drug test, but was reinstated after it was proved that the lab that handled her tests did so unfairly and not without oversight. Ottey earned nine medals from 1984 through 2000, and interestingly, her last medal, a bronze, was made available because Jones relinquished her medals following her drug testing scandal.
Superstars of Women's Track and Field
In addition to Joyner-Kersee and Didrikson, there have been some remarkable women in Olympic track and field history. In the 1960 Rome Olympics, for example, young Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals. She did so in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4 x 100 meter relay. Evelyn Ashford was another phenomenal sprinter, competing in the 1976, 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympics, winning four gold medals and one silver in that span.
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