Big Event

[DoubleRBar]

This month's (April) "Big Event" was a world record that was set on this date 54 years ago by an athlete who would go on to win a compete set (gold, silver, and bronze) of Olympic medals.

The event has nothing to do with the hurdles.

Our "Big Event", which was set on this date some 54 years ago, was set in a city which would go on to host the Olympic Games about 46 years after this "Big Event".

You might know that the athlete that set this world record shares the same initials with the wife of the "Thin Man" (character's name and not the actress' name).

About six months after setting this world mark, the athlete won an Olympic bronze medal and four years later won an Olympic gold medal.

Can you name the event, the athlete, and the city where this record took place?

Extra credit if you can give the exact mark set on this date 54 years ago.

Good luck.

[Olli]

54 years ago was 1968, and 46 years after that is 2014, and the only Olympics then were in Sochi, which suggests the athlete might have been from the U.S.S.R. Possible winners in Munich 1972 include Bondarchuk, Chisova, Melnik (but there might be more). My guess: Nadezhda Chisova.

[Olli]

(I checked the name, and it was not quite correct, should be zh instead of s in the surname.)

[DoubleRBar]

Olli, you're good. The athlete is Nadezhda Chizhova from the Soviet Union. She won Olympic bronze in Mexico City (1968), Olympic gold in Munich (1972), and Olympic silver in Montreal (1976).

The only thing missing is her event. Extra credit for her world record mark in Sochi.

Thank you, Olli.

[Olli]

Haha, the event is of course shot put. The mark is purely guessing. How about 18.69?

[DoubleRBar]

Very well done, Olli. Yes, she won three Olympic medals (all different colors) in the shot put. Your guess of 18.69 is not very far from the 18.67 (61' 3") that she put in Sochi on this date in 1968.

Thank you, Olli.

[cigar95]

Do I recall that she later became the first 70-footer? A nine-foot progression while already at the elite level would generate gigantic red flags today. Perhaps less so at the time given that most of the women's events were still on a fairly steep progression curve.

[Olli]

Many men also had steep progression curves in the 1960s and 1970s...

[DoubleRBar]

Yes, they did.

[noone]

Many men also had steep progression curves in the 1960s and 1970s...

Careful, gh is going to pounce

[cigar95]

My SP history is a bit fuzzy - was O'Brien's technique breakthrough in the 50s or 60s? Trying to find a "happy" reason for sudden improvements in that era. We can always go with "it's the shoes".

[gh]

slightly before my time, but I believe O'Brien's breakthrough (and the rest of the putters of the '50s) was the revelation of what weight training could do..... this was an era when "becoming musclebound" was paart of conventional wisdom

[SoCal45]

Personally, I have a hard time accepting anything Soviet as a "big event"

[cigar95]

slightly before my time, but I believe O'Brien's breakthrough (and the rest of the putters of the '50s) was the revelation of what weight training could do..... this was an era when "becoming musclebound" was paart of conventional wisdom

Garry am I misremembering that it was a big deal when O'Brien turned his back full away from the to board? And previously it was more of a sideways stance?

But in any case, whatever breakthrough he accomplished would have been fully in place by the late 60s that is the subject of this thread. The issue with performance advancements around 1970 may take us down the road we don't travel, so I'm shutting up.