Tamara Press
![]() Tamara Press at the 1964 Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | 10 May 1937 Kharkiv, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union | (age 87)||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 102 kg (225 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Shot put, discus throw | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Trud Leningrad | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Tamara Natanovna Press[nb 1] (born 10 May 1937) is a retired Soviet athlete who dominated the shot put and discus throw in the early 1960s. She won three gold and one silver medals at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and three European titles in 1958–1962. Between 1959 and 1965 she set 11 world records: five in the shot put and six in the discus. Domestically, she held 16 national titles, nine in the shot put (1958–66) and seven in the discus (1960–66).[1]
Her younger sister Irina Press was also a prominent track athlete, but mostly in the sprint events.[2]
Career
Press was born to parents in Kharkiv, Soviet Union. Her father died fighting in World War II in 1942, while her mother took the daughters to Samarkand, where they started training in athletics.[3][4] In 1955 Press moved to Leningrad to train under the renowned coach Viktor Alekseyev. Next year she was shortlisted for the Olympic team, but was cut due to a strong domestic competition in the throwing events.[5][6]
Retirement and gender rumors
Both sisters were accused of being either secretly male or intersex, and therefore sometimes called the "Press Brothers".[3][7][8] They retired in 1966, just before gender verification became mandatory on location.[9] In retirement Press worked as an athletics coach and official in Moscow.[2] She also wrote several books on sport, social and economical subjects. In 1974 she defended a PhD in pedagogy.[1] She was awarded the Order of Lenin (1960), Order of the Badge of Honour (1964) and Order of Friendship (1997).[5][10]
Notes
References
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ^ a b c Пресс Тамара Натановна. Olympic Encyclopedia (2006)
- ^ a b c Tamara Press. sports-reference.com
- ^ a b c Irina Press. Telegraph.co.uk. 31 May 2004
- ^ a b Uri Miller. Jews in Sport in the USSR. Yivo Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 29 April 2015.
- ^ a b c Пресс Тамара Натановна. excelion.ru
- ^ https://www.jta.org/1960/10/03/archive/jewish-girl-winner-of-olympic-gold-medal-decorated-in-moscow
- ^ "Switch hitter: If a man has a sex change can he compete in the Olympics as a woman?" thestraightdope.com. 22 August 2008
- ^ Olympic Gender Drama-The Press Sisters. TransGriot. 9 November 2011
- ^ Wallechinsky, David (2012). The Book of Olympic Lists. p. 20. ISBN 978-1845137731.
- ^ a b Пресс Тамара Натановна. Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
External links
- 1937 births
- Living people
- Soviet female shot putters
- Soviet female discus throwers
- Ukrainian female shot putters
- Ukrainian female discus throwers
- Jewish female athletes (track and field)
- Ukrainian Jews
- Olympic athletes of the Soviet Union
- Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union
- Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- World record setters in athletics (track and field)
- Sex verification in sports
- European Athletics Championships medalists
- Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Intersex sportspeople
- Intersex women
- Universiade gold medalists for the Soviet Union