| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's athletics | ||
Representing  Malaysia | ||
| Asian Championships | ||
 | 1973 Marikina | High jump |
Gladys Chai von der Laage (born Chai Ng Mei on 22 February 1953) is a German sports photographer of Malaysian Chinese origin. She has previously competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics as a Malaysian pentathlete. [1]
Chai Ng Mei was born on 22 February 1953 to Chinese parents. [1]
When she was 14 years old, Chai won a silver in the high jump event of the 1967 Southeast Asian Games. She trained in West Germany in 1971. [2] The following year, she represented Malaysia in the women's pentathlon event of 1972 Summer Olympics but was forced to retire because of an injury. [1] Chai won four golds at the 1973 and 1975 SEA games; 2 each in high jump and pentathlon. [2] She finished in the ninth place at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games's women's high jump event and bagged another gold medal in the high jump event of 1979 Southeast Asian Games. [2] [3]
Later she became a sports photographer and was awarded the German Athletics Association's Media Prize in 2016 after more than twenty years of her work in this profession. [4] The website Sports Reference cites her as "one of the world's best-known sports photographers". [1]
Chai married a West German sports journalist Rolf von der Laage . [1] Together the couple established their own agency ASVOM. Laage died in 2006. [5]
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα and ἄθλος. Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not by the position achieved. The decathlon is contested mainly by male athletes, while female athletes typically compete in the heptathlon.
A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek ἑπτά and ἄθλος. A competitor in a heptathlon is referred to as a heptathlete.
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Combined events at the Summer Olympics have been contested in several formats at the multi-sport event. There are two combined track and field events in the current Olympic athletics programme: a men's decathlon and a women's heptathlon.
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