Jeanne Daprano (September 16, 1936 - December 1, 2021) was a retired elementary school teacher and world record setting American masters track and field athlete.
Jeanne Daprano (September 16, 1936 - December 1, 2021) was a retired elementary school teacher and world record setting American masters track and field athlete.
On July 21, 2012, she became the first woman over 75 to run under seven minutes in the mile run, with a time of 6:58.44. She also holds the records for the mile run for 70-year-olds and 80-year-olds. [1] In order to compare times across multiple age groups, masters athletics has established age graded tables based on previous results. Daprano's mile is so far beyond the scale that the time converts to a 4:00.23. The current world record for the women's mile is 4:12.56 set by Svetlana Masterkova in 1996 and Masterkova's mark is so exceptional, no other woman has been within 5 seconds of that mark since.
While she had always been active on her Iowa farm or playing basketball in high school and college in Nebraska, she didn't take up running until she started jogging on the beach while working on her master's degree in California. [1] She spent the majority of her career just keeping active with her third grade class in Long Beach, California and didn't get into a serious jogging routine until she was 45. [2] She finally got serious about running competitively after turning 60. Since then she has set records in each age division she has passed through. Daprano lived in Atlanta, Georgia for 22 years before her death and ran for the Atlanta Track Club.
Daprano holds the current world records in the W70 mile, W75 400 metres, 800 metres, [3] in addition to the pending W75 mile record. Indoors she hold the W75 records in those same events and is on the W60 4x400 metres relay. [4] She also holds the American records in the W70 400 metres, W65 and W70 800 metres, and W70 1500 metres. And the W75 mile improves the record by so much, it is also superior to the W75 American record in the 1500, a race that is 109.35 metres shorter. Daprano's late husband, Bill, about ten years her senior was also an active masters athlete and was part of two American record holding relay teams. [5] They were married 22 years before his death in 2021. Just 17 days after Bill's death, Jeanne died from Parkinson's disease on December 1, 2021.
Maria de Lurdes Mutola is a retired Mozambican female track and field who specialised in the 800 metres running event. She is only the fourth female track and field athlete to compete at six Olympic Games. She is a three-time world champion in this event and a one-time Olympic champion.
Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, ranging from 500 metres up to two miles. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 1500 m came about as a result of running 3+3⁄4 laps of a 400 m outdoor track or 7+1⁄2 laps of a 200 m indoor track, which were commonplace in continental Europe in the 20th century.
A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating. In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field, each consisting of a set number of stages (legs), each leg run by different members of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre and 1,600-metre relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres.
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Masterkova is a Russian former middle-distance runner and former women's world record holder for the mile and the current 1000 metres world record. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal in both the 800 metres and 1500 metres.
Jarmila Kratochvílová is a Czechoslovak former track and field athlete. She won the 400 metres and 800 metres at the 1983 World Championships, setting a world record in the 400 m.
Letitia Alma Vriesde is a former track and field athlete from Suriname, who specialised in the 800 metres but was also successful over 1500 metres. She is the first sportsperson from Suriname to compete at five Olympic Games. She won a silver medal at the 1995 World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships. Vriesde holds the South American records for the 800 metres, 1000 metres and 1500 metres and also for the 3000 metres (indoors).
These are the official results of the Women's 4 × 400 m Relay event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. There were 15 nations competing.
Linda Staines is a female former British track and field athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres. She represented Great Britain at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul in both the 400 metres and 4 x 400 metres relay, and won a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1993 World Championships. She also won four medals at the Commonwealth Games, including an individual silver medal in the 400 metres in 1990 and two relay gold medals.
Michelle Rohl is a female track and field athlete from the United States, who competes in race walking. She represented her native country at three consecutive Summer Olympics in 1992–2000. A five-time USA Indoor Champion and a four-time U.S. outdoor 20 km champion, she won a silver and a bronze medal at the Pan American Games.
Carol Jean L. Moseke Frost is a female track and field athlete from the United States, competing in the discus throw. She represented her native country at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and won the gold medal in the women's discus throw event at the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Alisa Harvey is a middle distance runner from the United States. She set her personal best in the women's 1,500 meters 4:08.32 on June 26, 1992, at the US Olympic Trials in New Orleans and in the 800 meters 1:59.72 in 1995. She was ranked in the U.S. top ten in the 1500 meters 8 years in a row from 1986 to 1993, achieving number 1 in 1993. After taking 1994 off for maternity, she returned to the list in 1998 and 1999. She also made the U.S. list in the 800 metres six times between 1988 and 1996. In 1998 she became the 24th American woman to break 4:30 for a mile. She is still an active masters competitor, holding several world records and pursuing more as she moves into a new age division.
Frances Anne "Francie" Larrieu Smith is an American track and field athlete. She was the flagbearer at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for the United States of America. Larrieu Smith was the third female American athlete to make five American Olympic teams, behind the six of fencer Jan York-Romary and Track and Field's Willye White. The feat was later equaled by basketball player Teresa Edwards, track and field's Gail Devers, cyclist/speedskater Chris Witty and swimmer Dara Torres. After one of the longest elite careers on record, she retired from that level of competition.
Patricia Sarena Caretto, also known by her married name Patricia Brown, is an American former competition swimmer, 1968 Olympic competitor, and 1964 world record-holder in two distance freestyle events. She is a former world record holder in the women's 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle, having set world records in those events on eight occasions.
Ana Fidelia Quirot Moré is a former track and field athlete from Cuba, who specialised in the 800 metres but was also successful over 400 m. At 800 metres, she is a two-time World Champion and a two-time Olympic medallist. Her best time of 1:54.44 from 1989 still ranks her fifth on the world all-time list. She is regarded as one of the best female 800m runners of all time, and probably the best to not have an Olympic gold medal in the event.
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