Athletics at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games:

Between 1932 and 1934 Poland’s Jadwiga Wajs had bettered the world record 10 times, with five ratified marks, and in 1934 she won the FSFI Women’s World Games. But German Gisela Mauermayer had moved to the fore in 1935, bettering Wajs’s world record 11 times in 1935-36, five of them ratified. Wajs took the lead in round one with 44.69 (146-7½) but Mauermayer secured the gold medal with her first round toss of 47.64 (156-3¾). Wajs improved to 46.22 (151-7¾) in round three and sealed the silver medal. Mauermayer was hailed by the Nazis as a perfect example of an Aryan women. She gave a Nazi salute on the victory podium and later achieved a high-ranking in Nazi women’s groups. But after World War II, she lost her teaching job because of her Nazi background, although she later became a librarian. The 1932 champion, Lillian Copeland, was Jewish and personally boycotted the 1936 Olympics to protest the Nazis not allowing Jews to compete on their Olympic team.