Irina Meszynski (born 24 March 1962 in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

) is a retired

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

discus thrower The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an ancient sport, as demonstrated by th ...

. On 17 August 1984 Meszynski set a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book '' Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizati ...

in women's discus throw at boycott inspired

Friendship Games The Friendship Games, or Friendship-84 (russian: Дружба-84, ''Druzhba-84''), was an international multi-sport event held between 2 July and 16 September 1984 in the Soviet Union and eight other socialist states which boycotted the 1984 ...

of 73.36 meters. Her record lasted barely a week before it was bested by

Zdeňka Šilhavá Zdeňka Bartoňová-Šilhavá (born 15 June 1954 in Krnov, Czechoslovakia) is a retired female track and field athlete from the Czech Republic, who set the world record in the women's discus throw on 26 August 1984 with a distance of . That mark s ...

with a mark that puts Šilhavá as equal to the number 2 thrower in history. Today, Meszynski's result is enough to occupy the sixth place on the world all-time list and a fourth place on the German all-time list behind

Gabriele Reinsch Gabriele "Gabi" Reinsch (born 23 September 1963 in Cottbus) is a German track and field athlete. She represented East Germany in the 1988 Olympic Games in discus throw. On 9 July 1988 at the East Germany – Italy tournament in Neubrandenb ...

Ilke Wyludda Ilke Wyludda (born 28 March 1969) is a discus thrower from Germany. She set eleven junior records at discus throw (and also two at shot put), and became junior world champion. Between 1989 and 1991 she recorded 41 successive wins until beaten b ...

and Diana Gansky-Sachse. Her career highlights include a gold medal with 60.30 m at the 1979 European Junior Championships, an eighth place with 63.78 m at the

1982 European Championships in Athletics The 13th European Athletics Championships were held from 6 September to 12 September 1982 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. Men's results Compl ...

European Athletics Association results database
and a fourth place with 65.20 m at the

1986 European Championships in Athletics The 14th European Athletics Championships were held from 26 to 31 August 1986 at the Neckarstadion, now known as Mercedes-Benz Arena, in Stuttgart, a city in West Germany. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. ...

. She represented the sports team TSC Berlin and became East German champion in 1982.East German championships - women's discus throw
/ref> She weighed 97 kg, and stood 1.76 m tall.

References

1962 births Living people East German female discus throwers World record setters in athletics (track and field) Athletes from Berlin Friendship Games medalists in athletics People from East Berlin {{Germany-discus-bio-stub