Elżbieta Krzesińska, Polish track and field athlete, Died at 81

Elżbieta Krzesińska, birth surname Duńska was born on November 11, 1934, in Warsaw and died on December 29, 2015.

She was a Polish track and field athlete.

Krzesińska competed in the long jump.

Krzesińska represented her native country at the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia where she won the gold medal in the Women’s Long Jump.

She went back to the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, but failed to defend her title, she came second after Soviet Vera Krepkina.

Krzesińska has won the Polish championships in the Long Jump in the years; 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1959, 1962, 1963, 80m Hurdles (1957), and Pentathlon (1953, 1962).

She has participated in 3 Olympic Games.

In 1952, Krzesińska took 12th place in the long jump at the 15th Olympic Games in Helsinki.

Krzesińska won a gold medal at the 16th Olympic Games in Melbourne, in 1956.

She won a silver medal, behind Vera Krepkina, at the 17th Olympic Games in Rome in 1960.

Krzesińska took 3rd, in 1954, behind Jean Desforges, and Aleksandra Chudina, at the 5th European Championships in Athletics in Bern.

She has won the long jump and the pentathlon at World Student Games in Budapest.

Elżbieta Krzesińska broke the world record in long jump (6.35) in Budapest, and equal in November 1956 in the Melbourne Olympics, in August 1956.

Elżbieta won at the 1st Universiade in Turin.

In 1962, Elżbieta came in 2nd, behind Tatyana Shchelkanova, at the seventh European Championships in Athletics in Belgrade.

Elżbieta lived in the United States of America from 1981 until 2000, then she came back to Poland.

Elżbieta Krzesińska passed away at 81 yrs old.