Tamara Press

Tamara Press (born May 10, 1937, Kharkov, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. [now Kharkiv, Ukraine]—died April 26, 2021) was an athlete from the Soviet Union who won three track-and-field Olympic gold medals and set 12 world records.

Press won her first gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, setting an Olympic record with a shot put of 17.32 meters (56 feet 10 inches). She won a silver medal in the discus throw (52.59 meters [172 feet 6.5 inches]), and, a week after the Olympics, she set a world record in the event (57.15 meters [187 feet 6 inches]). Her sister, Irina Press, also competed at the 1960 Olympics and won a gold medal in the 80-meter hurdles; they became the first sisters to win gold medals at the same Olympics.

At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Press set a pair of Olympic records, winning the gold medal in both the discus throw (57.27 meters [187 feet 10.75 inches]) and the shot put (18.14 meters [59 feet 6.25 inches]).

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The International Amateur Athletic Federation (later called the International Association of Athletics Federations) instituted a gender verification-testing policy in 1966, which several female athletes found to be both humiliating and intrusive. The Press sisters had long faced rumors that they were actually men or that they were taking anabolic steroids, and both pulled out of the upcoming European championships. They officially announced their retirement shortly thereafter, in 1967. Tamara continued to be involved in sports by becoming a track-and-field coach, and she served as vice president of the Physical Culture and Health Fund, which assisted promising, young Russian athletes. In 1996 she became involved in politics and actively campaigned for Boris Yeltsin’s reelection as president of Russia. In addition, she served as chair on the board of trustees at a sports museum in Moscow and authored the books The Price of Victory and This Athletics Is Not Easy.