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Amongst her many accomplishments in international high jump competition,
Rosemarie Ackermann will most be remembered as the first woman to break
the 2 metres barrier. Rosemarie's first major international
competition was at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, where, competing
under her maiden name of Witschas, she finished 7th with a height of
1.85m, one place behind a young Italian, Sara Simeoni. Rosemarie
quickly improved, and in August 1974, she equalled the world record of
1.94m. Only two weeks later, on 8 September, she won the gold medal at
the European Championships in Rome, setting a new world record of 1.96m,
and relegating Simeoni to third place. On 8 May 1976, Ackermann broke
her world record again, clearing 1.96m at Dresden.
At the 1976 Olympic
Games in Montreal on 28 July 1976, both Ackermann and Simeoni cleared
1.91m on their first attempts, but Simeoni was in the gold medal winning
position due to a failure by Ackermann at an earlier height. However,
only Ackermann was able to negotiate 1.93m, clearing on her second
attempt (see photo above), and thus clinching the gold medal from
Simeoni. In July 1977, Rosemarie equalled her world record of 1.96m,
and soon after at the European Cup in Helsinki on 14 August, she raised
the record again to 1.97m. Two weeks later in West Berlin on 26 August,
Ackermann cleared 1.97m on her first attempt to equal her world record.
She then had the bar raised to the magical 2.00m height, and proceeded
to clear it on her first attempt.
At the 1978 European Championships
in Prague, Ackermann cleared an impressive 1.99m, but had to settle for
second place behind a 2.01m world record performance by her old rival
Simeoni. Ackermann's last major meet was the 1980 Olympic Games, where
she finished fourth, and she retired shortly afterwards. (Ron Casey)
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