Rosa MOTA

Olympic bronze for the 1982 European champion.

Female athletes were denied the opportunity of contesting the marathon at major
international championships until the event was introduced at the 1982 European
Championships.  This was quickly followed by its introduction at the inaugural
World Championships in 1983 and the Olympic Games in 1984.  One athlete who
took advantage of these opportunities was Rosa Mota, and it could be argued that
without the marathon, she would never have won a medal at a major international
event.  Up until 1982, Mota was well known in Portugal, having won a number of
Portuguese middle distance and cross country titles, and set a number of nationa
records, but she was virtually unknown in international circles before she entered
the marathon at the 1982 European Championships in Athens.

This was Mota's first marathon and she was up against a number of much more
experienced athletes, like Norway's Ingrid Kristiansen, who had recorded fast times
in big city marathons in North America.  However, it was Mota who won the gold
medal in Athens, in 2hr 36min 04sec from Laura Fogli (Italy) and Kristiansen.
On 9 April the following year, Mota won her second marathon at Rotterdam, lowering
her personal best to 2hr 32min 27sec.  In August that year she finished fourth,
behind Grete Waitz (Norway) in the marathon at the inaugural World Championships
in Helsinki.  Two months later Mota reduced her personal best to 2hr 31min 12sec,
when she was the winner of the Chicago marathon.  On 5 August 1984, the Los Angeles
Olympic marathon was held in oppressively hot conditions, but still produced some
high quality times, with Mota winning the bronze medal (see photo above)
in 2hr 26min 57sec, over four minutes better than her previous personal best.
(Ron Casey)