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Claudia Losch's greatest athletic achievement occurred relatively early
in her long career, at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Prior to
Los Angeles, Losch had already achieved some international success in
the shot put, by finishing 7th at the 1983 World Championships, and
second at the 1984 European Indoor Championships. In the Olympic final,
on 3 August, Losch held the lead after round one with her opening throw
of 19.97m. She increased her lead to 20.31m in round two, but
subsequently lost it when Mihaela Loghin (Romania) reached 20.47m on her
fourth attempt. Claudia (see photo above) responded with a
throw of 20.48m on her final throw, to just pinch the gold medal from
Loghin by the smallest margin (1 cm) ever in an Olympic women's throwing
event. It was just as well that Losch achieved this victory in the
early part of her career, as she subsequently had a disappointing record
at major international championships, including 4 fourth-place
finishes.
The first of these was at the 1986 European Championships in
Stuttgart, where her best throw of 20.54m was the same as the bronze
medallist, but Losch missed a medal due to an inferior secondary mark.
Claudia also concentrated on the discus that year, winning the West
German title, and finishing 9th at the European Championships. At the
1987 World Championships in Rome, Losch again finished fourth, missing a
medal by only 3cm, and although she produced the best throw in the
qualifying round at the following year's Olympic Games in Seoul, she
could only manage fifth place in the final. Losch returned to the
winner's circle when she was victorious at the 1989 World Indoor
Championships, but she again slipped to fourth at her last two major
internationals, the 1990 European Championships and the 1991 World
Championships. (Ron Casey)
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