Lucyna Langer

Lucyna Kałek (née Langer, born 9 January 1956) is a retired Polish hurdler. The highlights of her career in the 100 metres hurdles were winning the 1980 Olympic bronze medal and the gold medal at the 1982 European Championships. She also won the 1984 European Indoor Championships 60 metres hurdles title and was the fastest 100 metres hurdler in the world in 1984, with her career-best time of 12.43 secs.

Lucyna Langer

Personal information
Nationality	Polish
Born	(1956-01-09) 9 January 1956 Mysłowice, Poland
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event	100 metres hurdles
Medal record Women's athletics Representing Poland Olympic Games 1980 Moscow 100 m hurdles European Championships 1982 Athens 100 m hurdles Universiade 1979 Mexico City 100 m hurdles

Career

Born in Mysłowice, Langer first ran under 13 seconds for the 100 metres hurdles with 12.89 secs in 1978, improving to 12.62 in 1979, when winning the Universiade title in Mexico City. When her Polish team-mate Grażyna Rabsztyn broke the world record with 12.36 secs in June 1980, Langer finished second in 12.44, to move to second on the world all-time list. She would go on to win an Olympic bronze medal six weeks later in Moscow, running 12.65.

In 1981 she beat American Stephanie Hightower, in the IAAF Golden Meet 100 hurdles in Berlin, in a time of 12.91

As Lucyna Kalek, she won the 1982 European title in Athens, in a season's best of 12.45 secs. The only woman to go faster that year was Yordanka Donkova with 12.44. Langer defeated Donkova in Athens and was ranked number one on the 1982 Track and Field News world merit rankings. She would go on to rank number one on the 1984 Track and Field News merit rankings. 1984 also saw her slightly improve her best to 12.43 secs in Hanover on 19 August, the fastest 100 metres hurdles time in the world that year, and a time that still ranks her (as of 2018) in the all-time top 20.

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing Poland
1978	European Championships	Prague, Czechoslovakia	5th	100 m hurdles	12.98
1979	Universiade	Mexico City, Mexico	1st	100 m hurdles	12.62
1980	Olympic Games	Moscow, Soviet Union	3rd	100 m hurdles	12.65
			7th	4 × 100 m relay	44.49
1981	World Cup	Rome, Italy	3rd	100 m hurdles	12.971
1982	European Indoor Championships	Milan, Italy	8th (sf)	60 m hurdles	8.13
	European Championships	Athens, Greece	1st	100 m hurdles	12.45
1984	European Indoor Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	1st	60 m hurdles	7.96
	Friendship Games	Moscow, Soviet Union	3rd	100 m hurdles	12.61

¹Representing Europe

External links

• Lucyna Langer at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Lucyna Langer at Olympics.com
• European Championships
• European Indoor Championships