Records

Randy Barnes of America and Ulf Timmermann of East Germany were the powerhouses of men’s shot putting in the late 1980s. Timmermann had beaten Barnes to gold at the 1988 Olympics and set a world record — 23.06m — that same year. But 23-year-old Barnes claimed he was regularly beating Timmermann’s mark in training. All he had to do was prove it in competition.

It was a perfect Californian afternoon and the meet’s promoter had put up a $50,000 reward for a world record — it was all the incentive Barnes needed. His second throw landed at 23.12m and the US had regained the world record for the first time since 1976. 

Russian Lisovskaya set her first world record in 1984 at the tender age of 21. But it took her another three years to reach her peak in terms of distance: a remarkable world record — 22.63m — that has stood for more than 20 years.

Her most impressive achievement, however, came the following year at the Seoul Olympics: every one of her six putts would have been good enough for gold. No wonder the four longest putts in history belong to her.

She lives in Paris with her husband Yuriy Sedykh, whose hammer throw world record has survived for 22 years.