Magdalena Swanepoel, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetMagdalena Swanepoel
South African javelin thrower and shot putter
Date of Birth: 07-Nov-1930
Place of Birth: Hopetown, Northern Cape, South Africa
Date of Death: 02-Jun-2007
Profession: athletics competitor
Nationality: South Africa
Zodiac Sign: Scorpio 
About Magdalena Swanepoel
- Magdalena Catherina Swanepoel (7 November 1930 – 2 June 2007) was a South African track and field athlete who competed in the shot put and javelin throw events. She was born in Hopetown, a town in the north-west part of South Africa in Thembelihle Local Municipality.
- She spent most of her life in Pretoria.
- Over her sporting career she broke the South African record six times in the javelin and on ten occasions for the shot put, ending with lifetime bests of 49.28 m (161 ft 8 in) for the javelin and 13.53 m (44 ft 4 1/2 in) for the shot put.
- She was a 13-time national champion in throwing events, including eight javelin titles.Her greatest achievements came at the Commonwealth Games.
- At the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games she added almost five metres to the previous javelin games record by winning the gold medal with a throw of 43.83 m (143 ft 9 1/2 in).
- THis made her South Africa's first women's throws champion at the competition.
- She also took a bronze in the shot put that year, about a metre down on the winner, New Zealand's Yvette Williams.Swanepoel returned four years later to defend her title but although she threw close to a career best with 48.73 m (159 ft 10 1/2 in) she was a long way short of Australia's Anna Pazera, whose winning throw of 57.41 m (188 ft 4 in) would stand as a record for twenty years.
- Swanepoel also had an improved performance in the shot put, with 13.17 m (43 ft 2 1/2 in), but finished off the podium in fourth as all medallists went beyond fourteen metres that year.After retiring from active competition she took up coaching in Pretoria and worked as a lecturer at Normal College Pretoria.
Read more at Wikipedia