A01384 - Magdalena Swanepoel, South African Track and Field Athlete

Magdalena Catherina Swanepoel (b. November 7, 1930 – d. June 2, 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 meters (161 feet 8 inches) for the javelin and 13.53 meters (44 feet 4+1⁄2 inches) for the shot put. She was a 13-time national champion in throwing events, including eight javelin titles.

Swanepoel's greatest achievements came at the Commonwealth Games.  At the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, she added almost five meters to the previous javelin games record by winning the gold medal with a throw of 43.83 meters (143 feet 9+1⁄2 inches). 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 meter down from 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 meters (159 feet 10+1⁄2 inches) she was a long way short of Australia's Anna Pazera, whose winning throw of 57.41 meters (188 feet 4 inches) would stand as a record for twenty years. Swanepoel also had an improved performance in the shot put, with 13.17 meters (43 feet 2+1⁄2 inches) but finished off the podium in fourth as all medalists went beyond fourteen meters that year.

After retiring from active competition, she took up coaching in Pretoria and worked as a lecturer at Normal College Pretoria.