Inese Jaunzeme

Inese Jaunzeme (21 May 1932 – 13 February 2011)[3] was a Latvian javelin thrower who won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics.[1]

Inese Jaunzeme

Personal information
Born	21 May 1932 Pļaviņas, Latvia
Died	13 February 2011 (aged 78) Riga, Latvia
Height	169 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	70 kg (154 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Javelin throw
Club	Dynamo Riga
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	55.73 (1960)[1][2]
Medal record Representing the  Soviet Union Olympic Games 1956 Melbourne Javelin throw

Jaunzeme placed third at the Soviet Union Championships in 1956, earning herself a place on the Soviet Olympic team for the 1956 Olympics. She set an Olympic record in the first round of the event and went on to improve her mark twice more, ending up with a winning throw of 53.86 metres. This made her the first Latvian Olympic champion.[4] She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1957 in recognition of her achievement and was selected as the Latvian athlete of the year in 1956 and 1957.[1]

Jaunzeme was the Latvian champion in the javelin in 1952, 1956, 1958 and 1960, and placed second at the 1957 World University Games. In 1960, she graduated from the Riga Medical Institute and retired from competitions. She worked in the fields of traumatology and plastic surgery,[4] and defended a PhD in 1969. Since 1970 she was an orthopedics professor at the Riga Medical Institute. From 1999 until her death in 2011 she headed the Latvian Olympians Association.[1]

A street in Riga (Ineses Jaunzemes iela) was named after her in August 2023.[5]