A Re-evaluation of the Career of Sin Kim Dan

Suddenly there is a sound.

“Ooosh ! Ooosh !” The “superwoman” can be beaten

Mysterious. The same description has been used by both the pre-eminent writers, Robert Parienté and Roberto Quercetani, in their comprehensive histories of athletics regarding the exploits of an athlete known to them as Sin Kim Dan but now referred to, presumably in the light of heightened linguistic awareness, as Shin Gheum Dan. She ran 51.2 for 400 metres and 1:58.0 for 800 metres during September and October of 1964 in her home town of Pyongyang, in North Korea (more correctly, the People’s Republic of Korea), and neither performance was ever ratified. The official World records then stood at 51.9 and 2:01.2.

Maybe, more than half-a-century later, as her native country’s leader relaxes slightly his policy of isolation, there is more to be discovered about her at long last. 

The 51.9 which had received IAAF approval had been set by the same lady two years before, and she had also run 51.4 and 1:59.1 (the first sub-two-minutes ever achieved) at an international meeting in 1963. So what was the mystery ? In essence, it was a mere matter of bureaucracy because North Korea had withdrawn from the IAAF and the 1963 performances were achieved at the “Games of the New Emerging Forces” (GANEFO) in Djakarta, Indonesia, which were, in any case, not recognised by the IAAF. If more accessible proof of her ability was needed, then Sin Kim Dan provided it by her appearances at the annual Znamenskiy brothers memorial meeting in Moscow between 1960 and 1967, winning   convincingly at 400 and 800 metres on four occasions.  

Her eight record-breaking or record-equalling performances included three at either 400 or 800 metres which were not submitted for ratification before she ran her officially-accepted 51.9. The “records” were as follows in chronological order, with the current official World record (WR) in brackets:

22 October 1960, Pyongyang, 400 metres 53.0 (existing World Record 53.4)

1 May 1961, Pyongyang, 800 metres 2:01.2 (WR 2:04.3)

30 June 1962, Moscow, 400 metres 53.0 (WR 53.4)

23 October 1962, Pyongyang, 400 metres 51.9 (WR 53.4)

12 November 1963, Djakarta, 800 metres 1:59.1 (WR 2:01.2)

13 November 1963, Djakarta, 400 metres 51.4 (WR 51.9)

5 September 1964, Pyongyang, 800 metres 1:58.0 (WR 2:01.2)

21 October 1964, Pyongyang, 400 metres 51.2 (WR 51.9)

In both 1960 and 1964 she was deprived of an opportunity to take part in the Olympic Games, when she would undoubtedly have challenged strongly for medals. Roberto Quercetani draws attention to another aspect of Sin Kim Dan’s eligibility in referring to the fact that “some Western correspondents who had seen her in previous years in Moscow and/or Djakarta expressed doubts as to her femininity”. Such scepticism seems to have been countered in the fullness of time by the knowledge that she subsequently married and had two children. Additionally, the Spanish statisticians’ group, AEEA, in its 2003 publication of biographies of 500 leading women athletes, states that a medical examination of Sin Kim Dan by Japanese doctors pronounced her “100 per cent woman” [Yet even the AEEA referred to her as ”esta misterioso norcoreana” !]

This eligibility test took place in Tokyo in 1964 when she arrived with her North Korean team-mates for the Olympics, but the entire contingent returned home after three days because the suspension of six of their number, including herself, for taking part in the banned GANEFO meeting was not lifted. During her stay in Tokyo Sin Kim Dan had a brief meeting with her father, who lived in Seoul, and whom she had not seen for 14 years because of the partition of North and South Korea.

The 800 metres in Tokyo was won, astonishingly, in only her seventh attempt at the distance by Britain’s Ann Packer, who had already taken the silver medal at 400 metres, and her time of 2:01.2 equalled the official World record. In his book, “Olympic Diary Tokyo 1964”, published the following year, Neil Allen, who had reported the Games for “The Times” newspaper, pointed out: “Because she is scrupulously fair, Ann would be the first to admit that she won in the absence of Sin Kim Dan”, and he then said of the surprise gold-medallist, “But I do not think for a moment that she is a shadow champion. We will never know how good she could have been since this is her last year in the sport. My opinion, taking into account her lack of experience at 800 metres and the burden of the 400 before, is that she could certainly beat 1:59.0”.

When I spoke with Neil Allen in later life about the Tokyo Games he recalled that he had been the one to tell Ann Packer in Tokyo that Sin Kim Dan had gone home, and Packer – typically generous in nature – expressed heartfelt pity for the plight of the woman who might well have beaten her. 

The belief that Packer could better 1:59 says as much about the absent Korean as it does of the British winner. While Western experts might have found it difficult to accept that a rugged peasant woman from a secretive country with no tradition in the event could run so much faster than Miss Packer, pretty as a picture and engaged to be married to Britain’s valiant team captain, Robbie Brightwell, the fact is that such times as the North Korean had achieved, and that Neil Allen thought Packer could have achieved, were to be proved perfectly feasible for women in the not too distant future. In 1974 the imperious Irena Szewinska was to run 400 metres in 49.9. Three years earlier another splendid runner of whom there were no doubts, the supremely elegant Hildegard Falck, had covered 800 metres in 1:58.5.        

It was Neil Allen, too, who recorded a first-hand account of what it was like to run against Sin Kim Dan. In his highly informative and entertaining “On the Track” column for the British monthly magazine, “World Sports”, in January 1964, he related in detail a conversation with the European 800 metres champion from Holland, Gerda Kraan, who had also taken part in the Znamenskiy meeting 800 metres the previous year.

The headline to the column was “A SUPERWOMAN … but she can be beaten”, and Kraan recalled: “When Dan burst away with a first 200 metres in 27 seconds, and then runs the opening 400 metres in 57.2 seconds, I felt I had no chance. I went past the bell in about 61 seconds. Imagine it ! About four seconds behind the World record-holder !  I kept running, just running. And with about 200 metres to go suddenly I heard this noise. Ooosh ! Ooosh ! At first I did not realise what it was. Then I saw that Dan was suddenly tired. She was breathing in gasps. At last I knew that she was human. She could be beaten. I woke up too late, but I only lost by 1.8 seconds. Next time it could be different”. Unfortunately for both, there was to be no next time. Kraan reached her peak when she won her European title in 1962 in 2:02.8 and was 7^th in the 1964 Olympic final.

Sin Kim Dan had been born on 3 July 1938 and was one of nine children in the family. She apparently started  running at the age of 14 but by 1958 her best times for 400 and 800 metres were still not at all exceptional – 66.0 and 2:28.2, though achieved without any training.  Russian and Korean coaches are said to have recognised her potential at a youth festival in Pyongyang, and their judgement was amply and promptly rewarded. During the winter of 1958-59 she was persuaded to train as much as three hours a day on a track covered with sawdust, totalling 199 kilometres (124 miles) in February alone, which indicates that she was running some six kilometres (four miles) a day. One of her sessions was 12 x 200 metres in 34-35 seconds, and while this was probably more than Ann Packer did it was still hardly of Zátopek proportions.

Of above average build – 1.73m tall and weighing 62kg – she contested her first serious races in April 1959: 200 metres in 26.8, 400 metres in 59.9, 800 metres in 2:17.1. Her training continued at an intensive but modified level, amounting to 120 kilometres in April and 110 kilometres in May, and an article originally published in Moscow and then translated for the March 1962 issue of the magazine, “World Athletics”, edited by Mel Watman, mentions that she ran 400 metres in 55.9 in Moscow during 1959, which was presumably at the Znamenskiy meeting. This was startling enough progress, already putting her in the top 30 in the World for the year in an under-developed and non-Olympic event, but there was much more to come.

In August she ran 100 metres in 12.4, and in September 200 metres in 24.8, ranking 58^th equal in the World for the year and 2^nd in Asia to Chiang Yu-ming, of China (24.4). In October in Peking she ran 800 metres in 2:09.7 and 400 metres in 54.4 on successive days. This was a remarkable breakthrough. The 800 metres time was to rank 33^rd equal in the World for the year, and as 20 of those ahead of her were from the Soviet Union there were only actually eight countries with faster performers: the others being Great Britain, Hungary, Holland (Gerda Kraan), Germany, Rumania, Poland and France. Just three women in the World were faster at 400 metres that year, led by a new World record 53.4 for Maria Itkina, of the USSR, from Australia’s Betty Cuthbert and Britain’s Molly Hiscox. Altogether, Sin Kim Dan had 30 races during the year, including 10 at 400 metres (one of which was a 54.6 in China in November) and eight at 800 metres.

The training was maintained at a very high level into 1960, and one day’s work in April of that year is recorded as being as follows: 15 minutes running (presumably to warm up); general exercises, 2 x 30 metres, “runs with acceleration” (two on the straight, two round a bend), 12 starts of 30-40 metres, 8 x 200 metres (29, 26, 28, 26.5, 27, 27, 27, 26.5) with 12 minutes rest between each, and two sets of 15 squat jumps with dumb-bells. She raced regularly, three times at 100 metres, four at 200 metres and six each at 400 and 800 metres by the end of July, with electrifying results: 53.8 for 400 metres in April and 2:06.9 for 800 metres in June.

Then she went to the Znamenskiy  meeting in Moscow and ran Lyudmila Shevtsova, of the USSR, desperately close in a World-record 800 metres, 2:04.3 to 2:04.5. Both runners were inside the previous record of 2:05.0 set by the magnificent Nina Otkalenko, also of the USSR, five years before. Sin Kim Dan’s training in the 10 days leading up to the Moscow 800 metres had included on one day 2 x 200 metres in 24.4 and 24.8, with a 12-minute break in between, and on another day 10 x 200 metres in 31-to-32 seconds, with a 200 metres jog between each, and one wonders how many women in the World, even in the Soviet Union, were putting in as much quality work as this.

Very few athletes in history had progressed from obscurity to the highest level in as short time as had Sin Kim Dan, and this was to be the only defeat of her career. Two months later Shevtsova won the Olympic title in precisely the same time, with Australia’s Brenda Jones 2^nd in 2:04.4. North Korea was not affiliated to the International Olympic Committee and so could not take part in the Games. Further 400 metres times by Sin Kim Dan of 53.5 and 53.0 (her first World record, albeit unofficial) followed in Pyongyang in October. A photograph of Sin Kim Dan in the Moscow 800 metres gives no reason to doubt her gender, though it has to be said that other photos taken during her career are less flattering. Of course, she is by no means the only woman athlete to whom such a judgement could apply.

Her 2:01.2 for 800 metres in Pyongyang in May of 1961 was far faster then Shevtsova but justifies the historians’ claims of “mysteriousness” because no details are known of it and it was not ratified, though less than a year later its feasibility was affirmed as the time was equalled by Dixie Willis, of Australia, and this performance was officially recognised. At the Znamenskiy meeting in July Sin Kim Dan beat Gerda Kraan by a street at 400 metres on the first day, 53.5 to 55.7, with the official World record-holder, Maria Itkina, notably absent, though she had run 53.8 a week or so before. Sin Kim Dan then won at 800 metres from Kraan the next day, as the latter has related. Sin Kim Dan’s time was 2:04.6, and Kraan’s a national record 2:06.4, with the World record-holder, Shevtsova, a distant 4^th in 2:08.0.

Returning for the Znamenskiy meeting in 1962, Sin Kim Dan produced another marvellous double – the greatest yet of its type in history – winning the 400 metres in 53.0 to equal her own unofficial World record and the 800 metres the next day in 2:01.4, just two-tenths slower than Willis’s World record. Both races were solitary ventures, with 2^nd places going to Barbara Mayer, of East Germany, in 55.5 and Lyudmila Lysenko (previously Shevtsova) in 2:06.3. Sin Kim Dan’s first lap in the 800 was 58.4, which was not much slower than she had run against Kraan the previous year. In October her Pyongyang 400 metres time of 51.9 (2^nd place in the race, 58.1 !) was officially ratified now that North Korea was affiliated to the IAAF. It was 1.5sec faster than Itkina’s previous official record.

The 1963 season was presumably undertaken, at least at the start, in the belief that Sin Kim Dan would get her chance to prove herself against all-comers at the following year’s Olympics, for which the 400 metres for women was to be introduced at long last, and there would, of course, also be an 800 metres. She began in April with a 2:06.3 for 800 metres, and her annual demonstration at the Znamenskiy meeting entailed the customary wins at both 400 and 800 metres. She ran the first 200 of the 400 in 23.9, which must have caused some consternation for that Dutch girl of fond memory, Tilly van der Zwaard, who had placed 3^rd to Maria Itkina and Britain’s Joy Grieveson in the previous year’s European Championships. Sin Kim Dan won in 52.5 – a time which only she had ever beaten – with van der Zwaard a remote 2^nd in 55.0. In the 800 metres race  the Korean weakened for once to a modest (for her) time of 2:04.6 ahead of Kraan’s 2:05.9.

Confirmatory times of 53.4 and 2:05.0 for Sin Kim Dan followed in October, and then came that ill-fated GANEFO meeting. The problem was that it was taking place in Indonesia, which had been outlawed by the IAAF for refusing permission to Israeli athletes to take part in the previous year’s Asian Games. The countries involved at GANEFO included Albania, Algeria, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Republic, among others, but the whole affair was really of very little sporting significance, other than Sin Kim Dan’s succession of victories. On 11 November she won her heat of the 800 metres in 2:10.1 and then took the 200 metres final in 23.5 to equal the Asian record, with 2^nd place recording 25.8 ! On 12 November she won the 800 metres in 1:59.1, passing the bell in under 57sec with a lead of 70 metres, and eventually winning by 110 metres (2^nd place for Liu Cheng-ping, of China, in 2:18.4) ! On 13 November she won her 400 metres heat in 54.9 and the final in 51.4 (2^nd place, Chiang Yu-ming, of China, 57.7).    

Sin Kim Dan started the 1964 season with 53.6 for 400 metres in April and 53.2 for 400 and 2:03.5 for 800 in May. Then in September came her sensational 1:58.0 for 800 metres, again achieved in obscure circumstances, plus a 52.8 for 400 metres. As a defiant gesture, she ran 400 and 800 metres again within a couple of days or so of the Olympic finals and produced times of 51.2 (the fastest ever) and 1:59.0 (the 2^nd fastest ever) which presumably made a point which satisfied the country’s political leaders if not her. No performances were recorded for her in 1965, but she returned the next year at the second GANEFO meeting, winning the 400 in 53.1 (4^th fastest in the World for the year) and the 800 in 2:03.7 (equal 6^th fastest). In 1967 she was back in Moscow for further Znamenskiy successes in 53.3 (7^th in the World) and 2:04.6 (16^th in the World).

It was a grand final flourish. The best of the Soviet women seemed to be avoiding her yet again at 400 metres on the first day as she won by the usual huge margin, with Tamara Byelitskaya 2^nd in 55.5. In the next day’s 800 metres Sin Kim Dan led by 15 metres after half a lap in 27.5sec and by 50 metres at the bell in 57.0sec before slowing to 2:04.6 at the finish – still comfortably ahead of the 2:06.5 for Katlin Prodan, of the USSR.    

Neil Allen provided an early and fitting epitaph to her career in the article which he wrote for “World Sports” at the beginning of 1964. “The sudden rise to power, the powerful legs that are nearer to those of Vladimir Kuts than a young woman, and the barriers of geography and language have made Sin Kim Dan seem an inexplicable, unbeatable freak”, he suggested. “In fact, she is just another exciting example of the progress of track and field’s standards, and I am convinced she can be beaten by someone with the same application and determination”.

World All-Time Best Performances – Women’s 400 metres

As at the end of 1967

* 440 yards time less 0.3sec, + made during 440 yards race.

World All-Time Best Performances – Women’s 800 metres

As at the end of 1967

+ made during 880 yards race.

Note: the name “Sin Kim Dan” has been used throughout this article because that is how she was known when she was competing.