Multiple Olympic champion and world record-holder

Born: May 24, 1946;

Died: June 29, 2018

IRENA Szewinska, who has died of cancer aged 72, was arguably Poland's greatest athlete. She was, inarguably, the greatest female sprinter the world has ever seen - the only person, male or female, to have held the world record at 100, 200 and 400 metres. Some might argue that this makes her greater than the Jamaican, Usain Bolt, whose world bests excluded the one-lap distance. Her 10 world records, including two relays, is also greater than Bolt's career haul.

Szewinska was the first woman to break 50 seconds for 400 metres. Her gold-medal time of 49.28sec in 1976 is still ranked comfortably inside the world all-time top 20, and 42 years on it remains superior to the British record. It would still have been good enough to win gold at the last four Olympic Games.

Her winning margin in Montreal was staggering. The East German runner-up, Christina Brehmer, was a distant 1.23 seconds adrift. This remains the biggest winning margin in any Olympic 400m final, male or female.

The Pole proved remarkably durable over a range of events not normally noted for competitive longevity. She competed in five Olympics, the first in 1964, under her maiden name of Kirszenstein.

In Tokyo, on her Olympic debut aged 18, she won two silvers, in long jump and 200m. It took a world record from Britain's Mary Rand to win the former, with the Pole 16 centimetres behind. She also, most controversially, won gold in the 4 x 100m relay, in which the Polish quartet broke the world record with 43.6, ahead of the USA and Britain.

That world mark was expunged three years later, however, when the anchor leg runner, Ewa Klobukowska, became the first athlete to fail a sex chromosome test. With inexplicable ambivalence from officialdom - with which track and field was to become familiar - although the world best was deleted, the Poles were allowed to keep their gold medals. By rights the US should have been promoted to gold, Britain to silver, and the Soviet Union to bronze.

Irena married her coach, Janusz Szewi?ski, a national level hurdler and sports photographer, in 1967, and the following year, in Mexico City, she took 100m bronze and 200m gold. The first three in the 100m were co-holders of the world best, but American Wyomia Tyus claimed the record outright when she won in 11.08. There was no doubt, though mild controversy, as Szewinska won the 200m comfortably, with a world record of 22.58. But the wind reading was one of several suspiciously measured right on the legal limit for record purposes: 2.00 metres per second. The same on-the-limit reading was recorded when the men's long jump record was broken, and the world best fell to two competitors in the triple jump.

Szewinska graduated with an economics degree and also gave birth to a son in 1970, before completing the match set of 200m medals two years later, with bronze in Munich, Her remarkable 400m record in Montreal, in 1976, brought her Olympic haul to seven medals in five events. That is surpassed only by Merlene Ottey, with eight.

Szewinska went to the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, but withdrew having pulled a muscle in the semi-finals.

World Championships were added to the international calendar only in 1983, so there was no chance to evaluate Szewinska against such criteria. However, at the inaugural World Cup in 1977, she won the 200 and 400m, beating the East German favourites, Barbel Wockel and Marita Koch respectively. She ranked World No.1 at 200 and 400m in 1976 and '77.

She did the 100/200m double at the 1965 World Student Games in Sofia, and in four European outdoor championships she won 10 medals: five gold (100m, 200m twice, long jump, 4 x 100m); one silver; and four bronze. The highlight was 1966 in Budapest where she won the long jump, 200m, 4 x 100 relay, plus a silver in the 100m, but she also did the 100/200m double in 1974, relegating Renate Stecher to silver. The East German had held the world best at both distances that year, until Szewinska relieved her of the latter with 22.21. That year, the Pole ranked No.1 in the world at 100, 200 and 400m.

She also won six European indoor championship medals, including 50m gold in 1969. Between 1965 and 1979 she amassed 26 Polish titles while establishing 38 records from 100 to 400m plus relay and long jump.

She was ranked World No.1 seven times at 200m; four times at 400m; and twice at 100m; plus three times in the long jump.

Between the 1974 and '78 European Athletic Championships, she was undefeated in 34 consecutive 400m finals.

She was born into a Jewish family in what was then Leningrad. Her father came from Warsaw and mother from Kiev. The couple had met in Samarkand while studying there, but in 1947 the family moved to Warsaw.

Szewi?ska became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1998, and was president of Polish Athletics for 12 years to 2009. In 2005 she became the third female elected to the council of the International Association of Athletics Federations. She was a member of their Hall of Fame, and of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

She is survived by her husband, and sons Andrzej who played volleyball for Poland and later became a senator, and Jaroslaw.

DOUG GILLON