80 metres Hurdles, Women

This was the final 80 metre hurdle event at any major competition, as the women’s high hurdles moved up to 100 metres immediately after the 1968 Olympics. In June 1968, Soviet Vera Korsakova had twice broken the world record at a meet in Rīga, Latvia, leaving the mark at 10.2 in the final – and it would become the still-standing 80 metre hurdle world record. While most sprints and horizontal jumps benefited from the altitude of Ciudad de México, with numerous world records set, the women did not match Korsakova’s world record. And Korsakova would not get to the final of the event, placing fifth in the first semi-final. The favorites were Karin Balzer, 1964 gold medalist, and multiple European champion, and Australia’s Pam Kilborn, Commonwealth Games champion in 1962, 1966, and later in 1970, who had not lost since the 1964 Olympics in which she was the bronze medalist. But in the final, Kilborn and Balzer both started very poorly. Balzer never recovered and finished fifth, but Kilborn came on string at the end and almost caught her teammate, the unheralded Maureen Caird, who was only 17-years-old and remains the youngest individual track event gold medalist at the Olympics.