Gladys Chai

Malaysian pentathlete Gladys Chai, whose parents were Chinese, had to retire from the 1972 München Olympics due to injury. She won a silver medal in the high jump at the 1973 Asian Championships. In 1969 she met West German sports journalist Rolf von der Laage at an athletics meeting in Burma. He then organized a training camp for Asian track and field athletes in Germany as a preparation for the München Games. They married in 1977 and Gladys was educated as a sports photographer with the newspaper Kölner Rundschau. They founded the well-known agency for sports photography, ASVOM, which operated worldwide, and Gladys Chai became one of the world’s best-known sports photographers.

Personal Best: Pen – 3652 (1976).