Wajs, the World Games Champion in 1934, had seen her world record
broken 11 times by Mauermayer in 1935-36, with the German taking
the record from 44.19 to 48.31. The last of these came in Berlin at the
German Championships just three weeks before the Olympics.
Mauermayer followed Wajs’s opening throw of 44.69 with the win-
ning effort of 47.63. Wajs reacted well, throwing 46.22, the longest
competitive throw of her career, to place an excellent second, more
than 6m clear of third place. Mauermayer was deemed the perfect
example of Aryan womanhood, and her Nazi connections meant that
she lost her teaching job after the war.