Paulette Veste

Paulette Veste took up field athletics during World War II, at the age of 12, and within three years had set an unofficial French record in the shot put. Her career got its real start after World War II, and she earned six national titles between 1948 and 1953: three in the discus (1948, 1951, 1952) and three in the shot put (1949, 1952, 1953). Her first major international competition was the 1948 London Olympics, where she was 10th in the discus and just missed the podium in fourth in the shot put, in events won by her teammate and friend Micheline Ostermeyer. Veste also set the French record in the discus to 40.95 meters that year. Four years later, at the 1952 Helsinki Games, she was 9th and 16th in the shot put and discus respectively. In-between, she placed sixth in the discus at the 1950 European Championships. She competed for one more year after Helsinki, and then married in 1954 and moved to Florida. She would not return to France for over fifty years.

Personal Bests: SP – 13.26 (1952); DT – 43.24 (1951).