Delores Boeckmann

Delores Halpin "Dee" Boeckmann (born November 9, 1906 in St. Louis , Missouri , † April 25, 1989 in Creve Coeur , Missouri) was an American athlete of Irish-German origin. The sports pioneer took part in the 1928 Olympic Games and was a sports teacher, professor and sports official.

Life

Delores grew up around the German gymnastics clubs in St. Louis. Already at the age of 8 she started to train regularly with her father, who told her that she had to walk like a boy. She graduated from high school and Mount Saint Mary's Catholic Academy , which qualified her as a teacher. In addition, she went through the association training as a gymnastics teacher. She was active in athletics and basketball and won from 1919. Due to the Olympic Games in 1904, St. Louis was so prepared for competitive sports that it absolutely wanted to take part in such worldwide games. She started for the Headlight Athletic Club in St. Louis. When the USA did not take part in the 1922 Women's World Championships and the leadership of the Amateur Athletic Union opposed the inclusion of women’s competitions in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris , it organized protests by women athletes to promote women’s competitive sport. In 1925 she ran the indoor world record over 50 m and was victorious on distances up to the mile. In the following years she was also active nationally and internationally in fencing, basketball, hockey and athletics.

In 1928 she finally took part in the Olympic Games in Amsterdam and finished seventh in the 800m. After the Games, she continued teaching in St. Louis. In 1936 she was the trainer of the US women's athletics team at the Olympic Games in Berlin and also a chaperone for the women's team, which was housed separately. Back in the United States, she was offered the position of city administrator for the parks and sports facilities in Philadelphia . She noticed this, but after a year she moved to New Orleans , where she could also work as a trainer. In 1941 she returned to St. Louis, where she became the city's sports director . In 1942, when the USA entered the World War, she volunteered for the Red Cross and was transferred to Iceland as head of sports and leisure for the troops . From there she moved to China , where she had a similar role before taking over the leadership of the Red Cross in Shanghai . After the end of the war she returned to the USA and gave lectures at universities, especially to encourage women to become self-employed. In 1950 she was employed by the special forces for troop care during the Korean War . However, General Douglas MacArthur held her in Japan and she was 1950-1951 national coach for athletics. However, she then left the United States Army and was from 1951 to 1958 professor of sports science (especially training theory ) in the Japan Women's College of Physical Education . Then she returned to St Louis, where she worked in the city administration and coached until her retirement. On a voluntary basis, she was the first woman to serve as a female warden for the Amateur Athletic Union and the first woman to be accepted as a personal member of the United States Olympic Committee . For her services, she was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1976 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.mountsaintmary.org/page.cfm?p=362 on . March 27, 2017
2. ^ Arnd Krüger : The Unfinished Symphony. A History of the Olympic Games from Coubertin to Samaranch, in: James Riordan & Arnd Krüger (Eds.): The International Politics of Sport in the 20th Century. London: Routledge 1999, pp. 3-27.
3. ↑ Louise Mead Tricard: American Women's Track and Field. McFarland, 1996, ISBN 978-0-786-40219-9 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
4. ↑ http://ir.jwcpe.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/123456789/717/4/nichijo_kiyo46-06.pdf auf. 29th March 2017

Web links

• Delores Boeckmann in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )