Ethel Catherwood

Ethel Catherwood (1928)

Ethel Catherwood (born April 28, 1908 in Hannah, North Dakota , † September 26, 1987 in Grass Valley ; nickname The Saskatoon Lily ) was a Canadian athlete. At the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928 , she became the first female Olympic champion in the women's high jump .

Catherwood moved with her family from the province of Ontario to Saskatoon in 1925 . There she attended Bedford Road School, where she could also train. In terms of sport, she first drew attention to herself in 1926, when she equalized the Canadian high jump record during an athletics competition in her hometown. On September 6, 1926, she improved the world record set by British Phyllis Green a month earlier by three centimeters to 1.58 m. A year later she lost the record to the South African Marjorie Clark , but was able to equalize on July 2, 1928 at the Canadian Championships in Halifax with skipped 1.60 m Clark's record.

Her sporting successes drew the attention of the philanthropist Teddy Oke from Toronto , who paid for her training. Together with her trainer Joe Griffiths , Catherwood decided to take part in the 1928 Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam, which were the first time women were admitted to the athletics competitions. In cold, windy weather, Catherwood prevailed against her competitors and won the gold medal with 1.595 m ahead of the Dutchwoman Lien Gisolf and the American Mildred Wiley . Catherwood is to date the only female Canadian athlete who could win a gold medal in an individual competition.

After her return to Canada, she was offered a film contract, not least because of her much-described beauty. However, Catherwood embarked on a career as a business woman and later relocated to California .

Web links

• Ethel Catherwood in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Canada's Sports Hall of Fame: Ethel Catherwood