Kit small

Kit small
Full name	Catherine Klein
nation	United States
birthday	March 28, 1910
place of birth	Buffalo
date of death	April 13, 1985
Place of death	Holmes Beach
Career
Medal table
MK World Championship medals 1 × 0 × 0 ×
All around world championships gold Stockholm 1936 Small four-way battle

Catherine "Kit" Klein (born March 28, 1910 in Buffalo , † April 13, 1985 in Holmes Beach ) was an American speed skater . In 1932 she won the 1,500 meter race at the Olympic demonstration competitions and in 1936 became the first female speed skating world champion.

biography

During her school days, Klein successfully participated in various sports such as basketball and tennis. She began speed skating at Masten Park High School (now: City Honors School) in Buffalo. She trained in Fort Erie, Canada and initially worked as a stenographer for a trading company in her hometown. There she won the Buffalo City Championship in speed skating for the first time in 1930 .

Although she was disqualified after a fall at the national championships, she considered the team management for the line-up at the 1932 Winter Olympics . At the Lake Placid Games , three women's speed skating competitions (over 500 meters, 1000 meters and 1500 meters) were part of the Olympic program for the first time, albeit only for demonstration . Klein was one of five US starters, a total of ten athletes took part in the competitions. She won the bronze medal over 500 meters and won the 1500 meter race just ahead of Canadian Jean Wilson .

In the further course of the 1930s, Klein won other titles at US and North American championships despite a femoral neck fracture . In 1935 she set the world record over 1000 meters . The following year she took part in the women's all- around world championships in Stockholm - the first to be recognized as such by the International Skating Union . There she first won the sections over 500 and 3000 meters (the latter also in world record time) and after a further second and third place also the title of all- around world champion in front of the Finn Verné Lesche . Until the victory of Beth Heiden in 1979, Klein was the only American speed skating world champion.

Klein ended her career in 1936. On her way back from Europe to the United States with the Washington , she threw her skates overboard. In the same year she married the Pennsylvania native orthopedist Thomas Outland. Before that, she annulled a joking marriage in 1933 with boxer friend George Nichols , about which radio journalist Walter Winchell had reported in April 1935. She subsequently took part in the ice shows of the Ice Follies and signed a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , but did not take on any major roles.

Klein first lived with her husband in Harrisburg , where she played tennis and bowled at the country club . When Outlands retired, the couple moved to Holmes Beach in 1967 . Klein died there at the age of 74. She was posthumously inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame .

literature

• Timothy Evans: Kit Klein - World Champion Speed ​​Skater . In: Journal of Olympic History. Issue 12/1, January 2004. Pages 13–15. Available as PDF .

Web links

• Statistics at speedskatingnews.info