Myrtle Cook

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Myrtle Cook (left) wins her run in 1928

Myrtle Alice Cook , after marriage to McGowan (born January 5, 1902 in Toronto , Ontario , † March 18, 1985 in Elora , Ontario), was a Canadian athlete and Olympic champion .

Myrtle Cook was involved in many sports including: tennis, ice hockey, basketball, bowling, and cycling. At the age of 15, she was accepted into the national athletics team. Cook was among those who broke down women's barriers in politics and sport in the 1920s. In 1923 she was one of the co-initiators of the Toronto Ladies Athletic Club , exclusively for women. The public discussions about the sending of six women by the COC (Canadian Olympic Committee) came to an abrupt end after the women's successes. Cook set one of the first world records in the 100-meter run in Halifax and was the favorite in this discipline for the upcoming Olympic Games. However, she was disqualified after two false starts. After the return of the Canadian team, parades were held for the women in Toronto and Montréal . The press reported 200,000 people in the stadiums and 100,000 along the parades. Cook remained the Canadian 100 meters and 60 yards champion until 1931.

Cook belonged to Bobbie Rosenfeld , Jean Thompson , Ethel Smith , Florence Bell and Ethel Catherwood at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam to which ridiculed at the start of the press The Matchless Six . At the end of the Olympics, however, it turned out that precisely these six women of the Canadian Olympic team had won the most medals for their country, even more than the men.

At this Olympics Cook won the gold medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay race together with her teammates Fanny Rosenfeld, Ethel Smith and Florence Bell in front of the American team (silver) and the German team (bronze).

In 1932 she co-founded the Mercury Athletic Club with Hilda Strike , the 1932 Olympic silver medalist . From this time on she was engaged in the promotion of female athletes and in the promotion of sport for women. A short time later, she was appointed assistant coach to the Montreal Royals , a professional male baseball team, to practice running with them. She also became a sought-after sports journalist and got her own column in the Montreal Star newspaper , In the Women's Sport Light . From 1932 to 1972 she was a permanent member of the Commonwealth Games Committee and the Canadian National Olympic Committee.

swell

  • Hotchkiss, Ron. - "The Matchless Six": Canadian women at the Olympics, 1928
  • McDonald, David - "Golden Age of Women and Sport in Canada". - Canadian women's studies.
  • Palmason, Diane - "In memory of Myrtle". - Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport newsletter.

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