1932 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 100 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	100 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	20 athletes from 10 countries
Competition location	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Competition phase	August 1, 1932 (preliminary / semi-finals) August 2, 1932 (final)
Medalists Stanisława Walasiewicz ( POL )   Hilda Strike ( CAN )   Wilhelmina of Bremen ( USA )

The women's 100-meter run at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was held on August 1 and 2, 1932 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . Twenty athletes took part. Starting pistols , electronic timekeeping and target photos were used for the first time at the Olympic Games , but electronic timekeeping was only used unofficially.

Olympic champion was Stanisława Walasiewicz from Poland ahead of Hilda Strike from Canada . The US runner Wilhelmina von Bremen won the bronze medal.

Existing records

• World record : 11.9 s - Tollien Schuurman ( Netherlands ), Haarlem , June 5, 1932
• Olympic record : 12.2s - Betty Robinson ( USA ), Amsterdam Olympic final , July 31, 1928

Conducting the competition

On August 1st, the runners competed in four preliminary runs. The three fastest athletes in each case qualified for the semi-finals on the same day. From the preliminary rounds, the three first placed came into the final, which was held on August 2nd.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

Date: August 1, 1932

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Marie Dollinger	German Empire	12.2 s	ORe
2	Wilhelmina of Bremen	United States	12.3 s
3	Hilda Strike	Canada	12.3 s
4th	Gwendoline Porter	Great Britain	12.4 s
5	Marjorie Clark	South African Union	12.5 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Stanisława Walasiewicz	Poland	11.9 s	WRe
2	Mary Frizzell	Canada	12.1 s
3	Sumiko Watanabe	Japan	12.2 s
4th	Elly du Mée	Netherlands	12.3 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Tollien Schuurman	Netherlands	12.2 s
2	Mary Vandervliet	Canada	12.3 s
3	Eileen Hiscock	Great Britain	12.3 s
4th	Eileen Wearne	Australia	12.5 s
5	Ethel Harrington	United States	12.7 s
6th	Taka Shibata	Japan	12.7 s

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Elizabeth Wilde	United States	12.4 s
2	Cornelia Aalten	Netherlands	12.4 s
3	Thelma Kench	New Zealand	12.4 s
4th	Asa Dogura	Japan	12.9 s
5	Ethel Johnson	Great Britain	13.9 s

Semifinals

Date: August 1, 1932

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Hilda Strike	Canada	12.4 s
2	Elizabeth Wilde	United States	12.4 s
3	Marie Dollinger	German Empire	12.4 s
4th	Tollien Schuurman	Netherlands	12.4 s
5	Sumiko Watanabe	Japan	k. A.
6th	Thelma Kench	New Zealand

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Stanisława Walasiewicz	Poland	11.9 s	WRe
2	Wilhelmina of Bremen	United States	12.1 s
3	Eileen Hiscock	Great Britain	12.3 s
4th	Mary Vandervliet	Canada	12.3 s
5	Mary Frizzell	Canada	12.3 s
6th	Cornelia Aalten	Netherlands	12.4 s

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Stanisława Walasiewicz	Poland	11.9 s	WRe
2	Hilda Strike	Canada	11.9 s	WRe
3	Wilhelmina of Bremen	United States	12.0 s
4th	Marie Dollinger	German Empire	12.2 s
5	Eileen Hiscock	Great Britain	12.3 s
6th	Elizabeth Wilde	United States	12.3 s

Date: August 2, 1932

In the final there was an exciting and high-class duel between the Pole Stanisława Walasiewicz - later active in the USA under the name Stella Walsh - and the Canadian Hilda Strike. With the better start, Strike was slightly ahead at the beginning. But Walasiewicz caught up and was just ahead of the Canadian at the finish. Both runners set the existing world record with 11.9 s.

In this competition, too, the jury was not particularly competent. The placement of the American Wilhelmina von Bremen in third place was still clear. But behind that, the officials first put Eileen Hiscock in fourth and Marie Dollinger and Elizabeth Wilde together in fifth. Only the much later evaluation of the target film recordings resulted in the correction of the result as listed here.

Stanisława Walasiewicz set the world record of 11.9 seconds in all of her three runs.

Picture gallery

• 

  Olympic champion Stanisława Walasiewicz (POL) in a photo from 1938

• 

  The German Marie Dollinger - recording from 1928 - came fourth.

• 

  Cornelia Aalten (NED) was eliminated in the semifinals.

• 

  World record holder Tollien Schuurman (r.) Failed in the semifinals, her colleague Elly du Mée (l.) In the preliminary round.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 247f

Web links

• SportsReference 100 m , accessed September 18, 2017
• Official report pp. 465–467, engl. (PDF), accessed on September 18, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 640 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)