Vera Searle

Vera Maud Searle (born Palmer ; born August 25, 1901 in Leytonstone , † September 12, 1998 in Tunbridge Wells ) was an English runner and sports official . She was a pioneer in women's sports .

Vera Palmer grew up in a sporting environment, her father was the deputy general manager of Chelsea Football Club . In 1923 she set a new world record over 250 meters with 35.4 seconds in an international match between England and France . When women were still not admitted to the Olympic Games in Paris for athletics disciplines the following year , she co-founded the Middlesex Ladies Athletics Club . In the same year she set a world record over 440 yards and improved it again the following year.

1926 traveled Vera Palmer in the Swedish Gothenburg to participate in the second "Women's Olympics" kvinnospelen Internationella ( Women's World Games ), where she won the silver medal in the 250 meters. She then retired from active sport and married Wilfred Searle, vice-president of the Middlesex Ladies Club . Two years later, when women were invited to the Olympic Games in Amsterdam with a delay and were then only allowed to start in five athletics disciplines, she spoke out in favor of a boycott of these games by British athletes. This boycott, the only one in Olympic history on the grounds of gender, actually took place even though British women would have had the greatest chance of medals.

When Vera Searle asked the UK Amateur Athletic Association to accept women as members, it was rejected. The club superiors suggested that she found her own association for women, which she promptly did. She became the first executive director of the Women's Amateur Athletic Association . She later supported the founding of the Spartan Ladies club , which, alongside the London Olympiades, became one of the leading English sports clubs for women in the 1940s. In 1950 she helped found the National Women's Cross Country Association , and in the early 1970s she was involved in establishing the World Veterans Championships (now known as the Masters ).

Vera Searle was active as a competition judge for many years. In later years she regretted not having become a trainer:

“On other occasions, at meetings at the old White City Stadium in London, she would take her place high up in the announcer's box and, accompanied by her newspaper, her cheroot cigars and the bottle of Guinness she drank virtually every day of her life , would remain there all day. "

“On other occasions, at meetings at White City Stadium in London, she took her seat high up in the speaker's booth , accompanied by her newspaper, her Cheroot cigars and a bottle of Guinness , which she drank almost daily. She stayed there all day. "

She remained mentally and physically fit into old age. Her husband, with whom she had two daughters, died in the mid-1950s.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Adam Szreter: Obituary: Vera Searle. The Independent , October 9, 1998, accessed December 8, 2014 . 
2. ^ FSFI Women's World Games. gbrathletics.com, accessed December 8, 2014 . 
3. ^ Matthew P. Llewellyn: Rule Britannia: Nationalism, Identity and the Modern Olympic Games. 2012, p. 184 , accessed December 10, 2014 (English). 
4. ^ Jean Williams: A Contemporary History of Women's Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960. 2014, accessed December 10, 2014 .