LOS ANGELES MORNING SUN
July 10, 1932
“Stella Walsh for Sale!”
Cleveland—With the Olympic trials less than a week away, Stanislawa Walasiewicz (better known by her Americanized name, Stella Walsh), speediest of the nation’s sprinters, declined American naturalization papers and announced she plans to run for her native country of Poland. Her statement comes as a stunning blow to America’s chances for gold in the upcoming Olympics.
Her trainer and coach begged her to decline the invitation to join the Polish Olympic team, but Walsh remained firm, citing financial concerns. She explained that after being given a furlough of indeterminate duration by her employer, New York Central Railroad, economic hardship is motivating her decision to race for Poland, a country that has offered to pay training and travel expenses for its Olympic athletes, along with offering an academic scholarship to attend university.
Despite criticism that she is being disloyal to the country that raised her, Miss Walsh insisted she had no choice but to accept Poland’s offer. Mr. Walsh, a father of five and a part-time steel-mill worker, tearfully claimed he had no additional means to support his daughter. Cleveland’s mayor, Mr. Raymond T. Miller, offered her a position in the city’s recreation department, but the American Athletic Union stated that taking any recreation-related job would compromise her amateur athlete status and make her ineligible to compete as a member of the United States Olympic team.
Her announcement has raised eyebrows and confirmed the feminine prerogative to change her mind, not to mention the untrustworthy nature of non-American people. “This is a brazen case of professionalism winning over patriotism,” lamented famed basketball coach Mr. R. Baker. Bob Leahy of Cleveland’s city council also expressed his disgust with her decision, saying, “Walsh clearly has no loyalty to her adopted country, so this unemployed Slavic immigrant should go back to where she came from. Good riddance.”
In the last three years, the young woman has set ten records in a variety of different distances and is widely considered a top contender for being the fastest woman in the world.
BOSTON UNION LEADER
July 15, 1932
“Boston-Area Girls Depart for Olympic Trials”
Malden—Three of the state’s top sprinters boarded the train this morning for Chicago, where they hope to secure spots on the Olympic team heading to Los Angeles later this month. Miss Louise Stokes of the Onteora Track Club, Miss Mary Carew of the Medford Athletic Club, and Miss Olive Hasenfus of the Boston Swimming Association have been invited to compete in the women’s 100-meter dash, one of six Olympic events open to the fairer sex. For the last two years, these three women have been thrilling New Englanders with their nail-biting races, during both the indoor and outdoor track seasons. Miss Stokes, the Negro phenom, achieved a national broad jump record in 1931, and Miss Carew holds a national title for the fastest 40-yard-dash time. Miss Hasenfus traveled to the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam as a reserve member of the American women’s relay team and has held several national titles in various distances since she was fifteen years old, but she’s endured a challenging year as she recovers from a surgery last winter.
Of the fifty hopefuls who will be competing in the 100-meter race, only the top six women sprinters will be selected to travel to Los Angeles as official members of the women’s team under the expertise of Manager Fred Steers and Coach George Vreeland. In the last two weeks, the women’s sprinting field has broken wide open for American racers with Stella Walsh’s announcement that she’ll be racing for Poland and former Olympic gold medalist Betty Robinson’s horrific plane crash. Perhaps one of our Boston girls will find herself leading the charge to gold.
22.
July 1932
Evanston, Illinois
LOUISE HAD RUN IN SOME HOT RACES, BUT THE National AAU Championships in 1932 made all the challenging conditions that had come before seem mild by comparison. That morning, she stayed in the shade of the bleachers whenever she could. After she finished first in her preliminary heat of the 100-yard dash, she returned to the shade and discovered that race officials had decided the high temperatures merited blocks of ice to be brought in to keep the athletes cool. She’d never seen anything like this and was delighted, but even more exciting was who was sitting on one of the blocks of ice, fanning herself with a race program: another black woman. Since Louise had started racing several years earlier, her competitors had been almost all white women.
“Aren’t your shorts getting wet?” Louise asked, hiding her surprise by pointing at the puddle of water pooling by the woman’s feet.
“In this heat, I don’t mind,” the woman answered, running her hand along the side of the ice before placing it on her forehead and smiling. “My name’s Tidye.”
Tidye was small and her skin was the color of coffee with a good dollop of cream stirred in.
Louise introduced herself and sat on a neighboring block. “Where you from?”
“Not far, just south of here. How about you?”
“Massachusetts.”
“Never been, but I’d like to visit someday. I hear it’s pretty, lots of history. Is it hot there too?”
“It can be, but I’ve never felt anything like this,” Louise said, savoring the way her entire body relaxed as it cooled.
At that moment, a tall girl arrived, pushing her short dark hair off her sweaty beet-red forehead. “Hey, Tidye, can you make room for me? Whew, I’m dying.”
“Can’t you find your own?”
“No, they’re all claimed by other girls. Come on, scoot.”
Tidye inched over to make room for her friend and introduced her to Louise as Caroline Hale, another runner from Chicago.
“So, how did the hurdles go?” Tidye asked Caroline.
“I’ve made it into the final heat with
