Sports: Track & Field--The 1928 Olympics
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Ethel Catherwood (Herstory 1974) and Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld (Herstory 1979) were two members of the Canadian women's track and field team competing at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. Those games marked the first time women were given the status of official Olympic competitors. The six-woman Canadian track team broke world records and earned two gold, two silver, one bronze, and a fourth- and a fifth-place finish; many spectators felt a judging error had "robbed" the team of a third gold medal. As a team, they amassed 34 points, easily ahead of the second place team. But as The Globe and Mail reported on 8 August 1928, Those opposing the retention of the women's events in the Olympics were headed by a country whose women athletes won the present Olympic's women's track and field meet--Canada.
In the debate over whether to continue to include women in the Games, arguments against doing so suggested both historical appropriateness (women did not compete in the ancient Greek Olympics) and the continuing debate over whether or not physical competition was "injurious" to women. The final vote favoured women's inclusion, with one exception: the 800-metre race for women was withdrawn, and was not reintroduced until 1960.
