Page 10 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, April 7, 2023 OLYMPIAN| FROM PAGE 9 came the first Black woman to compete in the Olympics, in the hurdles event. However, fate was not with her as she broke her foot in the semifinals of her event and was forced to withdraw. Once again, she joined her Black teammate, Stokes, in the stands to watch the American team win a second Gold Medal in the 4 X 100 relay and tie the world record of 46.9 seconds that the 1932 women’s team had set four years earlier. Malden rejoiced at Stokes’ great news When the news hit in 1932, residents of Malden rejoiced at the selection of Stokes to the Olympics team. She was the first-ever Malden resident to achieve such national fame, an achievement that still reigns as unique. To this day she is the only Malden female athlete ever to be so honored. Richard “Dick” Rodenhiser played on two U.S. Hockey Teams in the 1956 and 1960 Winter Olympics – the only other Malden Olympian. Even as a teenager, Stokes was well-known around the community for her athletic exploits in both track and field and in girls basketball for Malden High School in the early 1930s. Stokes had brought fame to Malden on an international scale a year before her Olympic selection, having set a new world record for women in the standing broad jump event at a Boston-based, regional competition. In late spring, Stokes joined other Olympic hopefuls, including Pickett, in track trials being held at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. For the wide-eyed Stokes, it was the farthest she had ever travelled from her Malden home. What an adventure! Dominating those trials was none other than someone regarded as one of the greatest female athletes of all time, “Babe” Didrickson, who went on to be a multiple Gold Medalist in the 1932 Olympics and then one of the most successful professional women golfers in history. Stokes and Pickett, the two 18-year-olds, despite their age and experience, did extremely well against national competition. Pickett hailed from Illinois, so she was not so much out of her element. Not so for Stokes, due to the limited travel of Americans overall in those days. Who knew she would be making even longer and more distant travels that were looming in her immediate future? Many of the women who comJ& • Reliable Mowing Service • Spring & Fall Cleanups • Mulch & Edging • Sod or Seed Lawns • Shrub Planting & Trimming • Water & Sewer Repairs Joe Pierotti, Jr. S LANDSCAPE & MASONRY CO. 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History made: First two black women as Olympians Still, both persevered, performed at a high level and prevailed, as each etched their names in the history books as the first Black women to become Olympians. In 1932, Stokes finished fourth in the 100-meter finals with a time of 12.4 seconds while Pickett was right behind her in sixth place at 12.5 seconds. According to Smithsonian Magazine writer Matt Osgood, in a 2016 article, the method of selection for the four women who would run in the 4 X 100 Relay team for the Olympics women’s team would be the top four finishers in the 100-meter event at the trials, and the fifth (Pickett) and sixth-place finishers would be alternates. The top finishers were Ethel Harrington, Wilhemina “Billie” von Bremen, Elizabeth Wilde, Stokes, Evelyn Pearl Furtsch and Pickett. Judging from what ultimately transpired, when women’s track coach George Vreeland announced the members of the 4 X 100 team who would compete the next day in Los Angeles, this all changed. It would appear there were two glaring omissions: Stokes and Pickett. Of the top three eventual selectees for the event, only one of the top five Olympic trial finishers was picked – von Bremen, who was to be regarded as the third fastest woman in the world at the time when she won Bronze at the 1932 Olympics at 100 meters. Harrington, who finished first at the trials, and Wilde, who finished third at the trials, competed only in the 100 meter individual event. They did not compete in the relay and apparently that was decided early. According to researchers, the women had been told at the Olympic trials at Northwestern that the top six finishers in the 100-meter at the trial would all be in the relay “pool” and the four who would be competing would be selected from the pool. It would appear that Stokes, primarily, and Pickett, most likely, would have a chance to join von Bremen and a fourth runner, Annette Rogers, on the 4 X 100 Relay team. Rogers was the national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) 100-meter titlist in 1931 and 1932 and ended up finishing fifth in the 100 meter sprint in the 1932 Olympics. On an interesting local note, Rogers was born in Chelsea, Mass., and lived there in her early years before moving on to become a longtime Chicagoan in Illinois. It looked like Stokes would break the color barrier It really looked like an 18-yearold Black woman from Malden was going to break the color barrier in an international event: the first woman of color to compete in a U.S. Olympic track and field competition. But it was not to be for Stokes and Pickett. The quartet for the 4 X 100 Relay was announced, and the roll call did not include either one of them. Instead, joining von Bremen and Rogers on the 4 X 100 Relay Team would be Evelyn Pearl Furtsch of San Diego, Calif., and Mary Carew from – who would have ever guessed it – Medford, Mass.! Furtsch, also 18 at the time, had a somewhat similar story as Stokes in her early years. Facing little competition from her own gender in her home region, she ran against boys for a couple of OLYMPIAN| SEE PAGE 11
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