Ethel Johnson (athlete)
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nationality | British (English) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | 8 October 1908 Westhoughton, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 30 March 1964 (aged 55) England | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 157 cm (5 ft 2 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 51 kg (112 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Sprints | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Bolton Harriers | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ethel Johnson (8 October 1908 – 30 March 1964) was an English athlete who competed for Great Britain at the 1932 Summer Olympics.
Biography
[edit]She was born in Westhoughton, Lancashire and was a member of Bolton United Harriers.
Johnson became the national 100 yards champion after winning the British WAAA Championships title at the 1932 WAAA Championships, setting a new world record in the heats of the event in a time of 11.0 seconds.[1][2][3]
Shortly afterwards, she was one of a team of five women entered by the Women's Amateur Athletic Association at the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics as Britain's first female Olympians in athletics events, together with Gwendoline Porter, Eileen Hiscock, Nellie Halstead, and seventeen-year-old Violet Webb. They sailed for five days from Southampton to Quebec and then travelled a further 3000 miles by train before arriving in Los Angeles. Ethel was eliminated in the first round of the Olympic 100 metre contest.[4] and had to be replaced due to injury by Violet Webb in the women's 4x100 metres relay.
At the 1934 Empire Games she was a member of the England relay team which won the silver medal in the 220-110-220-110 yards relay competition (with Eileen Hiscock, Nellie Halstead, Johnson and Ivy Walker).[5] In the 100 yards competition she finished fifth and in the 220 yards contest she finished sixth.
References
[edit]- ^ "Sprinters' break world records in successive heats". Weekly Dispatch (London). 10 July 1932. Retrieved 24 January 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists". National Union of Track Statisticians. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
- ^ "AAA Championships (women)". GBR Athletics. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
- ^ Watman, Mel. "Women athletes between the world wars". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/103699. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Commonwealth Games results Archived July 23, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. CWG. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
External links
[edit]- 1908 births
- 1964 deaths
- Sportspeople from Westhoughton
- English female sprinters
- British female sprinters
- Olympic athletes for Great Britain
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1934 British Empire Games
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England
- Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics
- Women's World Games medalists
- Olympic female sprinters
- Medallists at the 1934 British Empire Games
- 20th-century English sportswomen