- Evelyn Furtsch
Evelyn Furtsch (born
April 17 1914 ) [nearly all sources report her date of birth: "August 16, 1911", but the Hodak interview reports "April 17, 1914", which is right according to the California Birth Index.] is a former American athlete.Furtsch was awarded a
gold medal in the4 x 100 metres relay with teammatesMary Carew ,Annette Rogers andWilhelmina von Bremen at the1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.Furtsch was born in San Diego, CA. She and her family moved to Orange County when she was 8 years old. During her Junior year at Tustin High School, a gym teacher noticed that she ran very fast. It was brought to the attention of Tustin High track coach, Vincent Humeston where she was soon training and running with the boys track team. At the time, only big cities and big city schools had organized women's track & field. Humeston got in touch with the Los Angeles Athletic Club, who were at the time, training girls for the 1932 Olympics.
In the 1932 Olympics, the Women's 4 x 100 meters relay team broke both the Olympic and World Record. Although they ran it in 46.9 seconds, the Olympics at that time did not count tenths of a second. So the Olympic record was recorded at 47 seconds and the World Record at 46.9 seconds.
She was the first woman in Orange County, CA to win an Olympic gold medal. She was elected into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.
As of January 2007 she is the last surviving member of the 1932 4x100 meter relay team.
References
External links
* [http://www.aafla.org/6oic/OralHistory/OHFurtschOjeda.pdf Hodak interview 1987]
* [http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=FURTSEVE01 dataOlympics profile]
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