On This Week in Sport History ~ 1930s

14^th

Born on this day in 1935, Soviet sprinter and long jumper – Irina Robertovna Turova (later Bochkaryova and then Mordovtseva).  A member of Dynamo Moscow she was coached by her parents and competed nationally in various track events. She competed in the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, placing fourth in the 4x100m relay at both Games and won two golds and a silver at the 1954 European Championships. Her PB for 100m is 11:6s, set in 1954 and 200m – 24.2s set in 1956, the same year she set her long jump PB of 6:00m. She died aged 76 in Moscow on 8^th February 2012. Her son Pyotr Bochkaryov was a pole vaulter who competed in the 1996 Olympics and won the European Indoor Championships twice, setting an indoor personal best in 1994 with 5.90m. This remained the championship record until Renaud Lavillenie cleared 6.03m in 2011.

 

15^th

American swimmer Judy Roberts was born in Dallas today in 1934.  Judy competed for the USA at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki where she came fourteenth overall with a time of 1:08.2s. In 1953 she won the AAU title over 110yds both outdoors and indoors. She also made the 1955 Pan American team, winning gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Judy graduated from Indiana University in 1956 where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority and swam for the Indianapolis AC, she won multiple national titles and met her husband, Morris (Mo) Thomas, Jr. at IU and they were married after they graduated in 1956 and enjoyed 60 years of happy marriage. Judy died on 22^nd November 2016, at the age of 82.

 

16^th

Marianne Seltsam. German alpine skier was born on this day in 1932 in Tegernsee, Bayern. One of Germany’s best alpine skiers of the 1950s, she originally began her sporting career as a figure skater.  After swapping to skiing, she came 10^th in the giant slalom at the 1952 Oslo Winter Games and was 12^th four years later, she also took part in the slalom at both Games. In 1950, when she was just starting her career Marianne broke her leg taking part in the German Championships in Schleching, Bavaria. Her most important international performance came in 1953, when she won all three alpine events at the FIS-races in Sestriere, Italy. The same year, she once again broke her leg, this time practising for the German Championships. In 1954 she finally won a German championship – in slalom, and was elected German Sportswoman of the Year. Marianne died aged 81 on 6^th February 2014 in her home town of Tegernsee.

 

17^th

Charmain Welsh, British Olympic diver was born in County Durham today in 1937.  Unusually she did her training in an open-air swimming pool known locally as Dawdon pit pond, near Seaham Harbour, Co. Durham, where the thick black mud at the bottom of it stemmed from it’s proximity to the local coalmine. Her father, a former junior rugby international, was a local colliery manager and wanted her daughter to have better coaching in the United States, but it was not part of the ASA agenda so she continued training at Dawdon. A pupil at Durham High School she started swimming at the age of 11 and two years later was the Durham and Northumberland ladies champion. Having won both swimming and diving trophies she turned her attention to diving and qualified for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. She was just two months beyond her 15th birthday when she arrived in Finland, the first time she had ever been outside Great Britain, and she defied her years by finishing fifth in the springboard event. Charmain competed in her second Olympics at Melbourne four years later but finished well down the field in both diving events. However, her moment of glory was to come at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in 1958. Having placed fourth in the springboard four years earlier, she became a double gold medallist in Cardiff winning both the springboard and platform events. Less than two months later she won the springboard silver medal in the European Championships at Budapest. She was expected to appear in her third Olympics at Rome in 1960 but she surprisingly quit diving in 1959 because she felt there was too much “politics” within the sport. Charmain also represented Durham at both fencing and shooting and later became a teacher. Sadly, she was widowed when her husband Peter, along with her only daughter were killed in a car crash. Well into her 70s Charmian continued to coach young divers in Durham and in 2013 was honoured with a lifetime achievement award by British Swimming for Outstanding Contribution at Club Level.

 

18^th

Doris Ramseier, Swiss equestrienne was born on this day in 1939. She won a silver medal in team dressage at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, together with Christine Stückelberger and Ulrich Lehmann.  She also competed at the 1992 Games. In 1961 Doris and her husband Aldred founded the dressage and trade stable in Horgenberg at the lake of Zurich. While Alfred was the expert in finding and buying the best horses, Doris trained the dressage horses according to classic principles. In all categories, both on national and international tournaments, Doris won silver and bronze in the world championships, two European silver and 15 Swiss national championship medals. Her son Daniel continues this tradition with even greater success. In 1984, as a highly talented young rider, he won the European championships, Olympian silver, two bronze medals in the world championships, two European silvers and 11 Swiss championships medals. Apart from his great talent as a rider, he is a distinguished connoisseur of horses who recognizes the potential of any horse. He sells and finds dressage horses for his customers worldwide. At Olympic Games, world, European, and country championships, horses from the stable are highly successful. In the third generation, Sonja Ramseier shows great interest in dressage sport and has already been successful on the junior stage, winning the 2011 Swiss championships.

 

19^th

Christine Rosemary Payne, British discus thrower was born in 1933 in Kelso in the Scottish Borders.  She represented Great Britain at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and won gold for Scotland at the 1970 Commonwealth Games. She had previously competed at the international level back to the1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. She married hammer thrower and three-time Olympian Howard Payne, they later divorced, and was affiliated to the Lozells Harriers during her career. At the age of 39 she competed in the 1972 Olympics. She was ranked tenth in the qualification round with 55.56m, in the final she finished 12th with 56.50m. Her personal best of 58.02m dates from 1972. At age 41, she took a silver medal in the 1974 Commonwealth Games. Also in 1974, she served as the British Junior Team Manager, supervising youngsters including Steve Cram, Fatima Whitbread, Colin Jackson and Steve Backley. She competed in the 1975 World Masters Athletics Championships, showing her athletic versatility by winning gold in not only the discus and shot put, but also in the 100m and high jump. After 1978, she took a break from competing, to return ten years later at the European Veterans Championships, adding the triple jump to her repertoire. Her British W55 record of 9.12m still stands. In all she has amassed 19 British age group record, including a complete sweep of discus records from age 35 to 80, excepting the W50 division that fell during the years she was not competing.

 

20^th

Austrian figure skater Hanna Eigel was born in Vienna on this day in 1939.  She is the 1955 and1957 European champion and the 1957 World silver medallist. She represented Austria at the 1956 Winter Olympics, where she came just outside the medal positions in fifth place.