STELLA WALSH

Stanisława Walasiewicz (also known as Stella Walsh and ‘Stella the Fella’) was a Polish born American athlete and an Olympic champion.

Walasiewicz was born April 3, 1911 in Wierzchownia, Poland. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was only three months old. Her father, Julian Walasiewicz, settled in Cleveland where he found a job as a steel mill worker.

She started her athletic career in a public school in Cleveland. Fast and agile, in 1927 she easily won the competition for a place in the American Olympic team started by the Cleveland Press newspaper. However, Walasiewicz was not an American citizen and could not obtain citizenship under the age of 21.

Walasiewicz joined the local branch of Sokol, a Polish sports and patriotic organization active also among the Polish diaspora. During the Pan-Slavic Slet of Sokół movement in Poznań she scored her first major international victories. She won 5 gold medals: in running for 60, 100, 200 and 400 metres, as well as long jump.

In the late 1920s she was already a well-known athlete. As an amateur she was also working as a clerk in Cleveland. While still not a US citizen, Walasiewicz did participate in, and won, numerous American national championships, usually under the name of Stella Walsh.

In the 1932 Summer Olympics she represented Poland. In both the heats and the semi-finals of the 100 m, Walasiewicz equalled the current world record of 11.9 seconds, a feat she repeated in the final, which she won.

The same day, she also finished 6th out of 9 in the discus throw event.

Upon her return to Poland she almost instantly became one of the best-known personalities. She appeared at the Championships of Warsaw, where she seized 9 gold medals, including one for 80 metres hurdling, one for 4x200 relay, and one for long jump.

In 1947 she finally accepted American citizenship and married boxer Neil Olson. Although the marriage did not last long, she continued to use the name of Stella Walsh Olson for the rest of her life. She won her last US title at age forty, in 1951.

She was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975.

THE GOAT!

In the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Stella attempted to defend her Olympic title, but she was beaten to the title by Helen Stephens of the USA. She came second in 11.7 seconds.

Ironically in hindsight, Stephens was accused of being male and forced to submit to a genital inspection to prove otherwise.

Walsh was a bystander in an armed robbery in Cleveland, Ohio on December 4, 1980, and was killed, aged 69. The autopsy revealed that the athlete who had lived her life as a woman had the genitals of a man. Detailed investigation has also revealed that she had both XX and XY pair of chromosomes.

There was some controversy whether all her records and achievements should be erased, but in the end neither the International Olympic Committee nor the IAAF commented on the matter.