Over the course of 16 years and 4 Olympic Games from 1936 in Berlin to 1952 in Helsinki…..the USA Women’s 4 x 100m Relay Teams were the beneficiaries of tragic misfortunes to teams from Germany and Australia…..allowing the USA to win two gold medals….like gifts from above….as the team from Germany at the Berlin Games…..along with Australia at the Helsinki Games…..had unbeatable leads as the 3rd leg of the relay attempted to make a good baton pass to the 4th leg of the relay….but dropped the baton…..which resulted in the Americans winning gold when they really should not have.
The gift of gold to the USA women’s team that I liked the most was in Berlin in 1936….cuz this was at a time when Chancellor Adolph Hitler was professing Arian Supremacy leading up to and continuing throughout the 1936 Berlin Olympics…..which basically translated into his belief that the Arian (white) German race was superior to all others around the world. It was Hitler’s belief that this would prove to be true at the Berlin Olympics, however, through the final day of track and field competition….his theory had proved out only in the field events….specifically the throwing events of the shot put, discus, hammer throw and javelin…..as no German had won gold in any of the running events up to this point. Going into the final day of track competition…. the German women’s 4 x 100m relay team had their best chance to bring home to the Vaterland the gold medal that they so desperately wanted…..cuz their women’s relay team were the current world record holders….and heading into the finals…..they had just broken their own world record in the semi-final heat…..resulting in them being heavily favored to beat any challenger by more than 10 yards. As the actual finals unfolded….Kathy Klauss led off to Marie Dollinger with a 2 yard lead….which increased to a 7 yard lead as Enie Albus running the third leg of the relay approached her pass to Elsa Doerfeldt…..who could almost coast her way to victory…..but just like the fickle finger of fate will often do…..what seemed to be inevitable….was all of a sudden a dropped baton laying on the floor of the track…..so, Deutsches Uber that.
In the featured photo above are the four members of the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games gold medal winning USA women’s 4 x 100m relay team consisting of Mae Faggs, Catherine Hardy, Barbara Jones, and Janet Moreau….beneficiaries of the Australian women who dropped their baton on the final pass.
