Bugün öğrendim ki: 100 metrede olimpiyat altınını kazanan ilk kadının yanlışlıkla bir uçak kazasında öldüğü sanıldı. Cenazeci onun yaşadığını ilan ettikten sonra, birkaç gün bilinci kapalı ve kapalı geçirdi ve bir daha asla rekabet etmeyeceği veya yardımsız yürümeyeceği söylendi. Bir altın madalya daha kazanmaya devam etti.

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It's 1928. The setting is Thornton Township High School, which isn't far from the train line that serves Harvey, Illinois. Sixteen-year-old Betty Robinson leaves school and realizes that if she doesn't hurry, she'll miss the train. "And it just so happens, her science teacher was waiting for the same train," says [Roseanne Montillo](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2133499/roseanne- montillo), who has researched and written about Betty Robinson's story. That science teacher, a fellow named Charles Price, was a former runner and the coach of boys' track team. He recognized that the girl running for the train was pretty fast. But not — he thought — fast enough to catch it. "And when he got into the train, as the door closed, he was really surprised to find this young woman — Betty — sitting right next to him," Montillo says. "So he knew that he had someone really, really special on his hands." **To The 1928 Olympics** There was no girls' track team at Thornton Township High. But when Price suggested to Robinson that she let him time her as she ran down one of the corridors at the high school, she probably didn't need much convincing. She was a happy-go-lucky kid who played the guitar and acted in the school plays. Her father was a banker. She had a supportive family delighted to see her succeed — apparently without effort — at whatever she tried. Story continues below