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| Event type

100 metres Backstroke, Women

Date10 – 11 August 1932
StatusOlympic
LocationOlympic Park Swimming Stadium, Los Angeles, California
Participants12 from 7 countries

With defending champion Zus Braun languishing in a hospital bed, the attention of the swimming world was fixed upon two swimmers. The glamorous Eleanor Holm of the USA, who held the world record, and the woman whose record Holm had broken, Bonnie Mealing from Woolloomooloo, Australia. Holm attacked the field from the start of the final and was still gaining on the field at the finish to head Mealing by two seconds. Eleanor Holm was one of the most glamorous and controversial female sporting figured of the nineteen-thirties. In 1933 she married the popular singer and bandleader, Art Jarrett, and for a while combined her swimming with performances alongside her husband’s band. Despite her marriage, she continued competing and qualified for the 1936 Berlin Olympics but her attempt to retain her title ended before she even reached European soil. Two days out of New York she was invited to a party thrown in honour of the journalists travelling with the Olympic team. Holm was seen drinking champagne until the early hours and was warned by team officials about her conduct. The breaking point came when the ship was docked at Cherbourg, Holm spent the day at several champagne parties and was discovered on deck by the team chaperone the worse for drink, and accompanied by a man, at ten thirty in the evening. Returned to her cabin, she proceeded to shout obscenities out of the porthole. The chaperone then returned with the team doctor, who was unable to wake her and diagnosed her as being in a state of “acute alcoholism”. In the morning Holm woke to the news that she had been removed from the Olympic team and despite taking her case to USOC president Avery Brundage, she would not compete in Berlin.

She did however report on the Games for the International News Agency and was an honoured guest of the German organisers. On her return to America she turned professional, divorced Art Jarrett and soon married Billy Rose, in whose Aquacade spectaculars she would star. A brief dalliance with Hollywood saw her co-star with Glenn Morris in “Tarzan’s Revenge” but that was to be her only acting appearance. She hit the headlines one more time due to scandalous divorce proceedings with Billy Rose before settling to a third and longer lasting marriage.

PosSwimmerNOCR1Final
1Eleanor HolmUSA1:18.3 (1 h1)1:19.4 (1)Gold
2Bonnie MealingAUS1:21.6 (2 h1)1:21.3 (2)Silver
3Valerie DaviesGBR1:22.0 (1 h2)1:22.5 (3)Bronze
4Phyllis HardingGBR1:22.5 (3 h1)1:22.6 (4)
5Joan McSheehyUSA1:22.5 (2 h2)1:23.2 (5)
6Joyce CooperGBR1:25.0 (2 h3)1:23.4 (6)
1 h3 r1/2Zus Philipsen-BraunNED1:23.8 (1 h3)– (DNS)
3 h2 r1/2Ruth KerrCAN1:28.2 (3 h2)
3 h3 r1/2Marjorie LintonCAN1:29.1 (3 h3)
4 h1 r1/2Puck OverslootNED1:23.5 (4 h1)
5 h1 r1/2Misao YokotaJPN1:25.1 (5 h1)
AC h2 r1/2Maria LenkBRA– (DQ h2)DQ
DNSWilly den OudenNED– (DNS h2)
DNSJenny MaakalRSA– (DNS h3)
DNSLouisa RobertUSA– (DNS h3)

Round One (10 August 1932 — 15:50)

Top two in each heat and the fastest third-place advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One

PosLaneSwimmerNOCTime
11Eleanor HolmUSA1:18.3QOR
22Bonnie MealingAUS1:21.6Q
35Phyllis HardingGBR1:22.5q
44Puck OverslootNED1:23.5
53Misao YokotaJPN1:25.1

Heat Two

PosLaneSwimmerNOCTime
14Valerie DaviesGBR1:22.0Q
25Joan McSheehyUSA1:22.5Q
31Ruth KerrCAN1:28.2
DQ2Maria LenkBRA
DNS3Willy den OudenNED

Heat Three

PosLaneSwimmerNOCTime
11Zus Philipsen-BraunNED1:23.8Q
24Joyce CooperGBR1:25.0Q
32Marjorie LintonCAN1:29.1
DNS3Jenny MaakalRSA
DNS5Louisa RobertUSA

Final (11 August 1932 — 16:15)

PosLaneSwimmerNOCTime
1Eleanor HolmUSA1:19.4
2Bonnie MealingAUS1:21.3
3Valerie DaviesGBR1:22.5
4Phyllis HardingGBR1:22.6
5Joan McSheehyUSA1:23.2
6Joyce CooperGBR1:23.4
DNSZus Philipsen-BraunNED