Marcia Jones Smoke

Marcia Jones Smoke is easily the United States’ greatest woman kayaker. She graduated from Michigan State in 1964, by which time she had already won several national championships as Marcia Jones. She remained Marcia Jones through the 1964 Olympics where she won her bronze medal. Though she was beaten fairly decisively by the Russian gold medalist, she narrowly missed the silver medal. She competed in two more Olympics as Marcia Smoke, just missing another bronze in 1968 when she finished fourth in the K-1 event. In 1976 Marcia Smoke was a member of the K-4 National Champions and this gave her 34 Senior National Championships, surpassing the U.S. canoeing record of 33 held by Ernie Riedel. Amazingly she returned in 1981 to win another national title, this one in the K-4 500 meter event, giving her 35 in all. She has also won 24 North American Championships and at the 1967 Pan-American Games, she won three gold medals – in K-1, K-2, and K-4. The only American who ever defeated Marcia Smoke in her prime was her sister, Olympian Sperry Jones Rademaker.