Hilda Strike

There were few sports in which Hilda Strike was not proficient, but she found the most success as a track and field athlete, even though she did not take it up until 1929 when 1928 gold medalist Myrtle Cook spotted her on the softball field. By 1932 she had tied the Olympic record in the 100 metres and was selected to represent Canada at that year’s Summer Olympics. At the Games Strike made it to the finals of the 100 m and held the lead through most of the race, until she was overtaken by Poland’s Stanisława Walasiewicz in the final few metres, although both officially finished in a world record time of 11.9 seconds. Strike then won a second silver medal in the 4x100 metre relay, alongside Mildred Fizzell, Mary Frizzell, and Lillian Palmer. In a precursor to the Velma Springstead Trophy, she was named Canada’s top female athlete by the Women’s Amateur Athletic Federation of Canada.

The following year Strike founded the Mercury Athletic Club in Montreal, began training for the 1934 British Empire Games, and came in second, behind golfer Ada MacKenzie, in the first-ever Canadian Press vote for Canada’s female athlete of the year, which would eventually become the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award. She made Canada’s delegation to the British Empire Games and added two more silver medals to her collection in the 100 yards (behind Eileen Hiscock of England) and the 110-220-110 yards relay (with Aileen Meagher and the non-Olympian Audrey Dearnley). She retired from active competition in 1935 and was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1964 and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1972. In 1981, after an autopsy revealed that Walasiewicz displayed traits of gynandromorphism, or mixed internal sexual organs, there were suggestions that Walasiewicz should be considered disqualified from the 100 metres and Strike awarded the gold medal, but this did not occur.

Personal Best: 100 – 11.9 (1932).