Grethe Whitehead

Like her fellow 1936 Olympian Katharine Connal, Grethe Whitehead attended Leeds Girls High School before going to Leeds University where she obtained a BA in Greek and Latin. A keen member of the University athletics team, Whitehead was an 80 yards hurdler, sprinter, high jumper and long jumper and won the University long jump title with a new record 16-6 ½ (5.04) in 1934.

Although she never won a WAAA title, she did win the gold medal in the 80 metres hurdles at the 1935 University Games in Budapest. She had a good build up to the 1936 Olympics when three months before the Games she won the hurdles, 100 yards flat, high jump and tied first place in the long jump in the triangular match between the Universities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield. Sadly, at the Berlin Olympics she could only finish fourth in her hurdles heat, and was the only one of the three British hurdlers not to qualify for the semi-finals. She won a second University Games medal at Paris in 1937 when she took the bronze, again in the 80 metres hurdles. Just before the outbreak of World War II she married Selwyn Russell Jones who was a senior arts master at King’s School Macclesfield for over 40 years.

Personal Best: 80H – 12.2 (1937).