Dee Boeckmann

Dee Boeckmann, who competed for the Headlight Athletic Club, was one of the US women who competed in the first Olympic track & field competition for women, in 1928. She was a pioneer of the sport in the United States, and for her efforts promoting the sport over the years she was elected to the US Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1976. Boeckmann was the first U.S. Olympic women’s coach, at the 1936 Berlin Games. She was the first woman to chair a national Olympic committee when she assumed this responsibility for track and field and the first woman national chair of the AAU track team. In 1950, Boeckmann became the first American woman to coach a foreign national team, when, at the urging of General Douglas McArthur, she became track and field coach of the Japanese women’s track and field team. Boeckmann was also a pioneer for women’s participation in basketball. A teacher and government worker, she worked for the Red Cross in China during World War II.

Personal Best: 800 – 2:18.1 (1928)