Bobbie Rosenfeld

Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld (December 28, 1904 – November 14, 1969) was a Canadian athlete, who won a gold medal for the 100-metre relay and a silver medal for the 100-metre at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

She was a star at basketball, hockey, softball, and tennis; and was called Bobbie for her "bobbed" haircut.

Rosenfeld, who was Jewish, was born on December 18, 1904, in Ekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (now Dnipro, Ukraine).

When she was an infant, she immigrated to Barrie, Canada with her parents and older brother.

Her father, Max Rosenfeld, operated a junk business and her mother Sarah, who gave birth to three more girls, ran the home.

Fanny attended Central School and Barrie Collegiate Institute, where she excelled in sports, including basketball, softball, lacrosse, hockey, and tennis.

Rosenfeld was a hockey player in the 1920s and was dubbed superwoman of ladies' hockey.

In the mid-1920s, she held national records in the 440 yd open relay with a CNE relay team, as well as in the standing broad jump, discus, javelin, and shot put.

In 1922, the Rosenfeld family moved to Toronto, where Fanny worked at a chocolate factory.

After Rosenfeld's family moved to Toronto in 1922, she joined Toronto's Young Women's Hebrew Association (YWHA) and was a center for their basketball team.

That year, the team won both the Toronto and Ontario championships.

In 1923, Rosenfeld's softball teammates encouraged her to enter a track competition at a sporting carnival in Beaverton.

She entered a 100 yd dash and defeated the Canadian champion, Rosa Grosse.

Later that year, she began training more intensely and competed at the Canadian National Exhibition, as well as Ontario’s first women's track and field championship.

In 1924, she helped form the Ladies Ontario Hockey Association (LOHA).

In 1924, Rosenfeld claimed the title of the Toronto Ladies Grass Court Tennis championship, despite having only just taken up the sport.

At the 1925 Ontario Ladies Track and Field championships, in a single day performance, Rosenfeld placed first in discus, shot put, 220 yd dash, low hurdles, and long jump, and placed second in the javelin and 100 yd dash.

She was a centre on the 1927 and 1929 Ontario champion Toronto Patterson Pats, which were part of the North Toronto Ladies' City League.

Rosenfeld competed on a championship hockey team after debuting as a track and field athlete at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Rosenfeld competed on a championship softball team after debuting as a track and field athlete at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

During the trials for the 1928 Summer Olympics, Rosenfeld set numerous Canadian track and field records.

These records included the running broad jump, standing broad jump and the discus.

Her time in the 100 metres was four-fifths of a second slower than the world record at that time.

She later competed as a sprinter in the 1928 Olympics, the first Games in which women were allowed to compete in track and field.

Her team won a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay.

She received a silver medal in the 100 yd dash and placed fifth in the 800 m dash.

She "scored more points for her country than any other athlete at the Games, male or female."

She was considered the most outstanding women's hockey player in all of Ontario between 1931 and 1932.

One year after competing in the Olympic Games, Rosenfeld developed severe arthritis, The condition forced her to stop competing in 1933, though she continued to be involved in sports as "a coach, executive or manager to various women's sports teams."

In 1934, Rosenfeld was coach of the Canadian women's track and field team at the British Commonwealth Games in London, England.

From 1934 to 1939, Rosenfeld was president of the Ladies Ontario Hockey Association.

In 1949, named Rosenfeld the "Canadian woman athlete of the half-century."

The Bobbie Rosenfeld Award is named in her honour.

In 1949, Rosenfeld was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, one of the first women to receive the honor.

In 1950, she was "bestowed the Canadian woman athlete of the first half-century award."

Rosenfeld died on November 13, 1969, in Toronto and is buried at Lambton Mills Cemetery in Humber Valley Village.

Rosenfeld played and competed in numerous sports, including track and field, ice hockey, basketball, fastball, softball, lacrosse, golf, speed skating, and tennis.

When commenting on Rosenfeld's diverse sporting career, one author wrote, "The most efficient way to summarize Bobbie Rosenfeld's career... is to say that she was not good at swimming."

In 1978, The Canadian Press began presenting the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award, an annual award given to Canada's female athlete of the year.

In 1996, she was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.