THIRTEEN OLYMPIC STORIES - story 11

Babe Didrikson

13 Medal-Worthy Olympic Stories (cont)
By Ethan Trex
August 14, 2008

11. The Babe Who Ran Circles Around the Competition While Playing the Harmonica

When the Los Angeles Olympics rolled around in 1932, a 19-year-old typist named Mildred “Babe” Didrikson faced an unusual problem. The rules dictated that an athlete could only enter three track-and-field events, and Didrikson had qualified for five. So, she simply picked the ones in which she already held world records—javelin, 80-meter hurdles, and the high jump.
Her first event didn’t get off to an auspicious start. The javelin slipped from her hand and tore the cartilage in her right shoulder. For most athletes, that would have meant instant defeat, but Babe’s compromised throw sailed more than 143 feet and set a new world record. Two days later, Babe set another world record in the 80-meter hurdles. She looked poised to sweep her events, but was disqualified in the high jump competition for diving headfirst over the bar, which was illegal at the time. She had to settle for silver.

Didrikson had an outsized personality to match her athletic prowess. Reportedly, she’d greet her opponents with the taunt “Yep, I’m gonna beat you.” And during training sessions for the Los Angeles Games, she would irritate her teammates by literally running circles around them while playing her harmonica.

The Babe’s sports dominance didn’t stop with track and field. In 1935, Didrikson picked up golf, and by 1950, she’d won every available women’s title in the game. She’s still considered one of the greatest golfers of all time, male or female. Never humble, Didrikson wrote in her autobiography, “My goal was to be the greatest athlete who ever lived.”