Myrtle Cook

Myrtle Cook, c. 1928
Personal information
Full name	Myrtle Alice Cook
Born	Myrtle Alice Cook (1902-01-05)January 5, 1902 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died	March 18, 1985(1985-03-18) (aged 83) Elora, Ontario, Canada
Height	168 cm (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	55 kg (121 lb)
Sport
Country	Canada
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	100 m, 4 × 100 m relay
Club	Canadian Ladies' A.A.C.
Medal record Women's athletics Representing Canada Olympic Games 1928 Amsterdam 4 × 100 m relay

Myrtle Alice Cook (also competed as Myrtle McGowan) (January 5, 1902 – March 18, 1985) was a Canadian athlete and journalist, who won the gold medal in the women's 4 × 100 metres at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Her column, "In the Women's Spotlight", appeared in the Montreal Star for 40 years.

Myrtle Alice Cook was born on 5 January 1902 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[1][2] Contemporary accounts describe her as a quiet and shy child who nevertheless threw herself into sport from an early age, playing whenever and wherever she could.[3][2]

As a girl and teenager in Toronto, Cook developed into an all round athlete. Sources credit her with excelling in tennis, ice hockey, basketball, bowling, cycling and canoeing in addition to track and field.[1][4] By her mid teens she was already competing at national level. At about the age of fifteen she was selected for Canada's national track and field team.[5]

Cook emerged as one of Canada’s fastest sprinters in the early 1920s, a period when national opportunities for women in organized sport were still limited. In 1923 she co-founded the Toronto Ladies' Athletic Club, creating what has been described as the first dedicated women’s athletic club in Canada.[6]That same year she began to attract national attention as a sprinter, winning provincial meets and setting unofficial marks that hinted at world-class ability.[7]

Her breakthrough came in 1924, when she tied the world record in the 60-yard dash and was increasingly recognized as Canada’s best woman sprinter.[1] Over the next few seasons she continued to dominate national competition, regularly winning the 100 metres, 220 yards, and relay events. Contemporary reports described her starts as "explosive" and her stride as unusually powerful for a runner of her size.[4]

By 1927, Cook was considered a leading contender for the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics, the first Games to include women’s track and field. She set multiple Canadian records in the run-up to the Games, and her consistent victories secured her place on the newly formed women’s national athletics team.[7]

Cook (left, #675), winning in a preliminary heat in the women's 100 m race at the 1928 Summer Olympic Games.

Cook competed for Canada at the 1928 Summer Olympics held in Amsterdam, Netherlands where she won the gold medal in the women's 4 × 100 metres with her teammates Fanny Rosenfeld (also 100 m silver medallist), Ethel Smith (100 m bronze medallist) and Jane Bell.[6]

In 1929, Cook began a career writing for the Montreal Star, where she contributed the column "In the Women's Spotlight" for the next 40 years.[6]

Cook was involved in ice hockey and served as president of the Dominion Women's Amateur Hockey Association prior to 1937.[8]

Cook equalled Betty Robinson's Women's 100 m World Record on August 1, 1931.[citation needed]

Cook contributed significantly to women's sports in Canada, helping to establish the Toronto Ladies Athletic Club, serving as director of athletics for the Canadian Ladies Athletic Club, and founding a branch of that club in Montreal.[6] During the Second World War, she was active in fundraising and assisted in training military recruits.[6]

She died in Elora, Ontario on March 18, 1985.[6][9]

• Member of Canada's 4×100 metre relay team that won the gold medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics (Amsterdam), the first Olympic Games to include women's track and field events.[10]
• Among the first Canadian women to compete in Olympic athletics following the International Olympic Committee's decision to admit women's track events in 1928.[11]

• Gold medal – 4×100 metre relay, 1928 Summer Olympics (Amsterdam), representing Canada.[10]
• Fourth place – 100 metres final, 1928 Summer Olympics (Amsterdam).[12]
• Canadian national champion – 100 yards (1928).[7]
• Canadian national champion – 220 yards (1928).[7]

• Named Canada's female athlete of the year by the Canadian Press (1932).[13]
• Inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1955).[14]
• Inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame (1971).[15]

• Began serving as a sports columnist with the Montreal Star in 1929, becoming one of Canada's first nationally prominent female sports journalists.[10]
• Organized the Montréal Major Ladies' Softball League and the Montréal Major Ladies' Hockey League, and formed a Montréal branch of the Canadian Ladies' Athletic Club, serving as its athletic director.[10]
• Served as president of the Dominion Women's Amateur Hockey Association, and resigned from the position in September 1937 after four years on the association's executive.[16]
• During World War II, served as track coach for the Canadian Armed Services in the Montréal area.[10]

• Subject of the CBC Archives retrospective collection "The Matchless Six," documenting Canada's 1928 women's Olympic team.[17]
• Profiled in historical accounts of early Canadian women's sport in The Canadian Encyclopedia.[7]

• Olympics.com – Myrtle Cook athlete profile
• Atlas Obscura – The Long, Strange Tale of the Wandering Womb – Discusses historical arguments used to exclude women from Olympic competition