Robinson, "Betty" (Elizabeth)
Track and Field
b. Aug. 23, 1911, Riverdale, IL
When Robinson ran a 100-yard time trial for the first time, her high school track coach didn't believe the stopwatch. It said she had tied the world record.
The stopwatch was probably right. In only her second race, in the spring of 1928, Robinson did tie the world record for 100 meters, 12.0 seconds. Her third race was in the U. S. Olympic trials, where she finished second. And she won the Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters shortly before her seventeenth birthday. Robinson was the first woman to win a gold medal in track. She also ran on the 4 by 100-meter relay team that won a silver medal.
Robinson was the AAU outdoor 50-yard and 100-yard dash champion in 1929, setting a world record of 5.8 seconds for 50 yards. She ran a world-record time of 11.0 seconds in the 100-yard dash in a 1928 Chicago meet and in 1931, she set world records of 6.9 seconds for 60 yards and 7.9 seconds for 70 yards.
Robinson was almost killed in a 1931 plane crash. She suffered a severely broken leg, a crushed arm, and a serious concussion that put her in a coma for nearly two months. It was two years before she could even walk normally, but she returned to competition. Forced to use a standing start because of her injuries, she nevertheless made the U. S. Olympic team in 1936 and won her second gold medal by running a leg in the 4 by 100-meter relay event.