Erna Steinberg (also ''Erna Boeck''; 30 June 1911 – 21 April 2001) was a German

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who specialised in

sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace * Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automobiles *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...

ing events. Born in

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

, she competed in the first ever women's

100 metres at the Olympics 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, held at the

1928 Amsterdam Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the IX Olympiad (), was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from 28 July to 12 August 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The city of Amsterdam had previously bid for ...

. At seventeen years old she was among the youngest entrants.Erna Steinberg
Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. Running in the second heat, she won her race in 12.8 seconds – a short-lived

Olympic record Olympic records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games. Summer Olympics * Archery at the Summer Olympics, Archery (List of Olympic records in archery, li ...

for the event. She was second to the more experienced Leni Schmidt in the semi-final. Steinberg placed fourth in the first women's Olympic final in the 100 m in a time of 12.4 seconds (Schmidt and

Myrtle Cook Competitor for Canada Myrtle Alice Cook (also competed as Myrtle McGowan) (January 5, 1902March 18, 1985) was a Canadian athlete who won the gold medal in the women's 4 × 100 metres at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Career Born in Toronto, Ont ...

had been disqualified so she was the last to finish in the six-woman race).Athletics at the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Games: Women's 100 metres Final
Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. This was her only Olympic appearance. During her career she was affiliated with

SC Brandenburg SC, Sc or sc may refer to: Arts and media * ''Sim City'', a city-building simulator game * Snapchat, a multimedia messaging app * Soccer club, another name for a football club in association football * Social club, a type of club. * ''Soulcalibu ...

. She died in

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in 2001 shortly before her 90th birthday.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinberg, Erna 1911 births 2001 deaths German female sprinters People from Charlottenburg Olympic athletes for Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 1928 Summer Olympics Athletes from Berlin Olympic female sprinters 20th-century German sportswomen