Gwendoline Alice Porter (25 April 190229 August 1993) was a British

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 competed mainly in the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at ...

Biography

She was born in

Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...

, London. She worked in the head office of an insurance company. In 1922 she participated at the

Women's Olympiad The Women's World Games were the first international women's sports events in track and field. The games were held four times between 1922 and 1934. They were established by Alice Milliat and the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale ( ...

in Paris and won the gold medal in the 4×110 yds relay (with Mary Lines, Nora Callebout, Daisy Leach and Porter as fourth runner) setting a new

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

. Porter finished third behind Nellie Halstead in the 100 yards event at the 1931 WAAA Championships and third behind Ethel Johnson in the 100 yards event at the 1932 WAAA Championships. Shortly afterwards, she was one of five women entered by the Women's Amateur Athletic Association at the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics as Britain's first female Olympians in athletics events, together with Ethel Johnson, Eileen Hiscock, Nellie Halstead, and seventeen-year-old Violet Webb. They sailed for five days from Southampton to Quebec and then travelled a further 3000 miles by train before arriving in Los Angeles. In the 4 x 100 metres women's relay she won the bronze medal with her teammates Eileen Hiscock, Violet Webb (replacing the injured Johnson) and Nellie Halstead. In the women's 100 metres she came 4th in her heat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Gwendoline 1902 births 1993 deaths People from Ilford Athletes from the London Borough of Redbridge English female sprinters British female sprinters Olympic athletes for Great Britain Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics English Olympic competitors Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic female sprinters 20th-century English sportswomen