Jean Wilson was an

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

Speed Skater. She was born on July 19, 1910, in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

but her family emigrated to Canada when she was a child. She began to skate at the age of 15 and represented Canada at the 1932

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

where Women's

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skat ...

was a demonstration event. She won the 500 metre event, broke the Olympic record on two occasions on the way to claiming second place in the 1,500 metres and fell, while in the lead, just before the finish line in the 1,000 metres after

Kit Klein Catherine "Kit" Klein (March 28, 1910 – April 13, 1985) was an Americans, American Speed skating, speed skater. Short biography Kit Klein was born in Buffalo, New York and started competing on the local level. Later, Klein finished first ...

from the United States. She developed

myasthenia gravis Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a long-term neuromuscular junction disease that leads to varying degrees of skeletal muscle weakness. The most commonly affected muscles are those of the eyes, face, and swallowing. It can result in double vision, ...

, an auto immune disease and died on September 3, 1933, at the age of 23. In 1934 the Jean Wilson Trophy for indoor women's speed skating was created by the

Toronto Telegram ''The Toronto Evening Telegram'' was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed wit ...

in her memory.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Jean 1910 births 1933 deaths Olympic speed skaters for Canada Sportspeople from Glasgow British emigrants to Canada Speed skaters at the 1932 Winter Olympics Canadian female speed skaters 20th-century Canadian sportswomen