The Matchless Six: The Story of Canada's First Women's Olympic Team

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University. She is the author of several books, including The
Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret
Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

The Matchless Six is a well-researched and lively account of six
Canadian women athletes who set out for Amsterdam determined to take the
ninth Olympiad by storm. The Canadian Olympic trials had been held in
Halifax in July 1928. Myrtle Cook had won her place on the first
Canadian women’s Olympic track-and-field team by bettering the
world’s record by one-fifth of a second. Ethel Smith had earned her
place on the team by bettering the world record at the Ontario Olympic
trials. Ethel Catherwood held the national record in the high jump, and
thus was assured a place on the team. Canada’s best all-round female
athlete, Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld, was the country’s top discus
thrower. Jean Thompson of Penetang, Ontario, broke the world record when
she ran the 800 metres in two minutes and 26 seconds. Jane Bell won a
place on the 4 x 100–metre relay team through sheer determination.
Sports writer Ted Reeves wrote a clever rhyme about them: “Myrtle and
Smitty / And Fanny and Flo / And Ethel and Jean / Are the girls that
will go.”

But their story, as Ron Hotchkiss sums up, was “one of joy and
disappointment, an opportunity lost, and an act of extraordinary
sportsmanship.” In the opening race, the 100 metres, Cook
false-started twice in the final and was disqualified. It then looked
like Smith had won the race, but the gold went to an American. An injury
Thompson suffered just before her 800–metre race kept her from
winning. But all was not lost. Catherwood won gold in the high jump, and
thanks to Bell’s extraordinary run in the third leg of the 4 x 100
metres, she and teammates Rosenfeld, Smith, and Cook took home the gold.


The Canadian Olympic champions returned to Toronto on August 25, 1928,
to a noisy, unexpected reception headed by the mayor. More than 200,000
people waited to greet them at Toronto’s Union Station. The chapter
“Changed Lives” follows up briefly on the athletes’ careers.

The Matchless Six is an excellent introduction to six exceptional women
who changed the face of the Olympic games forever. Highly recommended.