ithout ever having a coach, Bobbie Rosenfeld entered the competitive sports of track and field, softball, tennis, basketball, and hockey - and was a champion in them all! Young, quick, wiry, and aggressive, her power was her focus and bold determination. Bobbie Rosenfeld went after everything with full force and "owned" whatever sport she entered into.

She bursted onto the scene, surpassing world records literally from the word 'go'. She wowed spectators at the Ontario Ladies Track and Field Championship, achieving firsts in the discus, 220 yards, 120 low hurdles and the long jump, with seconds in the 100 yards and the javelin. In 1928, when women were finally able to enter the track and field division of the Olympics, wearing an outfit comprised of her brothers' and father's athletic gear, she once again blasted world records almost across the board.

"Almost" because of the one event that held her back from perfection: the 800-metre. This single defeat in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics is probably the performance that speaks most of Bobbie's character. She finished fifth, but Rosenfeld was never trained for distance running. She had entered into the race merely to push Jeannie Thomas, the true contender, to go the distance. On the final stretch, Bobbie pulled up behind Jeannie as the young runner faltered. Instead of forging onward to claim the place for herself, Rosenfeld spent the final stretch coaxing the girl on, and refused to get ahead of her. Jeannie Thomas took fourth place and Rosenfeld took fifth.

We all encounter setbacks in our lives, and Bobbie was no exception to the rule. In 1929, she was struck with a severe case of arthritis; it placed her in the hospital for 8 months and left her restricted to crutches for a year longer. When she was feeling better, she played major league softball in the summer, and hockey-her true love-in the winter. Even after being inactive for almost two years, she still outperformed all the other participants, and continued to push boundaries in both games.

Rosenfeld went on to coach the Canadian women's team. After a second, stronger bout with arthritis, she hung up her many and various pieces of equipment for good, and went on to a successful 33-year career as a sports columnist. With her 40 year career, Bobbie Rosenfeld still remains the only woman "all-rounder" in the Hall of Fame. Still, she wasn't a very strong swimmer.