BY THE NUMBERS
By The Numbers, a look at what’s in the news . . . by the numbers. These are just numbers, not suggestions that they mean more or less than what they are. We do not suggest that one number is connected to another. These are simply facts with no extraneous details, bias or slanted reporting. To borrow (and perhaps mangle a bit) a quote from legendary fictional detective Joe Friday, it’s just the numbers, ma’am!
Remember that commercial? Well, it could easily apply today to women and sports. Today, the 18th day of August is the 102nd anniversary of the 1023 Women’s Amateur Athletic Association track and field championships. To show just how far sports – men or women – have progressed in the last century, today’s By The Numbers takes a look at the results from that meet compared to what today’s top times are.
Enjoy!
12.2 second
100 yard dash
Nora Callebout, a British runner, won the race in 12.2 seconds, beating fellow countrywoman Mary Lines by a foot.
10.49 seconds
100 meters
Flor Jo, or Florence Griffith Joyner set the world mark of 10.49 seconds in Indianapolis in 1988. By the way, 100 meters is 109.4 yards, so Griffith approximately ran the race two seconds faster and ran 10 extra yards.
64.4 seconds
440 yards
Those of us a certain age will remember high school track races of 220 yards and 440 yards. In the 1923 WAAA championship, Mary Lines, another British athlete, won the 440 in 64.4 seconds, which was a world record at the time. She easily beat the second place runner by 5 yards.
47.60 seconds
400 meters
East Germany’s Marita Koch holds the world record in the 400 meters race at 47.60 seconds. This happened last September in Australia. And for those keeping score at home, 400 meters is 437.4 yards. So Koch ran 10 percent farther and did it in 17 less seconds.
1.384
The high jump was won by Sylvia Stone with a leap of 1.384 meters. That is 4.5 feet.
2.10
The world record in the high jump for women now is 2.10 meters, which is 6-feet-10-inches (and three-quarters). That jump came from Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh in 2024 in Paris.
4.35
880 yard walk
There was no long distance run for women back then. Edith Trickey won the 880-yard walk in 4 minutes and 35 seconds.
1:53.28
The 800 meter race record is held by Jarmila Kratochvilova of 1:53.28.
4.96 meters or 16.28 feet
The womens long jump was won by Mary Lines at the London Olympics in 1923. Lines was a heck of an athlete, also winning the 100, 440 and 120 yard hurdles.
7.52 meters or 24-8.25 feet
That came from Galina Chistyakova from the USSR in 1988.