Chaperones and Eiquette for Olympics

Did the male athletes have chaperones in 1932? No… 

DALLAS, Aug. 9 (AP). Mildred “Babe” Didrikson, who established new world records in the 80-meter hurdles and the javelin throw at the Olympics, will return home here Thursday for probably the greatest welcome ever extended a Dallas athlete. Office workers in the city's skyscrapers have been collecting ticker tape all week to shower on her. ~ Newspaper clipping from 1932

At the 1932 Olympic Games, Chaperones and Trainers Watch the Girl Athletes

United Press Special Correspondent, Los Angeles, Aug. 5.—The team of Hall and Hall gave the team of Didrikson and Mac Combs a close race to the tape in the 80 meter hurdles for ladies in the 1932 Olympics. Babe Didrikson led her teammate, Evelyn Hall, by inches in the race which set a new world’s record of 11.7 seconds. 

But sharing closely in the first and second places with the two American girls were a husband and a coach. "I’ve always been coached by M. J. Mac Combs,” said Babe. “I pick out what I want to do and he shows me how to do it." Close to home is Evelyn Hall’s inspiration. "Leonard, my husband, started me in my track work and he’s coached me in the hurdles. It's really on account of him I was able to win.” 

The girls aren’t playing lone hands out on the stadium track and in the fencing armory. Coaches and chaperones are jealously guarding the athletes. Mrs. Hiroko Shiramaya, chaperone for the Japanese swimming team, feels almost like a mother to her Mandarin girls. "Every night I go through all their rooms after they’ve gone to bed,” she said. “They aren’t used to the weather here and throw their covers off. I go around twice each night to get them all tucked in.” 

Mrs. Shiramaya gets pretty tired taking care of her brood, but she likes it. “They’re nice girls and are having lots of fun in the hotel with the other athletes. For two weeks before they came to this country they went to a Y. W. C. A. in Japan where they learned table manners and etiquette of this country.” 

Mrs. Ellen Osiier, Denmark fencer and Olympic champion in 1920, has given up the chance for personal glory to chaperone the Danish team and officiate in the fencing matches. "Danish girls aren’t thinking much about anything except competing while the games are going on. Afterwards we will stay here until the games are over, then go home by way of San Francisco.” 

If anyone tries to spoil the athletic ability of Babe Didrikson or the rest of the American track team he must answer to Fred L. Steers. “These girls are just kids and don’t know what it’s all about — all this ballyhoo going on around them. They get along fine on the track and field but back here in the hotel with everyone making heroines out of them, they’re liable to hurt their own chances of winning.” 

P. Grobbelaar didn’t bring Marjorie Clark all the way from South Africa to have her spoil her chances of doing the best she can in the Olympics. So he keeps her from talking to outsiders on her track work. Mrs. Theodore Wright keeps Thelma Kench, sprinter, in tow to keep her from getting homesick for New Zealand. Helene Mayer, German fencer, is shadowed by Mrs. B. A. Mayer of Whittier, with whom she is going to stay between Olympic games and the opening of Scripps college. – By Mary Alice Parent, 1932

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia