Nova Scotia Archives
Aileen Meagher
Olympic Medallist and 'Canada's Flying Schoolmarm'
''The Big Moment''
Aileen Meagher and Canadian team, U.S. team, and British team prior to presentation with medals in Berlin. (Meagher is at the front of the group.)
Hugh Townsend, Sports Editor, interviewed Aileen Meagher for his article "Memories of Berlin", The Chronicle-Herald, 21 June 1976. Aileen Meagher, Dorothy Brookshaw, Hila Cameron and Mildred Dolson were Canada's bronze medal winning relay team. Halifax sprinter Aileen Meagher nervously, but proudly, ascended the victory podium at the Berlin Olympics. The world looked on, Adolf Hitler was in the crowd, and the place was lined with black-shirt soldiers. Meagher recalled, "A lot of things were different 40 years ago. . . . I just went out and ran around the track as fast as I could go. I didn't have a diet, no special conditioning, I didn't know much about training. I just prepared myself to run as fast as I could." [MG 1, vol. 2999, no. 1, between pp. 232-233]
Date: August 1936
Reference: Aileen Meagher Nova Scotia Archives MG 1 vol. 2997 no. 2 p. 275 / microfilm no.: 9488