Stella Walsh was 38 years old, but could still dash with the speediest women in the world. Posing for a Cleveland News photographer, the beloved local sprinter was days from heading to Montreal. She competed in a 50-yard race there, notching a surprising loss despite strong heats.
The winner of both a 1932 Olympic gold and a 1936 silver as a Polish citizen, Walsh was plotting a return to the highest levels of her sport despite her age, this time as an American citizen from Cleveland. But her dream never came to pass.
Walsh largely faded from public view until 1980, when she was shot and killed during a robbery in an Uncle Bill’s grocery store parking lot. An autopsy revealed Walsh was intersex, a still-misunderstood condition in which a person’s genitalia don’t fit the traditional anatomical definitions of male or female, even if, as Stella did, they identify as one specific gender.
The autopsy stirred an ugly sensationalist streak in local media. One station coined an almost unbelievably derogatory slogan: “Stella Was A Fella.” After her death, a controversy raged over whether to take away Walsh’s records and medals. A 1991 ruling upheld them.
“Stella is one of the few Olympic athletes from Cleveland who has a gold medal, and I think she’s one of the least recognized,” says filmmaker Rob Lucas, who created a documentary about Walsh. The area’s sole tribute is Stella Walsh Recreation Center in Slavic Village. “I would like to see her Olympic accomplishments celebrated more in Cleveland,” he says.
1947: Stella Walsh Was One Of the Fastest Women In The World
The Olympic gold medalist's murder during a robbery in 1980 led to controversy over her accomplishments.
