Personal information | |
---|---|
Nationality | British |
Born | November 11, 1895 |
Died | July 2, 1990 |
Sport | |
Sport | Equestrian |
Achievements and titles | |
Olympic finals | 1912 (Rejected) |
Helen Preece Chipchase Smith (1897 - 1990) was a British equestrian who also rode in America. [1] She was the only woman briefly entered in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
She was the daughter of Ambrose Preese, of Fulham road, London. [2] Her mother was considered a "noted horsewoman" in England. [3] In June 1910, she did well in the Olympia Horse Show. [4] In the next Olympia Horse Show, in June 1911, she was considered a "favorite" and was personally congratulated by Queen Alexandra afterward. [5] [6] In November 1911, she won the gold cup at the Madison Square National Horse Show in New York City. [7] [8] At the show, she rode the horses, Sapelio, owned by George Chipchase and the winning Sceptre, owned by James Dunn. [8]
In 1912, while still in school, she attempted to enter the modern pentathlon in the 1912 Summer Olympic Games. [9] For a short time, she was the only woman slated to compete at the games. [10] [11] She was ultimately not allowed to compete because she was a female. [9] The response from the Olympic committee to her request to enter was "hostile." [12]
In 1914, she placed second in Ladies' saddle horse riding and first in Park and road hacks, riding on Sceptre. [13]
On March 20, 1915, she married George H. Chipchase in New York. [14] A few months later, his former wife sued Preese in a Massachusetts court for using the Chipchase name and also claiming that there had been no divorce. [14]
In December 1934, she was married again in Boston to John Leslie Smith, a riding instructor. [15]
A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words pente (five) and -athlon (competition). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Ancient Olympic Games. Five events were contested over one day for the Ancient Olympic pentathlon, starting with the long jump, javelin throwing, and discus throwing, followed by the stadion and wrestling. Pentathletes were considered to be among the most skilled athletes, and their training was often part of military service—each of the five events in the pentathlon was thought to be useful in war or battle.
Madeleine Talmage Astor was an American socialite and a survivor of the RMS Titanic. She was the second wife and widow of businessman John Jacob Astor IV.
Anne Kindig Kursinski is an American showjumper and two-time Olympic silver medalist in team jumping, at Seoul 1988 and Atlanta 1996. Representing the United States, she was a member of five Olympic teams, forty-seven Nations Cup teams, and three World Equestrian Games teams. In 2017, she was inducted into the Showjumping Hall of Fame.
Gillian Rolton, was an Australian Olympic equestrian champion. She competed in two Olympic Games, the 1992 Barcelona Games and 1996 Atlanta Games, winning a gold medal in team eventing both times on her horse, Peppermint Grove. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, she broke her collarbone and ribs, but remounted and completed the course. She was only one of four Australians to win multiple equestrian Olympic gold medals.
Modern pentathlon is a sport contested at the Summer Olympic Games.
Cleo Ridgely-Horne was a star of silent and sound motion pictures. Her career began early in the silent film era, in 1911, and continued for forty years. She retired in the 1930s but later returned to make more movies. Her final film was Hollywood Story (1951), in which she had a bit part.
Nicholas David Skelton is a British former equestrian who competed in show jumping. He retired at the age of 59 years old, on 5 April 2017. He began riding at age 18 months and in 1975 took two team silvers and an individual gold at the Junior European Championships.
Helen Lindroth was a Swedish-born American screen and stage actress.
Judith Anne Pottinger, known as Tinks Pottinger, is a New Zealand horsewoman who won a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Pottinger, riding Volunteer, was in the New Zealand three-day event team which finished third, along with Andrew Bennie, Margaret Knighton and Mark Todd. In the individual three-day event at the same Olympics, she finished fifth.
Georgian horsemen were notable participants of the Wild West shows in the 1890s. Billed as Russian Cossacks, the riders from Georgia featured in circuses and shows well into the first half of the 20th century. Their performances, featuring trick riding and folk dance, were extremely popular and exerted significant influence on cowboys in the United States.
Harry Dwight Chamberlin was a career officer in the United States Army. A veteran of the Moro Rebellion, Pancho Villa Expedition, World War I, and World War II, he attained the rank of brigadier general, and was most notable for his command of several Cavalry units, including 1st Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the Cavalry Replacement Center at Fort Riley, and 4th Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division. During World War II, he commanded the New Hebrides Task Force, Southwestern Security District, and Fort Ord.
The ancient Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The first Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC. The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, 2nd century BC. Their last recorded celebration was in AD 393, under the emperor Theodosius I, but archeological evidence indicates that some games were still held after this date. The games likely came to an end under Theodosius II, possibly in connection with a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign.
The 1912 Army Cadets football team was an American football team that represented the United States Military Academy as an independent during the 1912 college football season. Under head coach Ernest Graves Sr., the Cadets compiled a 5–3 record and outscored opponents by a total of 108 to 59. The Cadets lost to a one-loss Yale team, a strong Carlisle Indians team led by 1912 decathlon gold medalist Jim Thorpe, and to Navy in the annual Army–Navy Game.
Henry Hamilton was an English playwright, lyricist and actor. He is best remembered for his musical theatre libretti, including The Duchess of Dantzic (1903), The School Girl (1903), Véronique (1905) and The Little Michus (1907), often adapting foreign works for the British stage.
Henry Birkhardt Harris was a Broadway producer and theatre owner who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. His wife was future producer Renee Harris, who survived the sinking and lived until 1969.
Charlotte Susan Jane Dujardin is a British dressage rider, equestrian and writer. A multiple World and Olympic champion, Dujardin has been described as the dominant dressage rider of her era. She held the complete set of available individual elite dressage titles at one point: the individual Olympic freestyle, World freestyle and Grand Prix Special, World Cup individual dressage and European freestyle, and Grand Prix Special titles. Dujardin was the first rider to hold this complete set of titles at the same time.
Kathryn Hallowell "Kathy" Kusner is an American equestrian and Olympic medalist in show jumping. She was one of the first woman who rode for the United States Equestrian Team (USET), the first licensed female jockey, and the first American women to win an Olympic medal in equestrian competition.
Alice Russon was an Irish actress, singer, and dancer in musical comedies and in silent films.
Sara Mildred Strauss was an American dancer, educator, choreographer, and writer.
Christine Tsintsadze was a Gurian horsewoman from Georgia, who performed trick riding in Wild West shows in the United States. She initially performed with Pawnee Bill and was retained when that show was merged with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show to create the Wild West and Great Far East show. She was particularly known for her trick riding skills.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Helen Preece . |
Englishwomen are expecting Miss Helen Preece, a 15-year-old horsewoman, to accomplish great things at the Olympic games at Stockholm this month. Miss Preece, who will be the only female representative at the games, has won fame here as an expert horsewoman and athlete generally, and her abilities are not [un]known in the United States. At New York in November last, at the Madison Square Garden Horse Show, Miss Preece won outright the $1,000 gold cup, open to the world for riding, in addition to many other “blues.”
She is Helen Preece, a daughter of Mr. Ambrose Preese, of Fulham road, London.
Among the passengers in the Minnewaska, which sailed to-day, is Helen Preece, a 14 year-old girl who as an equestrienne has no equal in this country. ...