Jackie MacDonald

Last updated

Jackie MacDonald
Jackie MacDonald 1956.jpg
MacDonald in 1956
Personal information
Born (1932-10-12) October 12, 1932 (age 91)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sport
SportAthletics
Event(s) Shot put, discus throw
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)SP – 14.31 m (1956)
DT – 43.30 m (1956) [1]
Medal record
Representing Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada
British Empire and Commonwealth Games
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 1954 Vancouver Shot put
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1958 Cardiff Shot put

Jacqueline ("Jackie") MacDonald (born October 12, 1932) is a former Canadian track and field athlete.

Contents

MacDonald competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics and placed 10th in the shot put and 19th in the discus throw. She won a silver medal in the shot at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, was 5th in the discus at the 1955 Pan American Games, 6th in the shot at the 1957 World Youth Games in Moscow, and won a bronze medal in the shot at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games (competing as Jackie Gelling).

The early years

Toronto high schools in the late 1940s limited girls sports to watered down volleyball and basketball, no track and field or other sports, and no inter high school competition. At 15, frustrated with girl's rules basketball, [2] MacDonald joined a Toronto city league basketball team, setting a record of 38 points in one game. [3] Her team won junior city, provincial and national championships. In the 1953 Ontario Intermediate B Championships she scored 35 points in one game, 10 more than the entire opposing team from Sudbury. [4] She also started swimming competitively and won the Ontario Junior Diving Championship in 1948. [3]

In 1953, at age 20, she approached Lloyd Percival [5] to coach her in shot put and discus. This led to MacDonald winning the Canadian Championship in the shot [6] in her first year of competition. Percival also introduced her to weight training for strength, which was innovative for women athletes in the 1950s. This drew a lot of international media attention. [7] [8] [9]

Track and Field Achievements

MacDonald's career in track and field included five international competitions between 1954 and 1958. The following list includes the most important achievements over that period:

Controversies

At the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, after winning a silver medal in the shot, MacDonald was withdrawn from the discus just minutes before the competition was to start on suspicion of professionalism. This arose from her appearance in a newspaper advertisement wearing her team uniform and holding a soft drink in her hand. The Amateur Athletic Association of Canada exonerated her a few days later, preserving her amateur status but too late for the discus event. [19] [20] After experiencing nationwide controversy over the eviction of one of his athletes from her event and amidst other issues surrounding the selection of coaches for the Canadian team, Percival quit coaching track and field, [21] leaving MacDonald without a coach for the rest of her athletics career.

The Later Years

MacDonald married William Gelling in 1958, and used Jackie Gelling as her married name until 1990. In 1990, when living with her husband in Montreal, she officially changed her name back to MacDonald, as was common practice in the Province of Quebec.

After the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, MacDonald returned home disillusioned by what she felt was a lack of interest and support for amateur sport in Canada. Without a coach and no financial support, she withdrew from track and field competition. [22]

MacDonald took up masters swimming, winning medals in Canadian and American Championships. [3] At 39 she started playing water polo. In her mid 40s MacDonald started cycling with the Ottawa Bicycle Club. In 1985 she competed in the World Masters Championships, winning the criterium and placing second in both the time trial and the road race in the 50 to 54 age category. [23] At 61 she joined the Ottawa Rowing Club and competed as a member of a coxed four in her first year. MacDonald became the first woman to participate in cycling club time trials in the 80 to 89 age category. [24] At 81 she was interviewed at a local gym by an Ottawa TV station as she stretched, did weight training and worked out on a rowing machine. [25]

Academic and Professional

MacDonald taught elementary school, including physical education, and later ESL (English as a Second Language) for many years in Ottawa, Winnipeg and Mexico. She also taught swimming and quilting, and coached competitive swimming.

Archival Records

MacDonald started documenting her sports activity in 1947 at age 15 in a series of scrapbooks that grew to 280 pages by 1958, including separate books for each of her five international track and field competitions.

On viewing the scrapbooks, sports historian Anne Hall urged her to preserve them. In 2012 MacDonald donated them to the Archives of the Province of Ontario. [26] [27] In 2014 she added a DVD to the collection which replicates the scrapbook content and adds personal information and a convenient indexing to assist researchers in finding particular information. [28]

In 2015, to celebrate the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, the Archives featured excerpts from the scrapbooks in an exhibit entitled "The Spirit of Sport: The Legacy of Jackie MacDonald" in the Archives lobby. [29]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

Leslie Roy Mills is a retired New Zealand track and field athlete and politician. He represented New Zealand at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games over two decades, competing in the shot put and discus throw. He won a total of five medals at the Commonwealth Games including gold in the discus at the 1966 Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yvette Williams</span> New Zealand athlete (1929–2019)

Dame Yvette Winifred Corlett was a New Zealand track-and-field athlete who was the first woman from her country to win an Olympic gold medal and to hold the world record in the women's long jump. Williams was named "Athlete of the Century" on the 100th anniversary of Athletics New Zealand, in 1987.

Jean Catherine Pickering was a female track and field athlete from Great Britain, who competed mainly in the 80 metres hurdles and long jump.

Irene Margaret MacDonald, was a Canadian athlete, sports executive and broadcaster from Hamilton, Ontario. She won Canada's first-ever Olympic diving medal, a bronze, at the 1956 Summer Games.

Venissa Anne Head is a former international track and field athlete from Wales.

Nancy McCredie was a Canadian female track and field athlete. During her athletic career, she won three gold medals at the Pan American Games and one bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games. McCredie was awarded the Velma Springstead Trophy as the best Canadian female athlete of the year in 1963.

Margaret "Meg" Elizabeth Stone is a retired Scottish discus thrower and Shot putter. She reached the Olympic finals at discus in Moscow 1980 (9th) and Los Angeles 1984 (5th). She also won the 1982 Commonwealth Games title. Her discus best of 67.48 metres has stood as the British record since 1981, while her shot put best of 18.99 metres has stood as the Scottish record since 1983.

Doris Jessie Carter, was an Australian military officer, public servant, and athlete who specialised in the high jump. She was the first Australian female track and field athlete to make an Olympic Games final.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte MacGibbon</span> Australian track and field athlete

Charlotte Cecilia MacGibbon was an Australian former track and field athlete.

Sultana Frizell is a Canadian track and field athlete competing in the hammer throw. Frizell currently trains under the guidance of Derek Evely in Kamloops, British Columbia. She competed at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Frizell is the former Commonwealth Games champion in the hammer throw and Commonwealth Games record holder for the event as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Coy</span> Canadian athlete

Eric Eaton Coy was a discus thrower and shot putter, who represented Canada at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He finished 23rd in the discus throw event, and his exact result in the shot put is unknown.

Mark Pharaoh was a track and field athlete, who competed in the discus throw at both the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and the 1956 Melbourne Olympics where he came fourth. This has been described as by far the finest single achievement in British discus history. He was also an international shot put and hammer thrower. He was fifth in the shot put at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and second in the hammer at the 1953 Summer International University Sports Week.

David Lorne Steen is a Canadian former track and field athlete who specialised in the shot put. He was a two-time gold medallist in the event at the Commonwealth Games in 1966 and 1970, breaking games records both times. He had won the bronze medal at the 1962 event. His personal record was 19.21 m, set in 1970.

George Watt Sutherland was a Canadian all-round track and field athlete. He was the hammer throw gold medallist at the 1938 British Empire Games. He also took a bronze medal in the discus throw at the same competition. He had been the runner-up in the hammer in 1934 British Empire Games.

Lois Jackman-Lax is discus thrower from Australia who also represented Nauru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabel Avellán</span> Argentine discus thrower

Isabel Avellán was an Argentine athlete. She competed in the women's discus throw at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Amelia Wood was an American track and field athlete who competed in throwing events, specializing in the javelin throw. She was a Pan American Games champion and a 1956 Olympian.

Navjeet Kaur Dhillon is an Indian track and field athlete who competes as a Discus thrower. Her current world ranking in the Women's Discus Throw category is 46, and in the Women's Overall ranking is 4165. She was the bronze medalist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with her final throw of 57.43 m and became the second Indian to win a medal at the World Junior Championships in Athletics in 2014. She holds a personal best of 59.18 m, set in 2018 in Indian Grand Prix in February, 2018.

Carol Lynne Martin is a former track-and-field athlete in discus, shot put and javelin. She represented Canada at the Commonwealth Games in 1966, 1970 and 1974, on each occasion winning the bronze medal for women's discus throw. She also represented Canada at the Pan-American Games, earning the silver medal for discus in 1967 and the bronze in 1971. Martin competed in discus at the Pacific Conference Games, winning silver in 1969 and gold in 1973. Martin competed on Canada's national track and field team for 10 years and held the Canadian women's title in discus for seven years.

Sharon Shepherd is an American track and field athlete, primarily known for throwing events. She is a multiple time American champion, winning both the shot put and discus at the 1963 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Prior to winning, she had finished in second place three times and third twice in the shot put.

References

  1. Jackie MacDonald. sports-reference.com
  2. Six on Six Basketball - Wikipedia
  3. 1 2 3 Archives Descriptive Data Base MacDonald Jackie, 1932
  4. Sudbury Star, Sunday, April 6, 1953
  5. Lloyd Percival: Canada's Greatest Athletics Coach and First Sports Scientist, Athletics Illustrated, November 21, 2013 by Christopher Kelsall
  6. Ontario Archives Fonds F 4662 Jackie MacDonald Scrapbooks DVD2 Volume II #46
  7. Una Dama que Levanta Pesas (A Woman who Lifts Weights) by Pedro Bonetti, Cartelles, Mexico City, March 15, 1955
  8. Meet Jackie MacDonald - Canada's Foremost Female Athlete by Bruce Page, Iron Man, April-May 1956
  9. Canada's Olympic Barbelle Glamazon Seeks Olympic Victory by Jim Murray, Strength and Health, July 1956
  10. Toronto Star, June 19th 1954, Don't Pass Up the Shot Put by Jim Proudfoot
  11. British Empire and Commonwealth Games Results 1954
  12. Association of Track and Field Statisticians (ATFS). The ranking information is not contained in any ATFS files, but is extrapolated from the lists in World Women's Athletics 100 Best Performers Year Lists 1911-1962 by Janusz Wasco, Jon Brant and Stephonas Misiunas (6th edition, printed in Poland, ISBN   978-83-64544-26-2)
  13. 1 2 The Girl and the Game: A History of Women's Sport in Canada (Second Edition) 2016 by M. Ann Hall, page 199
  14. 1 2 3 4 Association of Track and Field Statisticians (ATFS). The ranking information is not contained in any ATFS files, but is extrapolated from the lists in World Women's Athletics 100 Best Performers Year Lists 1911-1962 by Janusz Wasco, Jon Brant and Stephonas Misiunas (6th edition, printed in Poland, ISBN   978-83-64544-26-2
  15. 1 2 American Women's Track and Field: A History 1895 through 1980 by Louise Mead Tricard (McFarland & Co, 1996)
  16. Archives of Ontario, Fonds 4662, DVD2, Volume VIII #7, #11 and #22
  17. British Empire and Commonwealth Games Results 1958
  18. http://www.gbrathletics.com/Canadian Championships[ dead link ]
  19. The Miracle Mile: Stories of the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games by Jason Beck ISBN   978-1-987915-00-6 (paperback): pp 75-78
  20. Remembering the Forgotten Games: A Reinterpretation of the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games by Jackie MacDonald and M. Ann Hall, Sport History Review, Volume 40, Number 2, November 2009: pp 118 to 121. Human Kinetics Inc. ISSN 1087-1659 (print), ISSN 1543-2947 (on line)
  21. Athletics Illustrated, November 21, 2013 by Christopher Kelsall, Lloyd Percival: Canada's Greatest Athletics Coach and First Sports Scientist
  22. Preserving Canada's Sporting Past with the Jackie MacDonald Scrapbooks-Active History, May 15, 2015, page 3
  23. Results for the early World Masters Championships are not currently available on the World Masters website but work is underway at the headquarters in Switzerland to digitize and post them as soon as possible
  24. A Lifetime of Record Breaking - Spokesperson (Ottawa Bicycle Club Newsletter June 2012)
  25. YouTube CTV Jackie MacDonald
  26. Archives of the Province of Ontario Fonds F 4662 Jackie MacDonald Scrapbooks.
  27. Preserving Canada's Sporting Past with the Jackie MacDonald Scrapbooks-Active History, May 15, 2015
  28. Fonds F 4662 DVD 2, Jackie MacDonald, her life as an athlete as seen through her Scrapbooks
  29. Spirit of Sport: The Legacy of Jackie MacDonald - Archives of Ontario - Ontario.ca