She really had no aspirations to be a runner. It was her science teacher that saw the potential in the young girl. One day after school, he was sitting on a train awaiting its departure, when he noticed her running toward it. He thought there was no way she was going to get to the train before it pulled out of the station. But the next thing he knew, she was sitting down next to him on the train. What followed seemed like destiny. He received permission for her to train with the Thornton High School men’s track team. An invitation to join the Illinois Women’s Athletic Club came shortly after that. To say that she had natural talent would be the understatement of the century. In her very first official race, the 60-yard dash, she finished second to Helen Filkey, the world record holder in the 100-meter. Just two days later, on June 2, 1928, she beat Filkey in the 100-meter, tying the world record time. However, because of wind speed on the day of the race, it would not count. No matter…the record would be her’s soon enough. With such an incredible start, the trajectory of this young phenom would surprise no one.
Betty Robinson was truly a surprise discovery. What happened next is utterly unbelievable. Her next event was the Amsterdam Olympics. What you need to realize at this point is this, it was Betty’s third 100-meter competition! Not her twentieth or fiftieth. She hadn’t been running for years. She was 16 years old, and this was her third competition. It would be normal to think that when running against the best of the world, at the Olympics, that she would perform well enough, but certainly not win. Except, that is exactly what she did. She won the 100-meter race…the youngest athlete ever to win the 100-meter gold medal. A few days later, Betty added to her medal count with a silver in the 4×100 meter relay.
Betty returned to the United States and enrolled at Northwestern College. She began training alongside the school track team with the hopes of competing at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. In her free time, she began pursuing her pilot’s license. Life was great. Then on June 28, 1931, Betty took off from the local runway and began the ascent into the clear blue sky. Suddenly something went wrong and the plane nosedived into the ground. A truck driver who happened to be passing by, saw the plane crash and rushed to the scene. Fearing that she was dead, he pulled her from the wreckage. Surprisingly, Betty had survived the crash, but she went into a coma. When she was discharged from the hospital 11 weeks later, she had metal pins in her joints and one of her legs was shorter than the other. This girl, who, only three years earlier had won a gold medal at the Olympics, was now told by doctors she would never run again. You probably know how this is going to go.
Betty refused to let the doctors be right. Slowly she began to heal…and by slowly I mean SLOWLY. She was in a wheelchair for months, and could not walk without assistance for nearly two years. But she eventually did get better. But there was one aspect that would hold her back. Because of her injuries, she was not able to crouch into the starter’s position. So, in spite of gaining her speed back, she would not be able to compete in the Olympics again. I know what you’re thinking right about now…not the ending you expected. However, if you noticed the length of this blog, you are going to know this was not the ending.
Betty had tasted success and was going to do everything in her power to get it back. She was reminded of the relay event where she won the silver medal in the Amsterdam Olympics. The second, third, and fourth runners in the relay did not have to start in the crouch position. Perhaps there was hope Betty could return to compete in the 4×100 relay at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. So, she began training, and made the team! Betty would be the third runner on the relay team. The United States team made it through the qualifying heats and to the final race. The Germans were heavily favored to win the gold, and when the starting gun fired, the Germans took a commanding lead. By the time it came to handing the baton to the fourth runner, there was no doubt who was going win…the favored Germans. But then a mistake occurred. The Germans dropped the baton during the transfer and opened a window of opportunity for the Americans. Betty cleanly handed the baton to Helen Stephens, the anchor runner for the United States. In a clear upset, the United States won gold. Betty now owned two golds and one silver, and would retire from running competitively upon returning home.
Betty’s life opens the door to a lot of questions. What if Betty never saw her potential as a runner? What if she had not performed well in those first two races? What if the Women’s Club did not invite her to join? But most importantly, what if that science teacher hadn’t been there that day to witness Betty running for the train? In an instant, that teacher saw something in Betty. Something that made it worth the effort to pursue her. We all have that same experience. No…not all of us have some coach trying to recruit us. We have something better.
Francis Thompson captured it best in his poem, “The Hound of Heaven.” It is the beautiful picture of God pursuing those he loves…us.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
We run a 5k trying to get away…God runs a marathon. We up the ante and run a marathon ourselves…God runs an ultra-marathon. We speed up, thinking we have a world record pace…God breaks the sound barrier. We hide, hearkening back to the days of our childhood when, playing hide and seek, no one would find us, and ending with the seeker eventually giving up, and yelling “olly olly oxen free”…God does us one better…and tells us that there is nowhere we can hide that he can’t find us. We resist hard…and God, somehow, someway, finds a way to pursue us even harder. God sees in us what we do not see in ourselves.
We go through life with, not metal pins, but mental pains. We limp along unbalanced, not because one leg is shorter due to a pilot error, but because we have not learned the truth that God does not desire to be, nor will he allow being relegated to the co-pilot seat. We don’t need physical therapy so we can walk again, but spiritual therapy so we can run again. Coaches everywhere spur their runners on, hoping for them to win, to set world records, and to win trophies. Likewise, God wants us to run. Not for a trophy. Not for a track record. But for something better…a life that honors him who pursued us at all costs. And the reward that awaits us in the end? Much better than any Olympic gold medal.
Faith, Leadership, and History 