Käthe Krauss

5 ft 9+1⁄4 in (176 cm)Weight72 kg (159 lb)SportSportAthleticsEvent(s)100 m, 200 m, 80 m hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put, discus throw, javelin throwClubDresdner SCAchievements and titlesPersonal best(s)100 m – 11.8 (1935)
200 m – 24.4 (1938)
80 mH – 12.2 (1936)
HJ – 1.51 m (1933)
LJ – 5.85 m (1937)
SP – 11.99 m (1933)
DT – 41.65 m (1935)
JT – 37.91 m (1931)^[1][2]

Katharina "Käthe" Anna Krauß (sometimes spelled Krauss; 29 November 1906 – 9 January 1970) was a German track and field athlete, who won three gold medals at the 1934 Women's World Games in London and a bronze medal in the 100 metres at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, where she was also on the German 4 × 100 m relay team. She won several German championships in various events and 2 silver medals and a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 1938 European Athletics Championships in Vienna.

Athletics career

Born in Dresden, Krauß was a member of Dresdner SC, where she was discovered and trained by the influential coach Woldemar Gerschler.^[3] She won the national women's title in the 100 metres from 1934 through 1938,^[4][5][6] in the 200 metres in 1932, 1934, and 1938 (in 1931 and 1933 she took second),^[7][8] and in the long jump^[9] and the pentathlon in 1937,^[10] and was on the national champion Dresdner SC 4 × 100 metre relay teams in 1932 and 1936.^[11][12]

At the 1934 Women's World Games in London, she won gold medals in the 100 metres (11.9 s), the 200 metres (24.9 s), and the 4 × 100 metre relay (48.6 s), and the bronze medal in discus (39.875 m).^[13]

At the women's 1938 European Athletics Championships in Vienna, she won silver medals in the 100 metres (12.0 s) and 200 metres (24.4 s)^[14] and a gold medal as part of the German 4 × 100 metre relay team (46.8 s).^[15][16]

At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, at that time holding the German women's record for the 100 metres,^[17] Krauß won the bronze medal in that event with a time of 11.9 s.^[18][19] She was one of three Olympic medalists that year from Dresdner SC, the others being Rudolf Harbig and Luise Krüger.^[20] She was also on the German women's 4 × 100 m relay team that was in the lead but lost due to a dropped baton on the final leg;^[21][22][23] in the heats the German team had been faster than the Americans, the eventual winners, and beaten the world record with a time of 46.4 s;^[24][25] the American winning time in the final was half a second slower.^[26][27][28] As national 100-metre champion, Krauß was the fastest runner on the German team,^[29] but had run dead heats with Marie Dollinger.^[30]

Postwar

After World War II, Krauß moved to Landau, where she coached^[31] and was active in senior athletics; there she was also known as a pianist and the owner of a sporting goods shop. In 1952 she published a book on sprint running titled Der Kurzstreckenlauf.^[1][32] The local athletics club awards a prize named for her.^[33] She died in Mannheim on 9 January 1970.

Controversy

Along with the gold and silver medalists in the 1936 Olympic women's 100 metre event, Helen Stephens and Stanisława Walasiewicz, Krauß has been suspected of being intersex.^[34][35]

References