Simone Schaller, Olympic hurdler in ’32 and ’36, 104
Simone Schaller, lower right, with members of the U.S. women's Olympic track and field team in 1936. Credit: AP
ARCADIA, Calif. — Simone Schaller, an American hurdler who competed at the 1932 and 1936 Summer Games and was believed to be the oldest living Olympian, has died. She was 104.
Grandson Jeffrey Hardy said yesterday that Schaller died of natural causes Thursday in the home she and her husband built when they married in the 1930s.
Schaller tied Babe Didrikson Zaharias for the world record in the first round of the 80-meter hurdles at the 1932 Los Angeles Games. Schaller finished fourth in the final behind Didrikson, who set another record. According to Olympic historian David Wallechinsky, Schaller had taken up hurdling only three months earlier.
At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Schaller made it to the semifinals.
She won the hurdles at the 1933 U.S. championships. She was also an avid tennis player.
Schaller had three children, seven grandchildren, a dozen great-grandchildren and numerous great-great-grandchildren.
— AP
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