In Amsterdam in 1928, women competed for the first time in Olympic track and field events. At the time, many Olympic Committee members felt that track and field competition was too strenuous for females. Others thought women’s presence at the games was simply immoral. Amid this controversy, Canada sent its first women’s team to the 1928 games, a group later dubbed “the matchless six” because of their outstanding performance in the qualifying heats in the opening days of the games. It was a name that foreshadowed success for the women, who won the Olympic track and field championships, accumulating the most points of any team. “The standard they set at the 1928 Olympiad has been unequalled by a team of Canadian women athletes since,” we’re told.

First-time author and retired high school history teacher Ron Hotchkiss illuminates the prevailing thoughts of the day surrounding women and sport. He skillfully unfolds the circumstances surrounding this little-known but remarkable story of Canadian Olympic achievement. The lives of each of the six (Bobbie Rosenfeld, Ethel Smith, Jane Bell, Myrtle Cook, Jean Thompson, and Ethel Catherwood) are thoroughly examined, as Hotchkiss follows their development as athletes from their beginnings in local sports clubs to their Olympic experience and beyond. Eighty illustrations, mostly black-and-white photos, accompany the text and provide a visual record of the athletes in competition.

For readers who have never heard of these six athletes before, the well-researched text reads like a suspense novel as the author captures the tension and excitement of each Olympic event, including a good number of surprise twists. While the book is promoted for readers 11 years and up, its advanced vocabulary level makes it most suitable for senior high school collections and public libraries.