Pelham Olympians

Pelham has always been an athletic town and, not surprisingly, it turns out has a long history of residents who competed in Olympic Games.  Here are the stories of the fourteen identified Pelham Olympians, told together as Pelhamites for the first time:

1904 -2024

Games of the III Olympiad, St. Louis, 1904

The first time a Pelhamite is known to compete in the Olympics.

Pelham Resident 1918-1926 at 447 Highbrook Avenue

Warren Wood

1904 U.S. Olympic Team, Golf, Men's Team Tournament, Gold Medal, 
(ranked 11th of 74)

Photo:  1905, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, SDN-003476.
Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.



Solid gold medal of the type received by Warren Wood. 


Photo of gold medal received by 1904 U.S. Olympic Golf Team Member Robert E. Hunter (1886-1971) auctioned by Christie's, South Kensington, "Out of the Ordinary Auction," September, 13, 2016

Warren Wood

April 27, 1887 - October 27, 1926 

Warren Wood passed away at a very young age, but his home at 447 Highbrook Avenue remained in the family for 50 years. His widow continued at the house where she raised two daughters, Marjorie and Frances, who attended Pelham Schools. Frances married and purchased the home with her husband where they raised their son Warren, and daughter Wendy (PMHS '65). 

Many thanks and appreciation to Wendy Southwell Fuchs, granddaughter of Warren Wood, for sharing family photos, information and this clipping from a Pelham Country Club newsletter.


Games of the V Olympiad,
Stockholm, 1912

The biggest year in Pelham Olympic History when five Pelhamites were part of the United States Olympic Team and brought home two gold medals.

Among their teammates was Jim Thorpe, who won both the pentathalon and decathalon.

Original Film Footage of 1912 Games

Photos of the 1912 United States Olympic Team from departure aboard the Red Star Line Finland to opening ceremony to ticker tape parade in the "Canyon of Heroes," Broadway, New York
(Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA,
Bain News Service photograph collection)

Born in Pelham Manor and life-long resident (1890-1965)

Henry Stoddard ("Harry") Babcock

1912 U.S. Olympic Team, Athletics, Pole Vault, Gold Medal, 
setting an Olympic Record at 3.95 meters
Photo:  outtake from Official Film, "The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm," 1912

Harry Babock wearing the "Winged Foot" (as a member of the New York Athletic Club) and standing with teammate Jim Thorpe.


Photo: (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, Bain News Service photograph collection, digital id: ggbain11987//hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.11987)

Harry Babcock graduated with an engineering degree from Columbia University the year after he competed in the 1912 Olympics. He joined the military in June, 1918 as an officer, Second Lieutenant, serving during WW I in the Army Aviation Section, Signal Corps until his discharge February 17, 1919.* He worked for Standard Oil in China for six years, where he was married in 1920 to Azzie Rene Messmore at the residence of Army Colonel W. M. Morrow in Tientsin.**  He returned to Pelham and lived with his wife on Union Place (now Oak Lane) in Pelham Manor. He worked in sales for the Ralph S. Angell Lumber Company, then moved briefly to Minneapolis to take a job as a sales manager for the Franklin Motor Car Company.  He moved back to Pelham and worked for J.C. Turner Lumber Company eventually becoming an officer of the company. ***  He and his wife are buried at The Beechwoods Cemetery, New Rochelle, NY.

* Form S4d-1 for Babcock, Henry Stoddard
** American Consular Service, Certificate of Marriage, October 9, 1920;  Pelham Sun, January 18, 1929
*** Obituary for "Harry S. Babcock," Daily News (New York, NY), June 17, 1965, p. 55

Harry Babcock
December 15, 1890-
June 15, 1965

 Born in Pelham Manor, July 24, 1891

Tell Schirnding Berna

1912 U.S. Olympic Team, Athletics, 3000 Meter Race, Gold Medal
Photo:  HRH King Gustaf V places laurel wreath on Tell Berna

Outtake from Official Film, "The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm," 1912



Tell Berna wearing his Cornell "C" Letter in photo taken on board The Finland en route to Stockholm.



Photo from the Olympic Scrapbook of 1912 Olympian Carroll B. Haff, courtesy of his grandchildren.

This appears to be one of the professional photographs taken of the 1912 Olympians on board The Finland .

Tell Berna

July 24, 1891 - April 15, 1975

Tell Berna graduated from Cornell University in 1912. He retired to Nantucket in 1957 after 20 years as the General Manager of the National Machine Tool Builders' Association in Cleveland. 

Photo:  Cornell University Yearbook, 1912

Pelham Resident 1926 - 1947 at 18 Clifford Avenue

William L. Bowman

1912 United States Olympic Team, Fencing, Stockholm, Sweden
Men's Individual Epee, Men's Individual Foil, Men's Team Epee

Photo:  1912 U.S. Olympic Fencing Team with W. Bowman fourth from left.
Courtesy of USA Fencing Data Archive

Photo: Courtesy of USA Fencing Data Archive

William Bowman

July 28, 1881 - January 7, 1947

William Bowman graduated from Cornell University with a degree in civil engineering (1904) and received a law degree from Harvard (1907). He served in WW I as captain of the 27th Engineers, N.G., N.Y., and remained in the National Guard as a captain of the 102nd Engineers. As an attorney, he focused on engineering and architecture matters, while also finding time to chair the Red Cross and Christmas Seal drives, serve as a trustee of the First Baptist Church of Mount Vernon and head the Pelhamwood Association as president. He continued fencing, winning more than 40 events by the time he was 35.

The Pelham Sun, May 18, 1928, p. 1 

Pelham Resident 1924 - 1947 at
27 Sherwood Avenue, 157 Townsend Avenue & 1333 Park Lane

Carroll Barse Haff

1912 U.S. Olympic Team, Athletics, 400M (finishing fifth) and Demonstration Baseball (the first Olympics to include American Baseball)
Photo: Courtesy of the Haff Family

Carroll Haff (back row in center) with other members of the United States Baseball Team the "Finlands" (perhaps taking their name from the ship The Finland, which carried them across the Atlantic to the games). This is the "west" team, which played the "east" team of Americans (including Jim Thorpe) in a demonstration game at the Olympics. Baseball would not become an Olympic medal event until 1992.

Photo and information from Carroll Haff's Olympic Scrapbook courtesy of his grandchildren

Carroll Haff

February 19, 1892 - April 9, 1947

A graduate of the University of Michigan (1913), where he was captain of the track team, Carroll Haff was an all-around athlete, participating in the Olympics in two sports and later becoming a champion-level golfer at the Pelham Country Club. He was also a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School (1915), but worked in finance as a member of the New York Stock Exchange and a partner with the firm of Abbott, Proctor & Paine (acquired by Paine Webber in 1970). He served during WW I as a Major in Field Artillery and, during WW II, directed the war bond drive and chaired the War Finance Committee in Pelham. He was also chair of the Pelham Community Trust and of the PCC Greens Committee. The Haff Family belonged to Christ Church, Pelham, where Carroll and his wife's remains are interred in the columbarium.

Sincerest thanks and much appreciation to the grandchildren of Carroll Haff for sharing invaluable information and these and other rare photos from Carroll Haff's  Olympic scrapbook.

Pelham Resident 1920s at 14 Clifford Avenue

Sam Schwartz

1912 U.S. Olympic Team, Athletics, 10k Walk
Photo: Sam Schwartz (middle row, third from right) with other
Irish-American Athletic Club members on the 1912 U.S. Olympic Team

Courtesy of American Irish Historical Society

Sam Schwartz is credited with organizing the Walker's Club of America in 1911 and reviving the heal and toe sport, leading to its introduction in the 1912 Olympics where he competed. He continued his involvement in amateur sports and was appointed AAU Commissioner for Westchester County in 1932.*

In 1926, as a Clifford Avenue resident, Sam Schwartz invited over his new next door neighbor, William L. Bowman. The Pelham Sun reported that as Bowman looked over some of Sam's athletic trophy's, he suddenly remarked "I know that fellow. I was on the same Olympic Team with him." Schwartz replied "Is that so? So was I." Only then did they realize that the two 1912 Olympians had ended up living next door to each other.**

* The Pelham Sun, September 30, 1932.
** The Pelham Sun, September 3, 1926, "Tales of Three Villages."

Sam schwartz
July 1, 1882 - June 29, 1943


Games of the VIII Olympiads, Paris, 1924


Pelham would send only one of her own to the Olympics this year.

Original Footage of the 1924 Games

Pelham Resident 1900 - c. 1938 at 419 Fowler, then 55 Witherbee & later
915 Wynnewood Road ("Witherbee Court")

Alfred Percy ("A.P.") Walker, Jr.

1924 U.S. Olympic Team, Fencing, Men's Foil

Photo:  U.S. Team at opening ceremonies, outtake from Les Films Sportifs (The Olympic Games in Paris), Rapid Film, 1924

1924 U.S. Olympic Fencing Team.  A.P. Walker front row at far left.
Photo Courtesy of USA Fencing Data Archive

Alfred P. (“A.P.”) Walker, Jr., grew up in Pelham living first at 417 Fowler Avenue before his family moved to 55 Witherbee Avenue. He attended boarding school at St. Paul’s, Concord, New Hampshire and Yale University, where he was captain of the fencing team. After competing in the Olympics, he graduated from Columbia Law School. In 1927, he was elected Town Justice, serving until 1931.

His father was one of the founders of the Standard Milling Company (a holding company that controlled flour mills and grain elevators throughout the country) and served as a trustee and then President (now called mayor) of Pelham Manor.

Tragically, A.P. Walker lost his only child, a daughter, at age 7 in 1934 (probably from injuries she sustained the previous year in a car crash while his wife was driving). His father passed away the next year.  He left Pelham, enlisted in the Army in 1940 and remained in the service until 1960.

AlfreD p. Walker, Jr.
JUne 23, 1900 -
May 19, 1983



Games of the XI Olympiad, Berlin, 1936

1936 was a year of great disappointment for Pelham.  World-class swimmer Ola May "Toni" Redfern, had come out of nowhere at 16 years old, setting all kinds of new records.  But she just missed qualifying for the 100-meter freestyle event at the Olympic Trials.  Several members of the PMHS track team also hoped to make it to the Olympics, yet came up short.  But one "Pelhamite" would be cheered on by the town as he made his way back to his native Germany, competing for his new home country, the United States of America.  Among his teammates would be Jesse Owens.

Pelham Gristedes Delivery Boy

Ernest W. ("Fred") Koehler

1936 U.S. Olympic Team, Athletics, 50k Walk

While not officially a Pelham resident, Ernest "Fred" Koehler was adopted and cheered on by the community where he worked.   Born in Germany, he was a member of the German-American Athletic Club.  A Pelham Olympic Fund Committee chaired by Carroll Haff included prior Olympians , Harry Babcock, William Bowman, and Alfred Walker.  As he sailed for the olympics aboard the S.S. Manhattan a fellow passenger was Pelham resident, John Howard Hanway, manager of the 24-member U.S. Olympic Fencing Team and treasurer of the Pelham Olympic Fund Committee.

(No photo of Fred has been found and the film footage from the 1934 Olympics was so focused on Nazi propaganda that there is little attention to most Olympians.)

Photo by Barbara Bartlett, c. 1975 (re-touched), courtesy of Harry Bartlett and Joe Gallello


Games of the XVII Olympiad, Rome,
1960

After a 25-year dry spell, Pelham returned to the Olympics with a vengeance when Pelham native, Michael Page, competed as an equestrian in 1960 and again in 1964 and 1968.

Pelham Resident  1941 - 1956 at 886 James Street

Michael Page

1960 U.S. Olympic Team, Equestrian, 3-Day Event

Photo: Michael riding "Grasshopper."
Courtesy of Michael Page

From a Conversation with the Pelham Town Historian

Michael Page's Journey to the Olympics

“The girl has some promise, but the boy should give it up.” So said Boris LaBoux, the instructor at the Split Rock Riding Academy in Pelham Manor when Barbara Page took her son Michael to try the thing he wanted to do most of all: ride horses. Actually, he was Colonel Boris LaBoux, or Laboudinsky as he was known while an officer in the Czar’s cavalry before fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution with his wife (a purported Russian princess) and two children. Perhaps his Russian noble background explained why he could not see how the boy’s passion could compensate for a perceived lack of natural ability. Maybe he could not comprehend the American attitude that anyone can achieve anything by working hard at it and that if it was a matter of genes, Americans being of such a great melting pot, could dig up one somewhere in one’s DNA to fit the need. Whatever the reason, Colonel Boris LaBoux would never have imagined that the boy he so quickly dismissed would go on to become Pelham's greatest equestrian and most decorated Olympic athlete.

Michael Page lived at 886 James Street and, in a recent conversation with the Town Historian, tells of spending his early childhood in Pelham, attending Siwanoy School, Pelham Junior High and Pelham Memorial High School. But you won’t find him in the PMHS 1956 yearbook; His family moved to Briarcliff Manor a few months before graduation. “My mother had wander lust,” he says now. The riding bug struck early, he recalls, from watching old movies about the Pony Express and seeing what a horse could do with a rider on its back. The old Russian Colonel deterred him not a whit and by age 15, he was on his bike every day to Twin Lakes in Eastchester (then called Saddle Tree Farm) to ride horses.

His mother was first to take him to try riding, but Michael credits his father, Owen, for allowing him to take an unconventional path in life. “My father knew what it meant to pursue a passion,” he says. “While his siblings all went off to Ivy League colleges, my father became a Shakespearean actor before going to college.” At his father’s urging, Michael shipped off to England with a suitcase and a saddle, trading traditional summer camp for classical riding school. When he returned to Pelham, he started showing, riding an old remount horse at Saddle Tree.  In the midst of moving from Pelham to Briarcliff in his senior year of high school, he qualified for medal finals at Madison Square Garden where he won the AHSA Medal Finals and placed third in the ASPCA Maclay.

Like his father, he deferred college and spent the next several years in an unbelievable adventure hop-scotching across two continents and devoting his full time and attention to becoming the greatest event rider in the United States. After stints in Switzerland, France and then Germany, Michael returned to the French Cavalry School at Saumur as one of the first group of civilians to attend the non-commissioned officer’s course. It wasn’t long before French Colonel Margot who headed the school, took quite a different view of him than the Russian Colonel at Split Rock. “Starting tomorrow, you ride with the officers,” he told Michael. A nine-month commitment turned into two years of riding (without stirrups) as many as seven different horses a day, seven hours a day. “It was brutal,” he said in a later interview, “it either broke you, or you learned it.” He competed and placed sixth in the military division of the French National Championships at Fontainebleau.

Michael’s reputation as a great (and, at that time, rare) event rider reached the west coast of the United States. A telegram arrived from the U.S. Equestrian Team inviting him to ride at a private ranch in California and to train for the 3-Day team. It was there that he met “Copper Coin,” a horse that had already been to the Olympics for the Irish Team at the 1956 Stockholm Games. To call the horse feisty, would be an understatement, but Michael needed one with the stamina for a 22-mile classic Olympic 3-Day event. Re-named “Grasshopper” because he bucked like one, Michael later recalled him as “vicious.” “It took two people to hold him, and someone would throw me on because he wouldn’t stand still,” he said.  He ran Grasshopper full out, up a shale mountain to gain the horse’s respect. He achieved that and more with Grasshopper, winning an individual gold medal at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago and competing in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.

Michael & Grasshopper

 “After 2 ½ weeks of trying to control him, it was getting to the point that I was going to get hurt or he was going to get hurt, and there had to be some way of getting through to him in a way that made him respect me. He was bucking and vicious.  It wasn't in good fun....  So I said, 'What I am going to do is no stirrups because I'm going to have to go through the cattle gate at 90mph, across the road, and then straight up the shale mountain, and every stride he is going to jump into the shale.  He's only going to be able to do that a short amount of time, and then he's not going to be able to breathe anymore, so then he'll stop.' So we went through -- and I mean sparks flying across the road -- it was really cool!"

From an interview with The Chronicle of the Horse, July 10/17, 2017.
At right, Michael smiling and riding Grasshopper (photo courtesy of Michael Page)

Michael was drafted in the U.S. Army later in 1960 and was on track to becoming an officer after basic training at Fort Dix. But senior officers in the Army Cavalry learned of Michael's skills and orders suddenly arrived from the Pentagon assigning him to  Fort Ord in Pebble Beach, California. It was a redux of his training at Saumur as he rode six different horses, six hours a day, this time at U.S., instead of French, military expense. At the next Pan American Games in 1963 at Sao Paulo, Michael and Grasshopper won both an individual and a team gold medal and a year later they were headed for the Olympic Games in Tokyo .... 


Games of the XVIII Olympiad, Tokyo,
1964

1964 U.S. Olympic Team, Equestrian, Team Silver Medal, 3-Day Event

Photo: Michael at far left with Olympic Team of Helena “Lana” DuPont,
Michael Plumb, Kevin Freeman and coach Stefen von Visy
Carmine Petriccione Photo

Grasshopper almost missed his third Olympic Games.  After suffering a concussion, his training had to stop just a month before departure.  He was nursed back to health in time for Michael Page to ride him in Tokyo and win a team silver medal. 

Grasshopper retired after the games and Michael dialed back on riding to help his father with the family business, traveling around the country in sales and judging at equestrian events along the way. But it wasn’t long before he was tapped again by the USET, paired with a new horse, named Foster, and met its groom, named Georgette. Georgette became his wife and Foster his new mount and the three of them were off together as Michael resumed his equestrian career. They earned a team gold and an individual bronze at the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnepeg.

Michael competed in his third Olympic Games in 1968 at Mexico City (see below) and won another team silver plus an individual bronze medal. While these would be the last Olympic Games where Michael rode, it was not the end of his Olympic career: he coached the Canadian 3-Day Event team at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and served as “Chef D’Equipe” for the U.S. 3-Day Event Olympic team in 1988 at Seoul and 1992 at Barcelona.

In the 1980s, Michael and Georgette ran the Old Salem Farm in northern Westchester when it was owned by actor Paul Newman and then by hedge funder manager Paul Greenwood. He later became the resident trainer and instructor at the Kent School and stayed for 28 years. In 2018, Michael Page, still riding every day, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the United States Hunter/Jumper Association.  After a recent brush with death resulting in multiple fractured ribs, he decided that, now in his 80s, it was time to take a well-earned rest from his life-long passion.

Watch a video interview of Michael Page when he was awarded the USHJA Lifetime Achievement Award

Many thanks to Michael Page for sharing the story of his journey to the Olympics and personal photographs and information for this post.


Games of the XIX Olympiad, Mexico City, 1968

Pelham Resident 1960 -2000 at 678 Colonial Avenue

William J. ("Bill") Tully

1968 U.S. Olympic Team, Frontenis

Photo: Bill Tully standing at far left with team organizer Dick Squires standing at far right.
Courtesy  of the Tully Family

Bill Tully was a legend in men's tennis. He played tennis everyday for nearly his entire life, well into his 80s. He consistently ranked in the top ten for decades and at one point ranked #1 in the country in the 60+ category.  A visit to the Travers Island courts at anytime in the 1970s to early 2000s would likely find Bill there. The walls of his study at 678 Colonial were lined with endless trophies including as winner of the 1948 Canadian National Championships, winner of 22 USTA National Titles and dozens of Eastern, New York and Florida Championships and inductee of the Westchester County Sports Hall of Fame (1995) and the USTA Eastern Hall of Fame (1999).  He won the National Grandfather-Grandson Championship four times with three different grandsons.

Bill Tully's trip to the Olympics came, however, from frontenis. What is frontenis? That was a question almost every member of the 1968 U.S. frontenis team asked just a few months before flying off to Mexico City to compete. The team was organized by Dick Squires, legendary platform tennis and squash player.  

Read the whole amusing story about the 1968 U.S. Frontenis Team

Bill and his wife, Kathryn, lived in the same house in Pelham for 40 years where they raised nine children. He worked in the financial industry as the owner of a seat on the NYSE.

Bill Tully
December 9, 1925 -
July 21, 2016




Bill Tully standing at far left.
Photo courtesy of the Tully Family

Pelham Resident & Pelham Country Club Swim Instructor, early 1970s

Stephen Karl Rerych

1968 U.S. Olympic Team, Swimming, 800M Relay, Gold Medal, 400M Relay, Gold Medal & 100M Freestyle

Photo:  Steve Rerych, third from left, with Mark Spitz. 
Courtesy of North Carolina State Hall of Fame.

Steve Rerych
Born May, 1946

Originally from Patterson, New Jersey, Steve Rerych attended Peekskill Military Academy where he lettered in swimming, baseball and track.  He swam for North Carolina State University and was the 1966 national AAU champion in the 100M freestyle.  He was a member of the first AAU team to visit and compete in Russia. 

At the 1968 Olympics, he swam with Mark Spitz in the 800M and 400M relays, winning gold in both.

The next year, he married Terry Sue Larson of 10 Westward Lane, Pelham Manor.  They lived in Pelham while Steve attended Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and taught swimming at the Pelham Country Club in summers.  After graduating in 1974, he completed his residency at Duke University and continues to practice medicine in North Carolina.*

* Patterson News, "College Commencements," July 6, 1974, p. 30; NCSwimHallOfFame.com/class-of-1985.html

Photo:  University Archives Photograph Collection. Athletics Photographs, 1893 - 2003 (UA023.004), Special Collections Research Center at NC State University Libraries

Michael Page's Third Olympics

1968 U.S. Olympic Team, Equestrian, Team Silver & Individual Bronze Medals, 3-Day Event

Photo: Michael riding "Foster"
Courtesy of Michael Page



The podium at the Mexico City Olympics where Michael Page (right) and teammates (left to right) John Plumb, Kevin Freeman and James Wofford, were awarded a team silver medal.

Photo: Courtesy of Michael Page


Games of the XXI Olympiad, Montreal, 1976

Pelham Resident 1975 - 2008 at 1337 Roosevelt Avenue

Dr. Lawrence J. ("Larry") Klecatsky, M.D.

1976 U.S. Olympic Team, Rowing, Men's Double
Photo:  Courtesy of the Klecatsky Family

 Larry Klecatsky could be called the greatest rower in U.S. history, measured not by his over 800 race wins (including over 50 US Rowing national championships and over 50 Royal Canadian Henley titles) or that he held the course record for the Head of the Charles for 12 years or that he held the record for the Grand Masters Singles for more than two decades (1992-2014), but because he reached and rowed far beyond his weight and age categories. At age 50, he competed in the open at Canadian Henley, skipping his age category where he could have easily taken first place. He came in fourth rowing against kids half his age. At the Montreal Olympics in 1976, he and his lightweight partner competed in the open category.  He was the kind of athlete who loved the challenge more than the win, who became good at the sport only by working very hard at it and who was widely considered the best in the world in his sport without having to win an Olympic medal.

Larry graduated from St. Thomas College and the University of Minnesota Medical School, completing his residency in Philadelphia where he rowed on the Schuylkill. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a physician, reaching the rank of Lieutenant First Class. He was introduced to the New York Athletic Club while stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and quickly became one of the club's leading rowers among an elite class of athletes.

Larry klecatsky
August 11, 1941 - December 13, 2018

"The boathouse is always open. The lagoon is always open. The weight room is always open." 
~ Larry Klecatsky on how to be a better rower

From his connections to Travers Island, Larry and his wife Susan moved to Pelham in 1975, raising three sons here, all of whom graduated from PMHS.  He had a 30+ year medical career, serving as the Director of Emergency Medicine at New Rochelle Hospital (later Sound Shore Medical Center and now Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital) and as Associate Medical Professor at the New York Medical College in Valhalla.

See Larry Rowing to win World Championship, 1979

Read recollections of Larry by rowing great, Jim Dietz

Photo courtesy of the Klecatsky Family.

Invitation from President Gerald R. Ford to Larry Klecatsky to attend a White House reception for the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team.

The Town Historian thanks  Jeffrey Klecatsky (PMHS '92) for sharing these photos and information from his father's personal scrapbook.


Games of the XXVIII OIympiad, Athens, 2004



One hundred years after Pelham's first Olympian competed, a Pelham native went to the games.

Pelham Resident 1973 - 2000 at 453 Pelhamdale Avenue

Mary Ellen ("Meg") Gaillard

2004 U.S. Olympic Team, Sailing, One-Person Dinghy (Europe Class), Women
Photo:  Courtesy of Meg Gaillard Myles

From a Conversation with the Pelham Town Historian

Meg Gaillard Myles' Olympic Story

There are few sports where an athlete competes so alone as sailing in a single-handed boat. Once Mary Ellen “Meg” Gailliard (now Meg Myles) launched her dinghy from the seemingly endless rows of concrete boat launches in Athens and got an assist from her coach’s power boat to the starting line, it was just her in her boat, a “Europe Class Dinghy” of about 11 feet in length, not quite twice as long as her height.  No other crew members, no coach, the closest competitor yards away, not even any fans within shouting distance -- just her and the breeze the Greek’s call “meltemi,” a wind so hot that the Olympic sailors from cooler environments called it “melt-me.”  But on the day of the race, there was only calm with so little air movement, it probably would have been re-scheduled had it not been slotted for worldwide television coverage.

Meg had been preparing for this without really knowing it since early childhood: Pelham rec soccer and, at a time when there was no girl’s middle school team, boy’s JV soccer, swimming and diving in the summers, varsity lacrosse for four years at Sacred Heart in Greenwich and, of course, sailing, including competitive racing from the time she was ten through her four years at Connecticut College.  Inspiration (and probably a healthy dose of genes) came from her maternal grandmother, who was a competitive “yachter” (as sailing was then called), racking up trophies in a field of virtually all men in the 1940s to 1960s.  The four years leading up to the race had been fraught with personal and family challenges, overcome in no small part, she says, by support from the Pelham community.

To her, the greatest gift of participating in the Olympics is not the potential medal, but joining in the Olympic spirit of giving one’s all.  (She thinks the movie Eddie the Eagle really conveys this.)  In 2021, Meg was living in Jamestown, Rhode Island with her husband and then fourteen-year-old daughter.  She had continued to sail competitively, runs the sailing program at the Conanicut Yacht Club and heads the Conanicut Island Sailing Foundation, a not-for-profit dedicated to marine education and sailing. 

Meg Gaillard
Born August 8, 1973

“The greatest gift of being an Olympian is the spirit of the games.  The experience is like life: it’s about the voyage, not the destination.”
~ Meg Myles

Many thanks to Meg Gaillard Myles for sharing her Olympic experience and personal photographs for this post.


Games of the XXXII Olympiad, Tokyo, 2021



Pelham is represented at the Olympics after a 12 year hiatus!

Pelham Resident 2003 to  present at 413 Wolfs Lane, 439 Highbrook Avenue
& 1057 Esplanade

Katherine "Kate" Cadwallader Douglass

2020 (2021) U.S. Olympic Team, Swimming, Women's 200 Meter Individual Medley, Bonze Medal

Photo Courtesy of the Douglass Family

Kate Douglass
Born November 17, 2001

Kate is in a Pelham Olympian class all by herself:   she was (based on the Town Historian's research):
- the youngest Pelhamite to participate in an Olympic games,
- the first woman Olympic swimmer from Pelham, and 
- the first Pelham Olympian in the history of the town to have graduated from Pelham Memorial High School.*

Pelham turned out en masse to cheer on Kate in her Olympic finals in Tokyo on July 27, 2021.

* Life-long Pelhamite Harry Babcock likely would have gone to high school in Pelham but couldn't: Pelham didn't offer classes beyond eighth grade when he was entering high school in 1904!  Life-long Pelhamite Michael Page attended Pelham Memorial High School, but his parents moved up-county in his senior year just a few months before his graduation.

Photo Courtesy of the Douglass Family


Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, Paris, 2024



Pelham's swimming star Kate Douglass returned to the Olympics!

Katherine "Kate" Cadwallader Douglass'
Second Olympics

2024 U.S. Olympic Team, Swimming,
Women's 100 Meter Freestyle, Gold Medal, 200m Breast Stroke, Gold Medal, 200m Individual Medley, Silver Medal and 4x100m Freestyle Relay, Silver Medal.

Kate Douglass

After the 2020 Olympics, Kate set new records, earned scores of medals, and racked up more unbelievable achievements than can be listed here.  But in brief summary:
- 21 NCAA medals (the most recent 14 all being gold);
- 26 World Championship medals (11 gold);
- World Records in two relay categories;
- Set and re-set multiple individual American and U.S. Open Records (holding the record in both categories for the 200y individual medley (1:48:37) and the 200y (2:01:29) and 200m (2:19:30) breast stroke).
 
 (Here is a link to a more complete list of her accomplishments.) 

Before she even got to Paris, she was already one of the greatest NCAA swimmers in U.S. history -- and without question the greatest swimmer in Pelham history.  But she was just getting started.

At the Paris Olympics, Kate received four medals (two gold and two silver), making her the most decorated Pelham Olympian in the town's history.

Current and past Pelhamites cheered Kate on at the Olympics including at showings of her events at the Pelham Picture House. On August 9th, she returned to the New York Athletic Club's Travers Island where her swimming first began.  There she spoke to and answered questions from young fans.

Photo courtesy of Elia Clemente

Arthur L. Scinta, Town Historian


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