Stanisława Walasiewiczówna was Olympic champion in the 100-metre run in Los Angeles in 1932. Even before the Games, it was not known which country she would run for. The choice of Poland caused controversy in the USA. Not the first and not the last controversy surrounding her ...

It was late evening on 4 December 1980. A woman was found shot in a car park near a shop in southeast Cleveland. After being taken to hospital, medics pronounced her dead. The deceased was Stanisława Walasiewicz, the 1932 Olympic gold medallist.

"Walasiewiczówna's corpse was found in the car park of a multi-brand shop located in southeast Cleveland. The murderer acted for robbery purposes. Both of the victim's bags were completely emptied of their contents," reported the Polish Union Journal, and the news caused shock among locals.

Staszka's riddles
A few days later, a funeral was held. Nearly 400 people came to pay tribute to the outstanding athlete. The same one who won almost five thousand medals, diplomas and awards of various kinds in the stadiums. Walasiewiczówna was laid to rest in Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland. She left behind more than just titles. There were also riddles...

The first involved the day of her death. The search was on for her murderer. Newspaper editors put up as much as five thousand dollars as a reward for information that might help the investigation. The case was prioritised and the perpetrators were caught. Then, on 4 December in the car park, Stanislaus was approached by Donald Cassidy and Rick Clark. They had a gun with which they wanted to terrorise the woman. And instead of surrendering, she began to fight back. And in that fervour, Cassidy fired a shot. It turned out to be fatal.

The second mystery to be solved after her death was the one related to Staszka's gender. For years it had been alleged that she was not a woman. It was said that she should return her most valuable possessions. And the opportunity for verification came. According to American law, an autopsy is performed after a death that did not occur naturally. Walasiewiczówna underwent one. When the autopsy was performed, it turned out that she was an intersexed person, with incompletely developed female and male sex organs. In addition, she possessed a Y chromosome. These results caused a storm. It was suggested that her results and medals should be erased from the women's tables. Even the Olympic ones. And yet, the International Olympic Committee and the International Athletics Federation have still not done so today.

You will be Walsh!
My father came from near Brodnica. Mum was from Rypin. And the daughter was born in Wierzchownia. It was 3 April 1911 when Mr and Mrs Walasiewicz welcomed Staszka into the world. Times were hard. In pursuit of a better tomorrow, later that year, the father left for the United States. Mother and daughter joined him a few months later. The American dream of this family, like that of the lion's share of Polish emigrants, did not materialise immediately. Their beginnings were difficult. Walasiewicz senior was employed at the steelworks, while his wife took care of their daughters, as there, in the USA, two more were born.

From an early age, Stanisława was drawn to the sports fields. She liked volleyball. She played baseball and basketball pretty well. And she ran, uncommonly fast. One day she decided to go to a class taught by an instructor. The woman asked her to introduce herself. When she heard her full name, she was taken aback. She couldn't spell it or pronounce it correctly.

"You're going to be Stella Walsh," the teacher said, simplifying her work. And so it has remained in the US.

At home, however, she was still Staszka. Her parents spoke Polish and taught their daughter the language. Although it was peculiar and had American borrowings, in the years that followed, Poles and Walasiewiczówna got along perfectly.

Through "Sokół" to Poland
When Stanisława was fifteen she was placed on the school team. The coaches decided to send her to city school competitions in, among other things, athletics. The young newcomer from Wierzchownia won the 50-yard competition. A total of 14,000 girls took part in the competition, in various disciplines. Out of such a large group, she was remembered best. And because of this, she received invitations to subsequent competitions. More victories followed, and in 1928, the chance to compete at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

Who knows how Walasiewiczówna's fate would have turned out had it not been for American legal regulations. To be granted citizenship Staszka had to be twenty-one years old. In 1928, she was seventeen, and activists were not too keen to help "get around" the regulations. Four years later it was too late...

In the Dutch capital, the great triumph was won by Halina Konopacka, who was the first Polish representative to ever reach Olympic gold. Although Staszka did not have a good opinion of Konopacka herself, calling her, years later, after they had met in person, "an unavailable minister", after her victory at the Games, inspired by her sporting attitude and longing for the country of her ancestors, she joined the ranks of the "Sokół" Gymnastic Association in Cleveland, and already a year later left for Poland. After winning competitions, she was called up to the national team and in 1930 went to Prague for the Third World Women's Games. There she "crushed" her competitors, winning the 60, 100 and 200 metres. The delighted editor of "Stadjon" later wrote:

"Walasiewiczówna was the most outstanding athlete of the Games and won the most points, as many as 15 ¾, that is as many as Holland, Italy, Austria, France and Latvia together, and more than Japan or Sweden, but only 4 points less than the whole dangerous, favoured by some for the first place, proud team of Great Britain. The Polish athlete was also rightly awarded the prize of the best female athlete of the Games. The "Girl from Cleveland" was tireless".

War, gold and silver
Over the Vistula, Staszka was arousing admiration. It was prophesied that she would bring much joy to the Poles. But the Americans were also counting on her. Before the Olympic Games in Los Angeles (1932), the sprinter decided that she would perform under the red-and-white flag. She also trained in Poland and met many athletes she was fond of, such as Janusz Kusociński. She also simply felt good in Poland.

"My parents are so far Polish citizens. Consequently, I also had to be Polish until I came of age. I received my first American (temporary) papers a year ago. I was supposed to receive my second and final papers three months after I turned 21, in July this year. And then the company where I worked as a clerk, New York Central Railway, reduced my salary and then terminated my job altogether. I suppose it was some kind of personal revenge, or pressure to expedite my naturalisation steps," she said before the Games.

Since then, the press in the US has waged a dirty campaign against her. She was called a traitor. It was only after some time that a few journalists decided to look at the whole affair from the other side. Particularly inquisitive were the editors of Los Angeles newspapers who had the opportunity to talk to Valasiewiczówna. It was they who described the "strange" ploys of the Americans to even force the athlete to accept their citizenship. It was blackmail, manipulation and leaving the matter "for the last moment".

There was probably also some regret in this rhetoric, as it was in the United States that Stella Walsh took her first athletic steps. But reality also turned out to be brutal for American fans. In front of their eyes, Stanisława won Olympic gold. And that in the 100-metre run, equalling the world record (11.9) in the process!
"Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny" reported later:

"Walasiewiczówna's victory, however, did not come as easily as it seemed. The Canadian Strique was in the lead up to the finish line, but here she lost strength and allowed herself to be overtaken by the Pole, who broke the tape in a time of 11.9, thus repeating her yesterday's world record".

The 40,000-strong crowd gathered at the Olympic stadium, as Kazimiera Muszałówna, a pioneer of Polish sports journalism, recalled, "behaved as they should, they celebrated Walasiewiczówna's great talent, effort and wonderful victory". Although there is also a contradictory story that fans were said to have watched her triumph in complete silence. And four years later, the roles were reversed.

Berlin, work and returns
She went to the Games of the 11th Olympiad in 1936 as the favourite. There was something buzzed about an injury, but its severity was not so great that the patch was unfastened. She was thinking of gold herself, although word got around that a capable and fast teenager, Helen Stephens, had appeared across the Atlantic. And in Berlin it was she who came first. The Pole took second place.

Why were the roles reversed? Well, after the final, Polish reporters began to 'doubt' Stephens' femininity. The athletes, both of them, were tested. According to the results, they were women. The next Games were no longer held, as the Second World War broke out. Walasiewiczówna read about the events in Poland. She was very much affected by the death of Janusz Kusociński.
Before her career ended in 1956, she managed to win many valuable titles. The most important ones, apart from the Olympic ones, were those from the European Championships in Vienna (1938), where she was unrivalled in the 100 and 200 metres. She was also honoured - four times - with the title of Sportswoman of the Year in the Przegląd Sportowy poll.

She practised sport as long as her health permitted. After her death, the "Dziennik Związkowy", presenting Stanisława's profile, wrote:

. "She was called a female athlete and there was no exaggeration in that, as she competed in almost all athletic competitions. Few remember that she took part in the Polish skating championships. Her hobbies included horse riding, camping and fishing."

In 1956, she married Harry Neil Olson, thus gaining American citizenship. The marriage lasted eight weeks. Despite her results and constant physical activity, she did not get her dream job as an athletic instructor in the United States. So she worked in a plastic factory.

She visited Poland many times. She supported local sport. Her last visit was in 1977, when she was invited to the Polish Olympics in Krakow, where she was tempted to run another 60 metres. That performance there was spectacular. She also gave her last interview, recorded on a cassette tape.

She did not live to see the political changes. There, in a Cleveland car park, it was all over.