First Welsh woman to win Olympic gold is born
Irene Steer, who swam the anchor leg in Britain’s gold medal winning 4 × 100 metre relay team in Stockholm in 1912, setting a world record, was born on 10 August, 1889. She failed to reach the final of the individual 100 metres after a collision in the heats robbed her of individual honours. Irene started as a breaststroke swimmer, but in 1908–1909 changed to crawl. She was unbeaten in the 100 yards freestyle at the Welsh Championships, winning the title for seven successive years from 1907. She retired at the end of the 1913 season. She represented Cardiff Ladies Premier SC and won her only ASA title in 1913, when she equalled the world record in the 100 yards freestyle. She was the first Welsh woman to win an Olympic gold medal, and it would be 96 years before this was repeated, by Nicole Cooke in the cycling road race at Beijing in 2008 – on 10 August, 2008.
