Eileen Whalley Richards

Eileen Alma Richards (nee Whalley; April 13, 1923 – February 3, 2015) was a Canadian speed skater. During her career, Whalley earned provincial, national and North American championship titles. She was posthumously inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

Early life Whalley was born on April 13, 1923, in Manitoba, Canada. She was born to parents Ellen Belle and Robert Whalley.

Career

After seeing her older brother Evan compete in speed skating, Whalley started racing competitively in 1938. Her first win was during the Winnipeg city championship in the Grade 9 relay. She soon moved up to the intermediate division where she competed in the Minneapolis trials and the Silver-Skae inter-club meet.

By 1942, Whalley was promoted to the senior level and she subsequently won the Winnipeg Club Championship and international senior Manitoba meet.

While men were sent overseas during WW2, Whalley was co-champion in the Senior Ladies Manitoba Open competition which she won four times from 1943 until 1946. In 1945, Richards became the only Canadian to win the Detroit Times 25th Annual Gold Skates Derby and the Harry Carl Trophy. She also captured the Wyandotte Michigan Gold Cup Senior Women's Championship that same year.

After the war, Whalley competed in the 1946 North American championships where she earned the senior women's crown while also setting a new record for the 440-yard event by completing it in 43 seconds. She also beat the previous 800 record set by Gladys Robinson in 1923, with a time of 1.46 2/5. This would however come to be her last competitive event as in November 1947, she married Donald Gair. As a result, she missed a month with the Winnipeg Skating Club. Whalley eventually moved to Toronto with her husband, and retired from speed skating.

In 2001, she joined her aunt Lillian Simpson and sister-in-law Joan Whalley in the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.