Evelyn Furtsch

Evelyn Pearl Furtsch (later Ojeda, April 17, 1914 – March 5, 2015) was an American sprint runner. Furtsch won the gold medal in the relay with teammates Mary Carew, Annette Rogers and Wilhelmina von Bremen at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Biography Furtsch was born in San Diego, California in 1914. She and her family moved to Orange County when she was 8 years old. During her Junior year at Tustin High School, a gym teacher noticed that she ran very fast. It was brought to the attention of Tustin High School track coach, Vincent Humeston where she was soon training and running with the boys track team. At the time, only big cities and big city schools had organized women's track & field. Humeston got in touch with the Los Angeles Athletic Club, who were at the time, training girls for the 1932 Olympics. In 1931, Furtsch placed in an AAU championship for the only time, when she finished second in the 100 yards.

At the 1932 Olympics, the American women's relay team broke both the Olympic and world record. Although they ran it in 46.9 seconds, the Olympics at that time did not count tenths of a second. The Olympic record, therefore, was recorded at 47.0 seconds, while the world record at 46.9 seconds. She and Godfrey Rampling are the only Olympic track and field gold medalists to live for a century.