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1920s, 1930s: A story of a young girl in rural Canada who dreamt of being in the Olympics
Girl Runner
What you need to know before your trail
Aganetha Smart is now 104. In her youth she was a former Olympic athlete but now she spends her days in a nursing home, alone and seemingly forgotten by history.
One day two strangers, who don’t reveal who they are or what they want, arrive at the home and encourage Aganetha to reflect on her childhood in rural Ontario and her struggles to become the woman and althlete she became.
They take her on a trip down memory lane to the farm where she grew up and through the memories of WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic. The 1920s and the 1930s play out like scenes in a play, a history of her life. A life which now she mostly lives in confusion and loneliness.
Aganetha Smart is going on the journey of a lifetime.
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Amsterdam Olympics 1928
The girl runner is a fictional character base on the very real participants of the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games. This was the first games at which Women were allowed to compete in certain track and field events. Canada’s female track and field were know as the “Matchless Six’ and were feted for their success in the games.
The real girl runner who won gold that year was actually a German lady but the author was intrigued by the controversy which surrounded the race and so the story of the Canadian Girl Runner was born. The controversy of the race ensured that future women’s track and field events for more than 200 metres were banned.
Such a history behind the real games makes for a great fictional journey as the one woman who had so much success in those games is now in a nursing home and thinking back to her life and what she did.
Rural Canada of the 1920s and 1930s
A fascinating insight into the roles and struggles of woman in the 1920s and 1930s not just in Canada but elsewhere and society’s attitudes as well as those in the world of sport to the ability and sporting prowess of women. But now she is old –
“I creak, my bones not so different from the branches, absorbing light, graying and careful. We are old.”
Running was to women like Aganetha a means to escape the confines of her life. Running allows her to flee her problems in every sense of the word. Running away as well as running towards the victory and recognition she desires.
Rural Canada and Toronto
Aganetha’s past and past memories from her rural upbringing with her many siblings and her father’s second marriage to a woman who looks after children in trouble, paves the way for her running in the future. How she hopes to escape and reach her own goals in life.
Streetview Maps
1) Canada, Toronto - Bathurst Street
Where the story begins..
Where the story begins..
5) Olympic Stadium Amsterdam
Where the magic happens
Where the magic happens
Booktrailer Review
Susan @thebooktrailer
A charming and poignant story of a woman in the last days of her life looking back at her journey of how her life as a runner came to be. Her experiences and challenges faced along the way, it’s as if she hears the cheer of the crowds at the side of the track cheering her on even now.
Her early family story is told leading us to how she challenged herself and society to be the runner she was And even if you don’t appreciate or enjoy sport like me, this is so much more for it’s essentially about a woman who didn’t agree with conventions and just did what she wanted to do.
Her wisdom should be shared by everyone in life – “The appearance of perfection does not interest me. It is the illumination of near-disaster beside which we all teeter, at all times, that interests me.”
A very interesting tale of one women looking back on life, taken on a journey by two strangers who guide her on her way. And what a life she has had. The mix of fact and fiction was particularly interesting and it got me googling the true story of the 1928 Olympics!
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