Italian athletics legend Ondina Valla, who became the first Italian woman in any sport to win the Olympic gold medal when she clinched the 80 metres Hurdles title in Berlin 1936, died at the age of 90 in L’Aquila on Monday (16).
Valla was born in Bologna on 20 May 1916. Her outstanding talent was spotted at school and at the age of 14 she set her first Italian record in the 80m Hurdles and in the High Jump and was capped for the first time in the national team in 1930. She was known as an all-round athlete who competed in the 100m, High Jump, Long Jump, Pentathlon and in the relays. She won 15 Italian titles (five in the High Jump, six in the 80etres Hurdles, two in the 100m, one in the Pentathlon and one in the 4x100 relay) and set 23 national records.
Her greatest achievements was the gold medal in the 80m Hurdles in the Olympic stadium in Berlin in 1936, where she clocked 11.7 one day after equalling the World Record with 11.6 in the semifinal which was aided by a strong tailwind of +2.2 m/s but at the time was ratified as a World record because the +2 m/s wind-assistance rule had not been passed yet.
Valla, who went to Berlin as an outsider with the fifth best time of the year, edged out Germany’s Anni Steuer (silver), Canada’s Elisabeth Taylor (bronze) and Italy’s Claudia Testoni (fourth) in a blanket-finish. All four athletes shared the same time of 11.7 but victory went to Valla after it took thirty minutes to declare the Italian as Olympic winner ahead of Steuer.
The rivalry between world class athletes Valla and Testoni highlighted Italian athletics in the thirties. These athletes became two pioneers of women sport in the country. They met 98 times during their careers with Valla prevailing on Testoni by 60-33 in direct clashes (they also tied five times).
Testoni, who also came from Bologna, passed away in 1998. She won the 1938 European title in the 80m Hurdles in Vienna and set four World records in this discipline, lowering it to 11.3 twice in 1939. Valla and Testoni teamed up in the 4x100 Italian relay team which finished fourth at the Berlin Olympic Games.
Valla’s Olympic gold medal in Berlin was of great significance for Italian athletics because it took 44 years before another Italian woman athlete would win an Olympic title. It was High Jump star Sara Simeoni who took Olympic gold in Moscow in 1980.
Valla was capped 16 times for Italian team between 1930 and 1940. She retired in 1944 at the age of 28 due to back problems.
Valla is the second Italian athletics legend from the 1936 Olympic Games to pass away this year after the death of Arturo Maffei on 17 August at the age of 96. Maffei finished fourth in the epic long jump final in Berlin with 7.73 (one cm behind the third placer Naoto Tajima from Japan) won by US legend Jesse Owens who leapt to 8.06 beating German Lutz Long.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
