Career
Born in Toronto, Brooks was the first female member of the Old Orchard Skating Club and began setting Ontario and Canadian records in 1923 at the age of 15. By the end of 1925, when she was 17, Brooks had broken six world records. She would ultimately set 17 world records over her skating career.
At the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, she participated in three demonstration events with all competitors from Canada and the United States. She made it to the finals in all three events, but placed no higher than fourth. Her time in the 1500 m heats, 2:54.0, was more than 15 seconds under the official world record, but the time wasn't recognised since the race was skated under the North American mass start rules.
She qualified for the 1936 Winter Olympics but chose to retire. Later that year, she married druggist Russ Campbell and moved to Owen Sound, Ontario. She died there at age 82.
Brooks was inducted into the Speed Skating Canada Hall of Fame (1972) and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1972).
Read more about this topic: Lela Brooks
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)