Fast Girls Quotes

“We have the report your team doctor conducted before you boarded the S.S. Manhattan. This document is official and confirms your sex, so we do not need to conduct an exam.”

Relief flooded Helen, but something inside her sparked. A realization. Her relief morphed into something jagged and angry.
“Why didn’t this information get reported yesterday? Why were the newspapers allowed to perpetuate lies about me without the IOC coming to my defense sooner?”
― Elise Hooper, Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team

“Nothing good comes out of girls thinking they’re something special.”
― Elise Hooper, Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team

“We appreciate your proposed editorial on the subject of encouraging women’s participation in sports, but after discussing it with our editorial team, we concluded a “Day in the Life” piece with a focus on your fashion choices would be far more popular with both our readers and sponsors.”
― Elise Hooper, Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team

“...many notable physicians have stated unequivocally that engaging in strenuous physical activity has many adverse effects on women, both physically and mentally. Athletic competition makes a woman overly assertive and bold and ruins the beauty of the feminine physique by eliminating her soft curves through strengthening her arms, broadening her shoulders, narrowing her waist, adding bulk to her legs, and developing power in the trunk, all characteristics that could render a woman overly masculine and unattractive.”
― Elise Hooper, Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team

“Women’s track and field is under provisional status for these Olympic Games, and officials have given some indication that the ladies will not be asked to return because these feats of endurance can be too strenuous for the fairer sex."

Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its second president, always a staunch advocate of banning women from athletic participation, has made his vision of feminine participation clear by saying, “At the Olympic Games, a woman’s role should only be to crown the victors.”
― Elise Hooper, Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team

“Betty cannot train with the boys’ track team. In fact, the Illinois State Athletic Association prohibits interscholastic competition for girls in track and field events for good reason; it is well documented that women cannot be subjected to the same mental and physical strains that men can withstand.”
― Elise Hooper, Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team