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Claire Merle waited most of her life, nearly half a century, to finally touch the starting line at an Olympic track.
The year was 1995 and the then 74-year-old Westhampton Beach resident, who set a world record in the 50-meter dash at the Amateur Athletic Union National Championships in 1938, punching her ticket for the 1940 Olympic Games, placed her hands in front of her, leaned down on one knee and tucked the other up under her chest in the runner’s starting position. After a brief wait, she heard what she was waiting for: the click of a camera to capture the moment.
She then stood up and took in the sights around her in Athens, Greece—the birthplace of the Olympics. Though she never got to compete in the 50-meter dash—the 1940 games, which were supposed to be held in Tokyo, Japan, were canceled due to World War II—Ms. Merle, who ran the race in a blistering 6.4 seconds in 1938, made sure to experience the joy of being in an Olympic venue while visiting Greece with friends 17 years ago.
“She never gave up,” her son, Hugh Merle of Westhampton Beach, said about his mother. “She never gave up.”
Even though she never faced Olympic competition, Ms. Merle, who died on September 1, at her home in Westhampton Beach at the age of 91, will be forever remembered in track circles as an icon of the sport.
Born in 1921 in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, to Gussie and Herman Isicson, Ms. Merle was inspired early in life to pursue running by her older brother, Jack. While attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, Ms. Merle was assisting her brother, who was a track coach at the school, and learned that she had an affinity for the sport. In addition to track, she also enjoyed playing basketball and softball during her four-year high school career.
In 1938, at age 17, Ms. Merle set the world record for the 50-meter dash with a time of 6.4 seconds at the National Amateur Athletic Union Championships. From 1939 until 1942, she was the first female athlete to compete for Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus, where she was pursuing a degree in physical education. The university dedicated a student-athlete award in her honor 15 years ago.
“We mourn the loss of the university’s first female athlete,” said John Suarez, the director of athletics at LIU’s Brooklyn campus in a prepared statement this week. “We were so honored to get to know her over the last 15 years and name a major student-athlete award after her.”
While her dream of running and competing in the Olympics never came true, Ms. Merle did not let that discourage her. She took it as an opportunity to play on a women’s softball team, the Americanettes. Most notably, Ms. Merle had the chance to play a game at the old Madison Square Garden in which the teams were coached by New York Yankees legends Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Coached by Mr. Ruth, the Americanettes won the game.
“She was a true inspiration to our athletes and will be sorely missed,” Mr. Suarez said.
After graduating from LIU, Ms. Merle moved to Riverhead and became a physical education teacher in the Riverhead School District. One of her favorite things to teach, according to her son, was dance.
In 1958, she married Dr. James Merle and they settled down in Westhampton Beach. Dr. Merle, who was known as the village’s “last country doctor” before his death in 2002, could often be spotted hitchhiking along Old Riverhead Road when visiting patients at the old Central Suffolk Hospital, now Peconic Bay Medical Center, because he did not have a driver’s license.
Ms. Merle is survived by her son, Hugh, his wife, Catherine, and their two children, Zachary and Christopher, as well as a brother, Harold Isicson, of Evansville, Indiana.
She was predeceased by her parents and two older brothers, Jack and Milton.
A funeral service was held at the Follett & Werner Funeral Home in Westhampton Beach on September 5 and interment followed at the Westhampton Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made in Ms. Merle’s name to Bideawee, 118 Old Country Road, Westhampton, NY, 11977.
Erin McKinley on Sep 11, 2012