Frank Thomas
Frank Thomas
Frank Thomas
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Notable Sports Figures<br />
Awards and Accomplishments<br />
1989 Junior European Championships, 3rd<br />
1992 Barcelona Olympics, 8th<br />
1992 European Championships, 2nd<br />
1992 Won the Moet and Chandon Young Sportwoman of the Year<br />
award<br />
1993 World Indoor Championships, 5th<br />
1993 Arizona Cup International, 1st<br />
1994 Vegas Shoot, 1st<br />
1994 US Collegiate Champion, 1st<br />
1994 European Grand Prix in Poland, 2nd<br />
1994 World record score of 651, 72 Arrows, Olympic Round<br />
1994 European record score of 165, 18 Arrows, Olympic Round<br />
1994 European Championships, 12th<br />
1996 European Championships, 5th<br />
1996 European Grand Prix Rankings, 2nd<br />
1996 Tournament of Nations (Germany), 1st<br />
1996 Atlanta Olympics, 10th<br />
1996 Best FITA 70m round score - 648, Atlanta, USA<br />
1996 Best FITA Round - 1337, Eggenfelden<br />
1997 Best 18 arrows - 169, Kyong Ju, Korea<br />
1998 European Indoor Championships, British record<br />
1998 Czech Republic Grand Prix, European record, 9th<br />
1999 World Archery Championships in Riom, France, 2nd<br />
1999 Cyprus European Grand Prix, 1st, best 12 arrows-113<br />
1999 Grand Prix, Turkey, European record<br />
1999 European Field Championships, Slovenia, 3rd place team<br />
1999 Golden Targets, 2nd<br />
2000 Sydney Olympics, 10th<br />
2000 Arizona Cup, 2nd<br />
2000 World ranking, 2nd place<br />
psychological. She noted in an article for Sports Illustrated<br />
for Women that archery requires patience, precision,<br />
and purity of movement—qualities she has<br />
mastered as evidenced by her many victories.<br />
FURTHER INFORMATION<br />
Periodicals<br />
Carol, Caroline. “World Class.” Sports Illustrated for<br />
Women (September/October 2000): 104.<br />
Other<br />
Angus Achievers Award. http://www.angus.gov.uk/<br />
angusahead/awards/2000/sport2000.htm (January 28,<br />
2003).<br />
Biography Resource Center Online. Gale Group. http://<br />
www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC (January 15, 2003).<br />
Bownet. http://www.bownet.com/gallery/alison.html<br />
(January 15, 2003).<br />
FITA International Archery Federation. http://www.<br />
archery.org/sydney/participants/GBR_WR_<br />
Williamson.htm (January 15, 2003).<br />
Guardian. http://www.guardian.co/uk/sydney/story<br />
(January 15, 2003).<br />
Olympics. http://www.olympics.org.uk/press/pressdetail.<br />
asp?boa_press_id=44 (January 28, 2003).<br />
Online Archery. http://www.onlinearchery.org.uk/<br />
news_start.html (January 28, 2003).<br />
Sports Illustrated. “Athletes Set Sights on Sydney.”<br />
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics.news/<br />
1999/10/04/plans_williamson (January 15, 2003).<br />
Sports Illustrated. “For Alison the goal is clear, although<br />
somewhat blurred.” http://sportsillustraged.cnn.com/<br />
olympics/newswire/2000/09/06/226250104202_afp<br />
(January 15, 2003).<br />
Times. “Perfect 10 Keeps Williamson on Target.” http://<br />
www.times-olympics.co.uk/archive/archerys17o.html<br />
(January 15, 2003).<br />
Trading Standards. http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/<br />
shropshire/validate15.htm (January 15, 2003).<br />
Helen Wills<br />
1905-1998<br />
American tennis player<br />
Wills<br />
Sketch by Lorraine Savage<br />
Helen Wills revolutionized the face of sports for<br />
American women. At a time when women were not<br />
thought capable of athletic achievement, Wills played<br />
some of the best tennis in the world, with a strength and<br />
ferocity that was far more typical of the male athletes of<br />
her time than of the female ones. She was not only dominant<br />
in women’s tennis, winning thirty-one Grand Slam<br />
events over the course of her career, but she also played<br />
and beat some of the top-ranked men of her time, including<br />
the ranking Italian men’s champion and the best<br />
player at Stamford University.<br />
Early Years<br />
The story of how Wills learned to play tennis has always<br />
been a part of her legend. Her father, a prominent<br />
surgeon in Berkeley, California, gave her her first racket<br />
when she was thirteen, and at age fourteen he got her a<br />
membership at the Berkeley Tennis Club, which was a<br />
prestigious institution. Wills never took formal lessons;<br />
instead, she learned by watching and playing against<br />
other members, both men and women. Hazel Wightman,<br />
women’s tennis champion of the 1910s, was also a<br />
member of the club. Wightman worked with Wills on<br />
her game, trying especially to improve her speed. It was<br />
less than two years after she joined the club that Wills<br />
became a tennis champion, winning her first U.S. girls’<br />
singles championships at the age of fifteen. At age seventeen<br />
she became the youngest person ever to win the<br />
U.S. women’s singles title.<br />
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