Absolutely fascinating story about Maribel Vincon's career as a NY Times sportswriter while she was also a competitive figure skater. This is a great read: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/...mesinsider®ion=c-column-bottom-span-region
"Vinson was already a magna cum laude Radcliffe graduate and a bronze medalist when she reported to work at The Times in 1934 at age 22. The Times was a different place then, a nearly all-male preserve. Women were still decorously referred to as “Miss” or “Mrs.,” even in sports headlines.
There had been female reporters at the paper before, starting with Sara Jane Clarke, who wrote as Grace Greenwood in the 1850s. But their numbers were “pathetically meager,” wrote Nan Robertson in her book “The Girls in the Balcony.” And none of them had ever written for sports.
The sports editor at the time was Bernard William St. Denis Thomson, known in the office as the Colonel. (Gay Talese revealed in “The Kingdom and the Power” that he had actually been an army captain, not a colonel, and served in World War I as a trainer of pack animals.) Regardless of his rank, he was fond of barking orders to his underlings, military style.
He had hired Vinson “hesitantly and after considerable soul-searching,” the Times columnist Arthur Daley wrote years later. “He regretted it the very first day” when he realized that he would not be able to swear as much.
Years later, though, Vinson recalled of her colleagues, “They soon found out I could outdrink them,” according to one of her skating students, Frank Carroll (who would later coach some of the world’s most renowned skaters).
Vinson was not just some celebrity author who swanned in to dash off a few skating articles. She plunged right into the daily grind of a real sportswriter. She amassed 189 bylines in her first 12 months, and covered track, tennis, swimming, lacrosse and horse shows."
... (much more)
"Vinson was already a magna cum laude Radcliffe graduate and a bronze medalist when she reported to work at The Times in 1934 at age 22. The Times was a different place then, a nearly all-male preserve. Women were still decorously referred to as “Miss” or “Mrs.,” even in sports headlines.
There had been female reporters at the paper before, starting with Sara Jane Clarke, who wrote as Grace Greenwood in the 1850s. But their numbers were “pathetically meager,” wrote Nan Robertson in her book “The Girls in the Balcony.” And none of them had ever written for sports.
The sports editor at the time was Bernard William St. Denis Thomson, known in the office as the Colonel. (Gay Talese revealed in “The Kingdom and the Power” that he had actually been an army captain, not a colonel, and served in World War I as a trainer of pack animals.) Regardless of his rank, he was fond of barking orders to his underlings, military style.
He had hired Vinson “hesitantly and after considerable soul-searching,” the Times columnist Arthur Daley wrote years later. “He regretted it the very first day” when he realized that he would not be able to swear as much.
Years later, though, Vinson recalled of her colleagues, “They soon found out I could outdrink them,” according to one of her skating students, Frank Carroll (who would later coach some of the world’s most renowned skaters).
Vinson was not just some celebrity author who swanned in to dash off a few skating articles. She plunged right into the daily grind of a real sportswriter. She amassed 189 bylines in her first 12 months, and covered track, tennis, swimming, lacrosse and horse shows."
... (much more)
thanks for posting .
also Frank Carroll reminisces on being coached by her....
This demonstrates how history is easily forgotten, and how much we need to have proper respect for the past. We should remain cognizant of the fact there's a great deal we don't know, and always so much to discover and to rediscover. We'd be amazed at all the fascinating information and connections about skating history and global culture that have yet to be widely disseminated. Go take a look at 
I knew about Vinson Owen achieving remarkable feats, and having formerly been a sportswriter for the NY Times (because it's been mentioned in some historic skating videos and bio features), but I didn't know all the details. I'm sure that Mather is only touching the tip of the iceberg too in his tribute. We need to bow down to the amazing person Vinson Owen was. 
