Anne O'Brien (athlete)
# Anne O'Brien (athlete)

Anne Marie Vrana O'Brien (August 22, 1911 – July 30, 2007) was an American sprinter. She represented the United States at the 1928 Summer Olympics in the 100 meters and at the 1936 Summer Olympics in the 80-meter hurdles. In 1932 she equaled the 80-meter hurdles world record, but fell at the Olympic Trials and missed the Olympics.

## Biography

Anne Vrana was born in Schenectady, New York, to a Hungarian immigrant $family.^{:1}$ The family moved to California when she was young, and she took up running seriously as a student at Fremont High School in Los Angeles, where she was coached by 1924 Olympian Otto $Anderson.^{:2}$ She joined the Pasadena Athletic Club, which had a women's track and field $team.^{:4}$ At the 1927 AAU championships, her first significant meet, she placed second in the long jump and ran on the winning 4 × 110 yard relay team; she false started in the 100 meters, which she had considered her best $event.^{:118,149}$ In her early years Vrana copied Charley Paddock's jump finish in her races; she dropped the style later in her $career.^{:5}$

Vrana placed third in the 100 meters at the 1928 United States Olympic Trials, qualifying for the Summer Olympics in $Amsterdam.^{:69}$ At the Olympics she placed third in her heat and was eliminated. Vrana married Howard O'Brien, a fellow Fremont High track athlete, in 1930; subsequently, she competed as Anne $O'Brien.^{:150}$ O'Brien took up the 80-meter hurdles before the next Olympics, prompted by losses to local rival Evelyn Furtsch in flat $races.^{:12}$ In June 1932 she ran the hurdles in 11.8 at a regional tryout meet in Pasadena; the time equaled Marjorie Clark's world record from the previous $year.^{:282}$

O'Brien entered the 1932 Olympic Trials as the national leader in the 80-meter hurdles, ahead of the eventual Olympic top two Babe Didrikson and Evelyne $Hall.^{:77}$ In the Trials heats O'Brien fell at the fourth hurdle, failed to finish and was $eliminated.^{:150}^{:77}$ Due to the cuts and abrasions she received in her fall she was given a tetanus shot, which made her ill; she was forced to withdraw from the semi-finals of her other event, the flat 100 $meters.^{:150}$ She was named to the American Olympic team as an alternate in the hurdles, but did not get the opportunity to $compete.^{:150}$

O'Brien gave birth to a daughter in 1934, but continued competing; she won the 80-meter hurdles at the 1936 Trials, qualifying for her second Olympic $Games.^{:150}^{:86}$ At the Olympics in Berlin she placed second in her heat and fourth in her semi-final; she narrowly missed qualifying for the $final.^{:17}$

O'Brien's athletic career tapered off after 1936, though she continued competing in minor meets into her $forties.^{:21–22}$ She died in Tustin, California in July 2007, aged 95.

