Leisure

Party Princess and Rally Driver in a Fake Moustache

Name: Eva Dickson, née Lindström
Born: 1905 at Steninge Castle, Uppland
Died: 1938 in Baghdad, Iraq

Sweden’s first female rally driver. Tabloid darling, adventuress, pilot, author and war correspondent.

Working is not for Eva Dickson. While still in her teens, she lives a jet-set lifestyle and socialises with the cultural elite of the time. The press loves to present her as a femme fatale who loves to shock the bourgeoisie.

Before her 20th birthday, she marries Olle Dickson, who introduces her to motor racing. Eva Dickson gets even more attention from the press when she becomes Sweden’s first female rally driver. Women are generally not allowed to take part in motor racing, so she enters races under the alias Anton Johansson, and successfully competes wearing a fake moustache. She also gets a pilot licence and plans to fly across the Atlantic.

Her husband eventually grows tired of Dickson’s adventurous character, files for divorce and gets custody of their son. Eva Dickson continues to embark on new escapades, and in 1932 she is the first woman to drive a car across the Sahara Desert. She is killed in a car accident in Baghdad during yet another adventure.

Ski racing in curlers

Name: Margit Nordin, née Sundell
Born: 1897 in Karlstad
Died: 1982 in Saltsjöbaden

Hits the headlines as the first woman to participate in the Vasaloppet ski race in 1923.

Margit Nordin is a PE teacher and physiotherapist in Dalarna. One of her patients lives quite far away, and Margit goes there on her skis whenever possible. The distance is about 20 kilometres a day. When the first Vasaloppet ski race takes place in 1922, Margit Nordin decides to enter the following year, just to see how fit she is.

Her finish time is 10:09:42, last of the 158 participants who complete the race. As the first woman to take part in the race, she attracts a lot of attention. The spectators cheer her on, but many men, including organisers, participants and journalists, are not as positive. Sweden’s leading sports magazine Idrottsbladet states: ‘Margit Nordin’s participation was an achievement, but a curiosity. Let it not be repeated’. And that is what happens – women are banned from participating in Vasaloppet until 1981.

Many years later, Margit Nordin reveals during an interview that she was wearing curlers throughout the race. She took them out just before she got to Mora, as she wanted to look her best at the finish line.

Suzanne Lenglen Wins Wimbledon for the 6th Time

Called ‘the Goddess’ by the French press, Lenglen wins her first world title at the age of 15. Ranked as the world’s top female player from 1921 to 1926, she wins a total of 21 Grand Slam titles, eight in singles and 13 in doubles. In addition, she grabs two gold and one bronze medal at the Antwerp Olympics.

She wins Wimbledon five times in a row between 1919 and 1923, and claims her sixth victory in 1925. The following year, she is one of the first tennis players ever to sign a professional contract.

Susanne Lenglen is known for her unconventional, casual dress on the tennis court. Her sleeveless blouses and short skirts from the Jean Patou fashion house in Paris attract a lot of attention.