Barrie track and field athlete Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld has made the short list of iconic Canadian women who might be featured on the next bank note set to go into circulation in 2018.
The call for nominees went out on International Women’s Day in March and Canadians responded with 23,600 submissions in just over a month.
The Bank of Canada says 461 iconic Canadian women met the qualifying criteria and a short list of five has now been set.
The Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Bank of Canada will reveal on Dec. 8 which woman will be featured on the front of the note, a first in Canada other than the Queen.
The daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, Fanny came to Barrie at an early age, where she attended Victoria Public School and Barrie Central Collegiate.
A track and field athlete, Rosenfeld held Canadian records in the running and standing broad jump and in the discus.
At the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, she took the silver medal in the 100-metre dash and was lead runner for the women’s 4 x 100 metre relay team that won gold in a record time of 48.2 seconds.
She was also joint holder of the 11-second, 100-yard world record.
Rosenfeld was voted Canada’s female athlete of the first half of the 20th century in 1950, and inducted to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1955.
After arthritis forced her into retirement, Rosenfeld entered the world of journalism and for 20 years wrote a sports column in the Globe and Mail.
The other finalists were Viola Desmond, E. Pauline Johnson, Elizabeth (Elsie) MacGill and dola Saint-Jean.
Nominees were required to be a Canadian by birth or naturalization who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, achievement or distinction in any field, benefiting the people of Canada, or in the service of Canada and have been deceased for at least 25 years.
