By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Kansas State High School Activities Association is currently in the midst of its 50 for 50 project, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which opened the door for female athletes across the United States. As part of that project TopSports.news contributor Rick Peterson wrote the following story on the late Janell (Smith) Carson, a United States Olympian and trailblazer for female athletes.
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The late Janell (Smith) Carson of Fredonia, who passed away in 2020 after a battle with cancer, was one of the greatest girls track and field athletes in Kansas history despite never getting the opportunity to run a single high school race.
But Carson, who passed away at the age of 73, was one of many outstanding female athletes in the pre-Title IX era who accentuated the need for the legislation that has changed the lives of countless athletes over the last 50 years.
The late Janell (Smith) Carson in her familiar place atop the podium during her outstanding track and field career.
Carson still owns the all-time state record of 52.3 seconds in the 400-meter dash and also recorded a best of nearly 20 feet in the long jump, but was an athlete ahead of her time, with the first Kansas State High School Activities Association state girls meet not held until 1972, seven years after Carson graduated from Fredonia High School.
"Probably what was most unique about my track career was that it took place before Title IX was passed into law,'' Carson said in her Kansas Sports Hall of Fame induction speech in 2009. "The thing I really missed the most about my competition was not having other girls to train with and having a team to run on. I was always announced as, 'Janell Smith, running unattached.' ''
But despite missing out on high school and college athletics, Carson was one of the best known track athletes in the world in the 1960s.
Carson qualified for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games as a 17-year-old, set several Junior Olympic national records; was a two-time AAU national champion in the 400, competed in the 1963 Pan American
Games in Brazil and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1965.
"All we started out to do was have a good time," the late Meade Smith, Janell's father and coach, said in the Sports Illustrated story. "I was coaching our boy Sonny at the time, and Janell came out every day to watch. She was 10. It is easy to coach a girl at 10 because she will do anything you tell her. Later there was another girl who worked with us, but she worried about how she looked running. Janell has never let that worry her."
Carson said in her 2009 speech that being a female athlete in the '60s certainly had its challenges.
"There was definitely a stigma back then about women in sports,'' Carson said. "We weren't supposed to sweat, we weren't supposed to mess up our hair and muscles were definitely a no-no. Being feminine was the name of the game.
"I had my mother (the late Helen Smith) and she was always there for me to make sure I looked feminine and acted like a lady.''
One of the biggest challenges for Meade Smith was finding suitable competition for his daughter.
"Dad was always trying to find competition for me, especially before I ran a big track meet,'' Carson said. "He soon exhausted his list of high school boys for me to run against because once I beat them they never showed back up.
"So dad decided to get a couple of high school track boys to run against me on a relay. He arranged for an exhibition at the Fredonia Relays and that night I ran an unofficial American record in the 400. It was a good training technique, but it sure made it hard to get a date for the prom.''
Although she missed being a part of a team, Carson said she did not lack for support, which was a key to her success.
"Running without teammates and a team was more than made up for by my family and the community of Fredonia,'' Carson said.
Carson loved running but wasn't necessarily a fan of the hoopla that went with being a world-class athlete and tried to downplay her accomplishments.
"I do not like attention or interviews," Carson told Sports Illustrated writer John Underwood in 1965. "It is all so unnecessary. I would rather read about someone else. I'd rather someone else got the attention, and then I could always surprise people when I did well."
Meade Smith was once asked to explain Janell's success.
"Heart and legs," Meade Smith told Sports Illustrated. "It is like having a great big motor in a tiny car."
Carson went to her first national event when she was 14, competing against women that were eight to 12 years older.
Carson could long jump 19 feet, run the 70-yard hurdles in 9.2 seconds, the 220-yard dash in 24 flat, the 100 in 10.8.
Carson was born on May 3, 1947 in Killeen, Texas before moving to Fredonia.
She was a two-time National AAU 440-yard and 400-meter champion in 1964 and 1965 and set the world record for the indoor 400 meters as a high school junior.
She broke the indoor 400 world record by 1.6 seconds at a meet in Berlin, Germany, running 54.0.
Joining Carson on the United State 1964 Olympic Team was fellow Kansan and distance legend Jim Ryun.
Carson won two NAIA national indoor titles in college despite Emporia State University not having a women's team.
Carson graduated from Emporia State in 1969 and spent 35 years as an elementary school teacher, primarily as a first grade teacher. Carson and her husband, Mike, had three sons and multiple grandchildren.
"As great as my track career was, it doesn't compare to what my life has become because of the lessons my parents taught me and the lessons I learned while competing in track,'' Carson said in '09.
In addition to being inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Carson is also a member of the Emporia State and Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame.
"I, like many athletes of my era, consider myself a pioneer and I just hope I can inspire young girls to follow in my footsteps and to not be afraid to follow their dreams,'' Carson said in 2009.
