Lois Testa Lynchis one of the pioneers of women’s athletics in Rhode Island. She was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on December 16, 1935. She attended Pawtucket East High School, where she competed in swimming, basketball, and badminton. She became involved in the sport of track and field when Barrington’s Janet Moreau Stone, a gold medal winner in the 4 x 100 meters at the 1952 Summer Olympics, came to the local high schools looking for the area’s top female athletes. Inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1968, Janet Moreau Stone created many opportunities for young women in an era when sports were limited for females. She was a gym teacher at Barrington Junior High, where she led the Leader Corps (selected female students were chosen to referee intramurals and take on other leadership roles). She demanded excellence, timeliness, knowledge of rules, and appearance and passed along many life lessons that went beyond tracks, fields, and swimming pools.
Lois Testa Lynch was one of the best female athletes at that time, starring at Pawtucket High School in swimming, basketball, and badminton. At Moreau’s urging, Testa became involved in track and field. Despite her initial focus on other sports, Lynch’s transition to track and field at the suggestion of Moreau was a pivotal moment. While she attended Rhode Island College, Testa Lynch trained with Coventry’s Frank Sherman, her coach, at Providence College, an all-male institution at the time. Concentrating on the shot, javelin, and discus events, she went on to dominate the 1953 AAU Championships held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Testa Lynch won both the AAU Junior and Senior Championships in the shot, setting an American record at 43’10.00″ in the senior division. She narrowly missed winning the discus event as well.
Lois Testa Lynch qualified for the 1956 Summer Olympics, placing second at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the shot. At the ’56 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, she placed 13th in the world and second in the U.S. in the shot. Her roommate at the summer games was track legend Wilma Rudolph, an American sprinter who overcame childhood polio and went on to become a world-record-holding Olympic champion and international sports icon in track and field following her successes in the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games. Rudolph competed in the 200-meter dash and won a bronze medal in the 4 × 100-meter relay. She also won three gold medals at the 1960 Olympics. Rudolph was acclaimed as the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s. She and Lois Testa Lynch developed a lifelong friendship.
After graduating from RIC with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, Lois Testa Lynch taught for 15 years at Stuart (FL) Middle School, where she also coached soccer and assisted with boys’ track. She is a member of the Rhode Island Women’s Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame with her mentor, Janet Moreau Stone, in 1968.
For additional reading:
“Lois Testa Sets Mark; Hurls Shot 42 Feet 7 Inches for Junior A. A. U. Record”. The New York Times, July 31, 1954.
“Lois Ann Testa”. International Olympic Committee, August 17, 2017.
“Lois Testa”. Sports Reference, June 10, 2017
“Lois Testa Lynch”. Rhode Island College Athletic Hall of Fame, August 18, 2017.