| Birth Date: | August 22, 1911 |
| Birth Place: | Schenectady, New York, U.S. |
| Death Date: | July 30, 2007 (aged 95) |
| Death Place: | Tustin, California, U.S. |
| Sport: | Athletics |
| Event: | 100 m, 80 m hurdles |
| Club: | Los Angeles Athletic Club |
| Height: | 168 cm |
| Weight: | 52 kg |
| Pb: | 100 m - 12.4 (1932) 80 mH - 11.8 (1932)[1] |
| Show-Medals: | yes |
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.
Anne Vrana was born in Schenectady, New York, to a Hungarian immigrant family.[2] [3] 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.[4] [5] [3] She joined the Pasadena Athletic Club, which had a women's track and field team.[3] 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.[6] In her early years Vrana copied Charley Paddock's jump finish in her races; she dropped the style later in her career.[3]
Vrana placed third in the 100 meters at the 1928 United States Olympic Trials, qualifying for the Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.[7] At the Olympics she placed third in her heat and was eliminated.[2] Vrana married Howard O'Brien, a fellow Fremont High track athlete, in 1930; subsequently, she competed as Anne O'Brien.[6] O'Brien took up the 80-meter hurdles before the next Olympics, prompted by losses to local rival Evelyn Furtsch in flat races.[3] 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.[8]
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.[7] In the Trials heats O'Brien fell at the fourth hurdle, failed to finish and was eliminated.[6] [7] 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.[6] She was named to the American Olympic team as an alternate in the hurdles, but did not get the opportunity to compete.[6]
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.[6] [7] At the Olympics in Berlin she placed second in her heat and fourth in her semi-final; she narrowly missed qualifying for the final.[2] [3]
O'Brien's athletic career tapered off after 1936, though she continued competing in minor meets into her forties.[3] She died in Tustin, California in July 2007, aged 95.[2]