V2 - AUSE01Z01MA THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN GIRL › uploads › Awards › Gordon_Award › ... ·...
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INQUIRER THE AUSTRALIAN, TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2017 theaustralian.com.au 11 V2 - AUSE01Z01MA JAMES JEFFREY — Annabel Crabb’s new ABC series taking viewers on a behind- the-scenes tour of Parliament House — the powers that be in that building were reminding the press gallery only so much transparency was desirable. Following a request for reporters to set up in the spot near the Liberals’ partyroom meeting — the same spot used by media during the now traditional bouts of prime minister-ousting — the Serjeant-at-Arms’ office said no. Elsewhere, Labor frontbencher Tim Hammond revealed he can peer into the future — at least as far as the following day — when he tweeted, “For goodness sake, the Government should just get on and put a vote on marriage equality to the Parliament.” This was attributed to “Bill Shorten, federal Labor leader, August 8, 2017.” Today’s news, yesterday. Towards the hungry sea It was in June that we were treated to Malcolm Turnbull and Eddie McGuire comparing weight loss tips on the wireless. Turnbull: “Tell us what you’ve done, Eddie.” McGuire: “You mentioned this a while back when you decided to get yourself fit. I remember asking and you said, you mentioned this Chinese doctor in Sydney who helped you get started … his whole thesis is, it’s not about losing weight necessarily, it’s about getting you back to your natural shape again. So I did it, I knocked off 15 in about 3½ weeks … ” Success breeds requests. As The Daily Telegraph has reported: “KIIS FM shock jock Kyle Sandilands has revealed he has tipped the scales at 135kg before asking media personality Eddie McGuire for help. McGuire made headlines this month after revealing he had shed a whopping 20kg ... following an extreme diet.” Unfortunately, it’s a bit tricky recommending the aforementioned doctor. As Strewth sadly mentioned last time around, he got pinged for unsatisfactory professional conduct early this year. So we can either point Kyle in the direction of Turnbull’s original weight-loss tips to Strewth in 2011 (“There are billions spent every year to avoid the melancholy truth that the only way to lose weight is to eat less. So the non-secret is: eat a lot less, in this case appropriately over Lent, until you get to the weight you want, then eat moderately to stay there. Continue to exercise at your normal rate”). Or we could suggest an encounter with those flesh-eating sea lice that made such a splash yesterday. It’s drastic, but it could catch on. Persian pollie-bashing From AFP, a reminder that politics achieves different levels of madness elsewhere: “Iran’s newspapers were dominated on Monday by accusations lawmakers had embarrassed themselves by clamouring to take selfies with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini during her visit to parliament.” The article proceeds to deploy the most redundant “but” we’ve seen in quite some time. To wit: “But the ultraconservative Kayhan newspaper did not see the funny side. ‘Those who are supposed to defend the rights of the nation against the enemy queue up to snap photos in a humiliating way with the violators,’ it said.” All that Daz Meanwhile on 3AW, a gathering of Darrens. Darren James: “I’ve never met one — Darren, that is — that’s older than me, and I’ve checked your birthday and still no luck.” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Darren Chester: “It was a little sweet spot in history about 45-50 years ago when kids were named Darren, right.” James: “Yeah, Darren.” Chester: “I am cracking 50 very soon, and I don’t meet many Darrens older than me, either.” We popped on the Behind the Name website seeking further enlightenment: “The meaning of this name is not known for certain. It could be from a rare Irish surname or it could be an altered form of Darrell. It was first brought to public attention in the late 1950s by the American actor Darren McGavin (1922-2006). It was further popularised in the 1960s by the character Darrin Stephens from the television show Bewitched.” [email protected] THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN GIRL Tributes pour in as nation recalls Olympian Betty Cuthbert’s feats WILL SWANTON No marital bliss There was a certain peculiar poetry in the fact that the greatest rumbling over same-sex marriage emanating from the Coalition’s broad church yesterday was from Nationals MP Andrew Broad. Broad informed his local paper The Sunraysia Daily he’d pull the pin and sit on the crossbenches if Liberal moderates succeeded in getting up a conscience vote. It was one of the zestiest threats to quit since Graham Perrett promised just such a course of action in the event of Kevin Rudd’s second coming. (Perrett took a more pragmatic approach when the Ruddsurrection took place.) Meanwhile yesterday, it was nice to see that on the day before the premiere of The House Betty Cuthbert hit the home straight with a decreasing lead, she leaned into the final turn like a kangaroo on the hop, she was run- ning out of gas, her mouth was agape, her knees were high, her el- bows were higher, her posture was less upright than the textbooks may have recommended — but the legs and heart were in full working order at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium. She held on to become and remain the only athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in the blue-ribbon 100m, 200m and 400m sprint events, and in her moment of unrivalled personal glory, she slowed down past the finishing post, closed her eyes and asked herself and the heavens the most humbling and deep and meaningful of questions: “Have I done enough?” A giant of Australian sport died on Sunday after a four-decade bat- tle with multiple sclerosis. Cuth- bert’s third individual Olympic gold medal in a third different event is a feat yet to be matched, and yet the mark of this humble and publicity-shy woman from an era of down-to-earth yet all- conquering Australian female ath- letes was her regard for the 4x100m relay gold on home turf at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics as the single most thrilling moment of her Hall of Fame career. It al- lowed her to provide her team- mates with the gift of a famous triumph rather than having to beat them. Because the sequence of Shirley Strickland to Norma Croker to Fleur Mellor to Cuth- bert while a crowd of 103,000 screamed itself hoarse at the Mel- bourne Cricket Ground became one of the quintessentially great Australian sporting moments. Be- cause she could look at her three fellow sprinters, and her beaming countrymen and women in the stands, and know that she had done more than enough to pour a little light into their lives. “Being so young I never expect- ed anything very marvellous,” Cuthbert once said of her three tri- umphs as an 18-year-old at the Melbourne Games. “It just hap- pened. I think I was at the right age. I remember the relay and I think that really was the greatest as far as being able to share with somebody the feeling of achievement. The feeling of, ‘I have done something with my life’.” Have I done enough? Cuthbert asked it of herself and God as soon as she won the 400m gold medal at Tokyo in 1964. Have I done enough? She asked it of herself and God during her 40-year fight with multiple sclerosis, the bastard of a disease that rendered useless those beautiful and previously un- stoppable running legs. She was only ever a slip of a thing, three ap- ples high and not much heavier at 169cm and 57kg. She was born, bred and schooled in Sydney’s northwest. She attended Erming- ton Public School and Macarthur Girls High School. She finished her days at Mandurah, about an hour south of Perth, where she had moved because it was just about as far away as she could get from the fame that always made her un- comfortable. Carrying the sort of aura reserved for Don Bradman and a rare selection of Australia’s true sporting legends, she bowed to pressure to return to the spot- light as a torchbearer inside the Olympic Stadium on the night Cathy Freeman lit the flame at the opening of the Sydney Games. With her wheelchair being pushed by her friend and triple Olympian Raelene Boyle, she wept at the re- ception from the 110,000-strong crowd. Perhaps she could hear what that ovation was really tell- ing her. That she had done more than enough. The MCG became the site of a towering 2.75m bronze statue that has her in full flight at those 1956 Games, the mouth wide open to suck in the big ones, the right knee raised waist-high, the arms pump- ing. When she attended the open- ing of the statue in 2003 in her wheelchair, back outside the stadi- um in which she had burst onto the world stage, she became so embar- rassed by the honour that she bare- ly knew what to say. She wept then, too. Those magnificent statues around the perimeter of the MCG tell every one of the honoured ath- letes what they have done in their careers. They have made them- selves unforgettable, they have touched a few hearts, they have in- spired a few people, they have done bloody well, they can be con- tent that they have done enough. She was a devoted Christian. A dedicated fundraiser for multiple sclerosis. Australia’s first inductee into the IAAF Hall of Fame. She believed God told her while she was doing the weeding at the fam- ily nursery to run again at the 1964 Games. She would tell Olympic historian Harry Gordon of her vic- tory: “It wasn’t really me running that day. It was as if my body had been taken over. He picked them (her feet) up and I put them down.” She never raced again. The sil- ver medallist at Tokyo was Ann Packer from Great Britain. She was quoted in The Pursuit Of Sporting Excellence as saying: “When I spoke to Betty years af- terwards, I realised that I wouldn’t know if I could ever have won that race. She is a mystical girl with strong religious beliefs. I call her mystical because she has an inner understanding of herself, which would be very difficult for anyone else to touch.” Boyle yesterday told The Aus- tralian: “She was such a beautiful woman. The thing that really stood out with Bet was just how normal she was. She was very shy, she was humble to a tee and yet she was an extraordinary runner and the fastest woman in the world. She really was unbelievably shy and just a beautiful person. She was an example of what a great athlete really is. To be really great, you’ve got to be more than a sportsperson with talent. You’ve got to have more to you than that. “That was certainly Bet. She was so unassuming and she loved the sport so much. And even with her MS, she treated that with great dignity and just accepted every- thing it threw at her. Her faith was a great part of her life. She was a great believer in God so she will be going to a place in which she won’t be uncomfortable.” Australian athletes came from far and wide yesterday to pay trib- ute. Olympic marathon runner Robert de Castella said “a very sad day” nonetheless provided the chance to celebrate the peerless career of “a wonderful contributor to Australian life”. He applauded her “incredible resilience and fight” in the face of deteriorating health and called her a “true icon” of global sport. Olympic swimming champion Dawn Fraser had been a frequent visitor to Cuthbert at her Aegis Greenfields nursing home in re- cent years. She recalled the greet- ing Cuthbert always gave her: “Dawnie, you’ve come to see me again!” Fraser described the fierce- ly independent Cuthbert as some- thing unique. Fun. A “marvellous, marvellous lady” who used to jump the fence at Ryde-Parramat- ta golf course to run sprints in the rough. She was not allowed on the fairway because her spikes would scuff the turf. Olympian Jane Flemming pointed out the women’s 400m for the current World Championships was held in London overnight, and that Cuthbert’s times from a half- century ago would have put her on the cusp of the semi-finals despite her preparations being strictly amateur. Freeman thanked Cuth- bert for “the inspirational memor- ies’’. Her victory at the Sydney Games was in the 400m. “It’s a very sad day, there’s no doubt about it,” Freeman said. “Betty is an inspiration and her story will continue to inspire Australian ath- letes for generations to come. I’m so happy I got to meet such a tremendous and gracious role model and Olympic champion.” The Australian Olympic Com- mittee wrote that Cuthbert’s un- certainty about making the Melbourne Games team prompt- ed her to buy tickets to attend as a spectator if she did not gain selec- tion. “History would show that in- stead of watching the world’s best from the stands, she became the world’s best on the track.” Freeman won the 400m on home soil. Cuthbert won the 100m, 200m and 4x100m on home soil. Excruciating pressure. Free- man collapsed on the track at Syd- ney as if the occasion threatened to suffocate her. The sigh of re- lief blew like a southerly buster. Cuthbert did it three times at a home Games. And won all three. The Australians had no right to win the relay. “Giving three other women, who had no chance of winning a gold medal on their own, the op- portunity to actually hold and keep a gold medal and say they were on a team with Betty Cuth- bert that won the 4x100m at the Melbourne Olympics — goodness me, any of us sprinters would have loved to be able to say that,” Boyle said. “It’s magical stuff in our sporting history. It will go down in the archives of sport in Australia as one of the great victories. It’s up there with Dawn Fraser and Don Bradman. She was truly a great person of our country. We don’t get them like that any more. “Don’t you love it when some- one like Betty can just let their per- formances do that talking? That was exactly what she did. And then she wasn’t exactly an underdog at Tokyo but converting up to the 400m from the 100m and 200m, eight years later — I can tell you that’s not an easy thing to do. The long sprint hurts. “It was the first 400m for women at an Olympics. She won. She brought the gold home. She was a beautiful young Australian woman who was and always will be the original golden girl. Her body collapsed in the end but we will always have the memory of her running across the track with such grace.” Cuthbert had a lot to gloat about as a fourfold Olympic cham- pion. She never did it enough. The only times she publicly opened her mouth seemed to be when she was racing. As Gordon noted, it ap- peared she was roaring while she ran. She had a lot to complain about after her diagnosis of mul- tiple sclerosis in 1969. She never did it enough. The woman who be- came her carer, Rhonda Gillam, relayed to The Weekend Australian Magazine two years ago a story of a wheelchair-bound Cuthbert, with no physical function apart from the movement of her left hand, being overheard in prayer in her nursing home. Have I done enough? The question had been replaced by what she viewed as a statement of fact. A couple of sen- tences that could prompt a reac- tion comparable to the MCG in 1956. Not a dry eye in the house. “Thank you, Lord, for every- thing,” Cuthbert said. “Thank you for spoiling me so much.” ‘She was such a beautiful woman. She was an example of what a great athlete really is. To be really great, you’ve got to be more than a sportsperson with talent. You’ve got to have more to you than that. That was certainly Bet. She was so unassuming’ RAELENE BOYLE TRIPLE OLYMPIAN Clockwise from left: Betty Cuthbert having a rose named after her; with NSW relay teammates Gloria Cooke, Nancy Fogarty and Marlene Mathews in 1956; entering the stadium at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with Raelene Boyle; and anchoring the 4x100 victory in Melbourne BETTY CUTHBERT BORN Merrylands, Sydney, NSW, April 20 1938 DIED Mandurah, WA, August 6, 2017, aged 79 Honours IAAF Hall of Fame (2012) Athletics Australia Hall of Fame (2000) Sport Australia Hall of Fame (1985) Sporting highlights 1956 MELBOURNE OLYMPICS GOLD 100m: set world record of 11.4 seconds in her heat GOLD 200m: world record GOLD 4x100m: world record The first Australian ever to win three gold medals at a single Olympics. The track and field preceded the swimming, at which Murray Rose performed the same feat 1964 TOKYO OLYMPICS GOLD 400m: world record of 52.01 seconds World records Event Time City Date 60 METRES 7.2 SYDNEY FEB 27, 1960 100 YARDS 10.4 SYDNEY MAR 1, 1958 220 YARDS 23.6 PERTH JAN 18, 1958 220 YARDS 23.5 SYDNEY MAR 8, 1958 220 YARDS 23.2 HOBART MAR 7, 1960 200 METRES 23.2 SYDNEY SEP 16, 1956 440 YARDS 55.6 SYDNEY JAN 17, 1959 440 YARDS 54.3 SYDNEY MAR 21, 1959 440 YARDS 53.5 MELBOURNE MAR 11, 1963 440 YARDS 53.3 BRISBANE MAR 23, 1963 400 METRES 52.01 TOYKO OCT 17, 1964 (seconds)
Transcript of V2 - AUSE01Z01MA THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN GIRL › uploads › Awards › Gordon_Award › ... ·...
INQUIRER THE AUSTRALIAN,TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2017
theaustralian.com.au 11V2 - AUSE01Z01MA
JAMES JEFFREY
— Annabel Crabb’s new ABC series taking viewers on a behind-the-scenes tour of Parliament House — the powers that be in that building were reminding the press gallery only so much transparency was desirable. Following a request for reporters to set up in the spot near the Liberals’ partyroom meeting — the same spot used by media during the now traditional bouts of prime minister-ousting — the Serjeant-at-Arms’ office said no.Elsewhere, Labor frontbencher Tim Hammond revealed he can peer into the future — at least as far as the following day — when he tweeted, “For goodness sake, the Government should just get on and put a vote on marriage equality to the Parliament.” This was attributed to “Bill Shorten,
federal Labor leader, August 8, 2017.” Today’s news, yesterday.
Towards the hungry seaIt was in June that we were treated to Malcolm Turnbull and Eddie McGuire comparing weight loss tips on the wireless.Turnbull: “Tell us what you’ve done, Eddie.”McGuire: “You mentioned this a while back when you decided to get yourself fit. I remember asking and you said, you mentioned this Chinese doctor in Sydney who helped you get started … his whole thesis is, it’s not about losing weight necessarily, it’s about getting you back to your natural shape again. So I did it, I knocked off 15 in about 3! weeks … ”
Success breeds requests. As The Daily Telegraph has reported: “KIIS FM shock jock Kyle Sandilands has revealed he has tipped the scales at 135kg before asking media personality Eddie McGuire for help.McGuire made headlines this month after revealing he had shed a whopping 20kg ... following an extreme diet.”Unfortunately, it’s a bit tricky recommending the aforementioned doctor. As Strewth sadly mentioned last time around, he got pinged for unsatisfactory professional conduct early this year. So we can either point Kyle in the direction of Turnbull’s original weight-loss tips to Strewth in 2011 (“There are billions spent every year to avoid the melancholy truth that the
only way to lose weight is to eat less. So the non-secret is: eat a lot less, in this case appropriately over Lent, until you get to the weight you want, then eat moderately to stay there. Continue to exercise at your normal rate”). Or we could suggest an encounter with those flesh-eating sea lice that made such a splash yesterday. It’s drastic, but it could catch on.
Persian pollie-bashing From AFP, a reminder that politics achieves different levels of madness elsewhere: “Iran’s newspapers were dominated on Monday by accusations lawmakers had embarrassed themselves by clamouring to take selfies with EU foreign policy
chief Federica Mogherini during her visit to parliament.” The article proceeds to deploy the most redundant “but” we’ve seen in quite some time. To wit: “But the ultraconservative Kayhan newspaper did not see the funny side. ‘Those who are supposed to defend the rights of the nation against the enemy queue up to snap photos in a humiliating way with the violators,’ it said.”
All that DazMeanwhile on 3AW, a gathering of Darrens.Darren James: “I’ve never met one — Darren, that is — that’s older than me, and I’ve checked your birthday and still no luck.”Transport and Infrastructure Minister Darren Chester: “It was
a little sweet spot in history about 45-50 years ago when kids were named Darren, right.”James: “Yeah, Darren.”Chester: “I am cracking 50 very soon, and I don’t meet many Darrens older than me, either.”We popped on the Behind the Name website seeking further enlightenment: “The meaning of this name is not known for certain. It could be from a rare Irish surname or it could be an altered form of Darrell. It was first brought to public attention in the late 1950s by the American actor Darren McGavin (1922-2006). It was further popularised in the 1960s by the character Darrin Stephens from the television show Bewitched.”
THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN GIRLTributes pour in as nation recalls Olympian Betty Cuthbert’s feats
WILL SWANTON
No marital blissThere was a certain peculiar poetry in the fact that the greatest rumbling over same-sex marriage emanating from the Coalition’s broad church yesterday was from Nationals MP Andrew Broad. Broad informed his local paper The Sunraysia Daily he’d pull the pin and sit on the crossbenches if Liberal moderates succeeded in getting up a conscience vote. It was one of the zestiest threats to quit since Graham Perrett promised just such a course of action in the event of Kevin Rudd’s second coming. (Perrett took a more pragmatic approach when the Ruddsurrection took place.) Meanwhile yesterday, it was nice to see that on the day before the premiere of The House
Betty Cuthbert hit the homestraight with a decreasing lead, sheleaned into the final turn like akangaroo on the hop, she was run-ning out of gas, her mouth wasagape, her knees were high, her el-bows were higher, her posture wasless upright than the textbooksmay have recommended — butthe legs and heart were in fullworking order at Tokyo’s OlympicStadium. She held on to becomeand remain the only athlete to winan Olympic gold medal in theblue-ribbon 100m, 200m and400m sprint events, and in hermoment of unrivalled personalglory, she slowed down past thefinishing post, closed her eyes andasked herself and the heavens themost humbling and deep andmeaningful of questions: “Have Idone enough?”
A giant of Australian sport diedon Sunday after a four-decade bat-tle with multiple sclerosis. Cuth-bert’s third individual Olympicgold medal in a third differentevent is a feat yet to be matched,and yet the mark of this humbleand publicity-shy woman from anera of down-to-earth yet all-conquering Australian female ath-letes was her regard for the4x100m relay gold on home turf atthe 1956 Melbourne Olympics asthe single most thrilling momentof her Hall of Fame career. It al-lowed her to provide her team-mates with the gift of a famoustriumph rather than having to beatthem. Because the sequence ofShirley Strickland to NormaCroker to Fleur Mellor to Cuth-bert while a crowd of 103,000screamed itself hoarse at the Mel-bourne Cricket Ground becameone of the quintessentially greatAustralian sporting moments. Be-cause she could look at her threefellow sprinters, and her beamingcountrymen and women in thestands, and know that she haddone more than enough to pour alittle light into their lives.
“Being so young I never expect-ed anything very marvellous,”Cuthbert once said of her three tri-umphs as an 18-year-old at theMelbourne Games. “It just hap-pened. I think I was at the right age.I remember the relay and I thinkthat really was the greatest as far asbeing able to share with somebodythe feeling of achievement. Thefeeling of, ‘I have done somethingwith my life’.”
Have I done enough? Cuthbertasked it of herself and God as soonas she won the 400m gold medal atTokyo in 1964. Have I doneenough? She asked it of herselfand God during her 40-year fightwith multiple sclerosis, the bastardof a disease that rendered uselessthose beautiful and previously un-stoppable running legs. She wasonly ever a slip of a thing, three ap-ples high and not much heavier at169cm and 57kg. She was born,bred and schooled in Sydney’snorthwest. She attended Erming-ton Public School and MacarthurGirls High School. She finishedher days at Mandurah, about anhour south of Perth, where she hadmoved because it was just about asfar away as she could get from thefame that always made her un-comfortable. Carrying the sort ofaura reserved for Don Bradmanand a rare selection of Australia’strue sporting legends, she bowedto pressure to return to the spot-
light as a torchbearer inside theOlympic Stadium on the nightCathy Freeman lit the flame at theopening of the Sydney Games.With her wheelchair being pushedby her friend and triple OlympianRaelene Boyle, she wept at the re-ception from the 110,000-strongcrowd. Perhaps she could hearwhat that ovation was really tell-ing her. That she had done morethan enough.
The MCG became the site of atowering 2.75m bronze statue thathas her in full flight at those 1956Games, the mouth wide open tosuck in the big ones, the right kneeraised waist-high, the arms pump-ing. When she attended the open-ing of the statue in 2003 in herwheelchair, back outside the stadi-um in which she had burst onto the
world stage, she became so embar-rassed by the honour that she bare-ly knew what to say. She wept then,too. Those magnificent statuesaround the perimeter of the MCGtell every one of the honoured ath-letes what they have done in theircareers. They have made them-selves unforgettable, they havetouched a few hearts, they have in-spired a few people, they havedone bloody well, they can be con-tent that they have done enough.
She was a devoted Christian. Adedicated fundraiser for multiplesclerosis. Australia’s first inducteeinto the IAAF Hall of Fame. Shebelieved God told her while shewas doing the weeding at the fam-ily nursery to run again at the 1964Games. She would tell Olympichistorian Harry Gordon of her vic-
tory: “It wasn’t really me runningthat day. It was as if my body hadbeen taken over. He picked them(her feet) up and I put them down.”
She never raced again. The sil-ver medallist at Tokyo was AnnPacker from Great Britain. Shewas quoted in The Pursuit OfSporting Excellence as saying:“When I spoke to Betty years af-terwards, I realised that I wouldn’tknow if I could ever have won thatrace. She is a mystical girl withstrong religious beliefs. I call hermystical because she has an innerunderstanding of herself, whichwould be very difficult for anyoneelse to touch.”
Boyle yesterday told The Aus-tralian: “She was such a beautifulwoman. The thing that reallystood out with Bet was just how
normal she was. She was very shy,she was humble to a tee and yet shewas an extraordinary runner andthe fastest woman in the world.She really was unbelievably shyand just a beautiful person. Shewas an example of what a greatathlete really is. To be really great,you’ve got to be more than asportsperson with talent. You’vegot to have more to you than that.
“That was certainly Bet. Shewas so unassuming and she lovedthe sport so much. And even withher MS, she treated that with greatdignity and just accepted every-thing it threw at her. Her faith wasa great part of her life. She was agreat believer in God so she will begoing to a place in which she won’tbe uncomfortable.”
Australian athletes came from
far and wide yesterday to pay trib-ute. Olympic marathon runnerRobert de Castella said “a very sadday” nonetheless provided thechance to celebrate the peerlesscareer of “a wonderful contributorto Australian life”. He applaudedher “incredible resilience andfight” in the face of deterioratinghealth and called her a “true icon”of global sport.
Olympic swimming championDawn Fraser had been a frequentvisitor to Cuthbert at her AegisGreenfields nursing home in re-cent years. She recalled the greet-ing Cuthbert always gave her:“Dawnie, you’ve come to see meagain!” Fraser described the fierce-ly independent Cuthbert as some-thing unique. Fun. A “marvellous,marvellous lady” who used to
jump the fence at Ryde-Parramat-ta golf course to run sprints in therough. She was not allowed on thefairway because her spikes wouldscuff the turf.
Olympian Jane Flemmingpointed out the women’s 400m forthe current World Championshipswas held in London overnight, andthat Cuthbert’s times from a half-century ago would have put her onthe cusp of the semi-finals despiteher preparations being strictlyamateur. Freeman thanked Cuth-bert for “the inspirational memor-ies’’. Her victory at the SydneyGames was in the 400m. “It’s avery sad day, there’s no doubtabout it,” Freeman said. “Betty isan inspiration and her story willcontinue to inspire Australian ath-letes for generations to come. I’mso happy I got to meet such atremendous and gracious rolemodel and Olympic champion.”
The Australian Olympic Com-mittee wrote that Cuthbert’s un-certainty about making theMelbourne Games team prompt-ed her to buy tickets to attend as aspectator if she did not gain selec-tion. “History would show that in-stead of watching the world’s bestfrom the stands, she became theworld’s best on the track.”
Freeman won the 400m onhome soil. Cuthbert won the100m, 200m and 4x100m on homesoil. Excruciating pressure. Free-man collapsed on the track at Syd-ney as if the occasion threatenedto suffocate her. The sigh of re-lief blew like a southerly buster.Cuthbert did it three times at ahome Games. And won all three.The Australians had no right towin the relay.
“Giving three other women,who had no chance of winning agold medal on their own, the op-portunity to actually hold andkeep a gold medal and say theywere on a team with Betty Cuth-bert that won the 4x100m at theMelbourne Olympics — goodnessme, any of us sprinters would haveloved to be able to say that,” Boylesaid. “It’s magical stuff in oursporting history. It will go down inthe archives of sport in Australia asone of the great victories. It’s upthere with Dawn Fraser and DonBradman. She was truly a greatperson of our country. We don’tget them like that any more.
“Don’t you love it when some-one like Betty can just let their per-formances do that talking? Thatwas exactly what she did. And thenshe wasn’t exactly an underdog atTokyo but converting up to the400m from the 100m and 200m,eight years later — I can tell youthat’s not an easy thing to do. Thelong sprint hurts.
“It was the first 400m forwomen at an Olympics. She won.She brought the gold home. Shewas a beautiful young Australianwoman who was and always willbe the original golden girl. Herbody collapsed in the end but wewill always have the memory ofher running across the track withsuch grace.”
Cuthbert had a lot to gloatabout as a fourfold Olympic cham-pion. She never did it enough. Theonly times she publicly opened hermouth seemed to be when she wasracing. As Gordon noted, it ap-peared she was roaring while sheran. She had a lot to complainabout after her diagnosis of mul-tiple sclerosis in 1969. She neverdid it enough. The woman who be-came her carer, Rhonda Gillam,relayed to The Weekend AustralianMagazine two years ago a story of awheelchair-bound Cuthbert, withno physical function apart fromthe movement of her left hand,being overheard in prayer in hernursing home. Have I doneenough? The question had beenreplaced by what she viewed as astatement of fact. A couple of sen-tences that could prompt a reac-tion comparable to the MCG in1956. Not a dry eye in the house.
“Thank you, Lord, for every-thing,” Cuthbert said. “Thank youfor spoiling me so much.”
‘She was such a beautiful woman. She was an example of what agreat athlete reallyis. To be really great, you’ve got tobe more than a sportsperson with talent. You’ve got to have more to you than that. Thatwas certainly Bet. She was so unassuming’RAELENE BOYLETRIPLE OLYMPIAN
Clockwise from left: Betty Cuthbert having a rose named after her; with NSW relay teammates Gloria Cooke, Nancy Fogarty and Marlene Mathews in 1956; entering the stadium at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with Raelene Boyle; and anchoring the 4x100 victory in Melbourne
BETTY CUTHBERT
BORN Merrylands, Sydney, NSW,
April 20 1938
DIED Mandurah, WA,
August 6, 2017, aged 79
HonoursIAAF Hall of Fame (2012)
Athletics Australia Hall of Fame (2000)
Sport Australia Hall of Fame (1985)
Sporting highlights1956 MELBOURNE OLYMPICSGOLD 100m: set world record of 11.4 seconds in her heatGOLD 200m: world record GOLD 4x100m: world record
The first Australian ever to win three gold medals at a single Olympics. The track and field preceded the swimming, at which Murray Rose performed the same feat
1964 TOKYO OLYMPICSGOLD 400m: world record of 52.01 seconds
World records
Event Time City Date
60 METRES 7.2 SYDNEY FEB 27, 1960
100 YARDS 10.4 SYDNEY MAR 1, 1958
220 YARDS 23.6 PERTH JAN 18, 1958
220 YARDS 23.5 SYDNEY MAR 8, 1958
220 YARDS 23.2 HOBART MAR 7, 1960
200 METRES 23.2 SYDNEY SEP 16, 1956
440 YARDS 55.6 SYDNEY JAN 17, 1959
440 YARDS 54.3 SYDNEY MAR 21, 1959
440 YARDS 53.5 MELBOURNE MAR 11, 1963
440 YARDS 53.3 BRISBANE MAR 23, 1963
400 METRES 52.01 TOYKO OCT 17, 1964
(seconds)
