When was shirley strickland born

Such was her standing in Australian athletics circles that she was among the six inaugural inductees into the Athlectics Hall of Fame. Victorian Governor John Landy competed at two Olympic Games with Strickland and says she was an inspiration both on and off the track. Biographer Geoff Worner says Strickland was also successful "as a housewife, a mother, a student, a teacher, as a political and community activist".

Early in her career, Strickland was coached by Betty Beazley, a fine sprinter herself and the wife of former Labor minister Kim Beazley Sr and mother of former deputy prime minister Kim Beazley Jr. Strickland was blessed with fine athletic genes. Her father, Dave, was the Stawell Gift winner in and only a lack of funds prevented him from competing at Olympic level.

Strickland's Olympic career began in in London where she won bronze medals in both the metres and the 80 metres hurdles and a silver in the 4x metres sprint relay. She won her first Olympic gold in the hurdles four years later in Helsinki, adding a bronze in the metres. Strickland took time out from athletics to have children with her husband Laurence de la Hunty after Helsinki but returned to her best form at the home Games in At the Melbourne Olympics, Strickland became the first female athlete in history to retain her Olympic crown when she again won gold in the hurdles.

Strickland featured in the opening ceremony at the Sydney Games in as part of a parade of great female athletes who carried the torch inside the Olympic Stadium. In , Strickland raised eyebrows in some quarters by auctioning her entire collection of Olympic medals and memorabilia. Share: Facebook Twitter.

Well not every sport, as there is a list of unusual sports , extinct sports and newly created sports. How to get on these lists? See What is a sport? Then, in , Audrey Patterson died. Her sensitivities could no longer be a factor. A year later Paul Jenes, statistician of Athletics Australia, and I, as the Australian Olympic Committee historian, made submissions aimed at setting the record straight.

We quoted the president of the international Association of Track and Field Statisticians, Bob Sparks, who had produced indisputable photographic and timing evidence that Strickland had finished third. He wanted Australia to approach the IOC to have the matter righted.

Alas, the move got nowhere. It would not amend the placings. None of these behind-the-scenes happenings were recorded at the time, nor have they been since. Shirley Strickland had one other chance to exceed the records of all other track and field women. In she was a member of the Australian sprint relay team which set a world record in its heat, and seemed assured of gold until a baton spilled at the start of the last leg of the final.

Strickland, born in Guildford, WA, the daughter of a Stawell Gift winner, was always a woman of exceptional spirit. She encountered barriers in all facets of her career in sport, education and municipal politics and swept across them as effortlessly as she handled hurdles on the track. At 23 she was advised by her coach that it was time to retire. By the time the Melbourne Games arrived, she was 31, with a three-year-old son. Again she ignored suggestions of retirement.

Again she won gold. For 20 years between , Strickland was the only female athlete to have won seven Olympic track and field medals. This total was equaled by Irena Swezinska in and Merlene Ottey in , and then exceeded when Ottey won bronze in Strickland took up serious running in after graduating from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Science in and, in , won honours in physics.

Perth born and the daughter of state amateur sprint champion and Stawell Gift winner, Dave Strickland, Strickland won the national title in the 90yds hurdles in , setting a world record time of There, Strickland finished third in both the m and 80m hurdles and won silver in the 4xm relay, becoming the first Australian female athlete to win a track and field medal.