Wed, Feb 18, 2004 page19

• Australian legend Shirley Strickland dies at 78 in Perth

  • AP
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  Australian Olympic great Shirley Strickland de la Hunty died at her home in Perth aged 78, the Australian Olympic Committee said Tuesday.

  Competing as Shirley Strickland, she won an Australian record seven Olympic athletics medals.

  She was the first woman to clinch back-to-back Olympic athletics finals, winning the 80m hurdles at Helsinki in 1952 and then returning from time off to have a baby to defend the title at the 1956 Melbourne Games.

  Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates described de la Hunty as a legend of the track and "one of our greatest-ever Olympians."

  De la Hunty was one of the original six inductees in the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame in 2000 and also was among the final Olympic torchbearers in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Games before 400m champion Cathy Freeman sparked the cauldron.

  Athletics Australia chief executive Simon Allatson said de la Hunty had been a great ambassador.

  "Shirley was a fabulous ambassador for the sport, a fabulous ambassador for women's sport, women's track and field and the Olympics and all it stood for," he said.

  Her seven Olympic medals included three gold.

  A cause of death was not reported. Her family issued a statement via the AOC, saying de la Hunty should be "acknowledged for her unfailing commitment to the things she cared about -- family, her community and the environment."

  "She was a strong, independent thinker who lived life on her own terms, and who always was prepared to stand up for her beliefs," the statement said.

  De La Hunty is survived by four children and 15 grandchildren.

  She made her Olympic debut at London in 1948, winning silver in the 4x100m relay and bronze in the 100m and the 80m hurdles.

  Her best Olympic performances came at Melbourne, when she won the hurdles and the 4x100m relay as a 31-year-old mother.

  She later became involved with athletics administration and held managerial posts with the 1968 and 1976 Australian Olympic teams.

  Marjorie Jackson, who won a sprint double at Helsinki, said her former teammate was an Australian icon and an inspiration to generations of athletes.

  "She didn't go to the Commonwealth Games in 1954 because she had a little baby boy," Jackson said. "It showed her great strength to come back and win gold at the Melbourne Olympics."

  De la Hunty was awarded the Olympic Order in Sydney in 2002 on the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Games.

  She'd shrugged off criticism the previous year for auctioning off her sporting memorabilia, including her Olympic medals, for about US$200,000.

  An educator for most of her working life, de la Hunty said she was entitled to sell her medals to help pay for her grandchildren's education and promote environmental causes.

  "The medals themselves have done their duty," she said at the time. "They've been fingered by thousands of school children and adults, they've been shown everywhere, and I think that they deserve something a little bit safer."

  John Landy, the second man to break the four-minute barrier for the mile and who read the Olympic Oath at the Melbourne Games, said de la Hunty was a trailblazing athlete, conservationist and environmentalist.

  "It was a fairly lonely sport for a woman in those days ... she was very, very driven, a very determined, forceful athlete and a role model for many people," he said.

  Ron Clarke, who set 17 world records at various middle- and long-distance running events, said de la Hunty was "the best of the best."

  "I can't imagine more tragic news," Clarke told Sky News. "She remains a beacon for Australian women on the track."
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