Betty Cuthbert AM MBE

Betty Cuthbert AM MBE (1938–2017), sprinting champion, was Australia's leading gold-medal winning track and field athlete. In 1956, at the age of eighteen, she set a women's world record for the 200m at Moore Park, beating the record set by her compatriot Marjorie Jackson at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Cuthbert had tickets to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games as a spectator, but she attended as a competitor, earning the nickname the 'Golden Girl' from the Melbourne Argus when she won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay; the first Australian to win three Olympic gold medals. The 1958 Commonwealth Games, the 1960 Olympics and the 1962 Commonwealth Games went badly for her, but at the Tokyo Olympics of 1964 she won the 400m, making her only the second woman to have won four different track races. During her career Cuthbert set sixteen world records. In 1969 she developed multiple sclerosis, and was a vigorous fundraiser for research into the disease, as well as playing an important role in the creation of MS Research Australia, established in 2004. In 1998, Cuthbert was named a Living National Treasure, and in 2012 she was inducted into the World Athletics IAAF Hall of Fame.