 Strickland at the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Shirley Barbara Strickland de la Hunty[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Australian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1925-07-18)18 July 1925[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 11 February 2004(2004-02-11) (aged 78) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Western Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft7+1⁄2 in (171 cm)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 126 lb (57 kg)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | 100–400 m, 80 m hurdles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | University, Applecross, Melville | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personalbest(s) | 100 m – 11.3 (1955) 200 m – 24.1 (1955) 400 m – 56.6 (1956) 80 mH – 10.89 (1956)[1][3] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Shirley Barbara de la HuntyAO,MBE (néeStrickland; 18 July 1925 – 11 February 2004), known asShirley Strickland during her early career, was an Australian athlete. She won moreOlympic medals than any other Australian in running sports.
Strickland was the only daughter, the second of five children. She grew up on the family farm east of the wheatbelt town ofPithara, Western Australia.
Her father,Dave Strickland, while working atMenzies in the goldfields ofWestern Australia, was also an athlete.[4][5] He was unable to compete in the1900 Summer Olympics because he lacked the money for a trip to Paris.[6] Instead, in 1900, he directed his efforts to theStawell Gift 130-yard (120-m) foot-race, winning in 12 seconds off a handicap of 10 yards.[7] His performance was considered to be as good as those ofStan Rowley, who won the Australian amateursprint titles that season. (Rowley went on to win threebronze medals in thesprints at the 1900 Paris Olympics). Dave Strickland subsequently went on to play one senior game ofAustralian rules football with Melbourne-based VFL teamSt Kilda in 1900[8] and six with WAFL club West Perth spread across the 1901 and 1909 seasons.
Her mother, Violet Edith Merry, was American-born with a British mining engineer father and a Norwegian mother.[5]
Strickland's early education was by correspondence. From 1934 to 1937 she attended the newly established local East Pithara School, winning a scholarship to attendNortham High School,[9] where, in 1939, she won 47 out of 49 events as a schoolgirl athlete.[10] After high school, she entered theUniversity of Western Australia from where in 1946 she graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Physics. In her spare time she lectured in mathematics and physics[1] to returned servicemen atPerth Technical College, played wing in the university hockey team and gained a reputation as an extremely gifted sprinter and hurdler.
TheSecond World War was disruptive to women's athletics in Australia. Some runners, including Strickland, enlisted to help the war effort.[11]
While teaching atPerth Technical College, she was coached byAustin Robertson, a former world professional sprint champion andSouth Melbourne footballer.[6] She improved her 100 yards time from 11.8 to 11.0 flat. At the 1947 Western Australia state titles, she won the 100 yards, 220 yards, 440 yards, the 90 m yards hurdles and theshot put.
The following year, she took up running seriously, with great success. She won the national title in the 80 mhurdles in 1948 and was part of the Australian delegation to the1948 Summer Olympics in London. There, Strickland finished third in both the100 m and80 m hurdles and won a silver medal in the4 × 100 m relay. Despite being awarded 4th place in the200 m final, a photo finish of the race that was not consulted at the time, when examined in 1975, showed that she had beaten AmericanAudrey Patterson into third place, a discrepancy that has been recognised by many reputable Olympic historians.[12]
After winning three gold medals in the1950 British Empire Games, she won her first Olympic title at the1952 Games in Helsinki. She won the80 m hurdles inworld record time (10.9 s). A baton mix-up cost her a second gold medal in the4 × 100 m relay. In the100 m, she again won a bronze medal.
She set a new world record of 11.3 s for the 100 m in Poland in 1955. Further, in the1956 Olympics, she won again in the80 m hurdles and with the Australian4 × 100 m relay team.
De la Hunty maintained her Olympic involvement in athlete administration, with the Australian teams during the1968 and1976 Olympics in Mexico City and Montreal.[2] She also coached sprinterRaelene Boyle for the 1976 Olympic season.[13]
Along with her husband, de la Hunty had a longstanding involvement with theAustralian Democrats. She was a founding member, and later served as president of the party's branch in Western Australia.[14] From the early 1970s through to the mid-1990s, de la Hunty was aperennial candidate for state and federal political office, although never elected. She stood in six state elections –in 1971, and then in five consecutive from1983 to1996. In 1983,1986, and 1996, she stood for theAustralian Democrats, while she stood as anindependent candidate in the remaining years. She ran for theLegislative Assembly in 1983 and1993 (inEast Melville andMelville, respectively), and for theLegislative Council in 1971, 1986, 1989, and 1996.[15]: 76
At the federal level, all but one of de la Hunty's runs for office were made as a Democrats candidate. In total, she contested seven federal elections—four consecutive from1977 to1984, as well as the1981 by-election inCurtin, and then in1993 and1996. She ran for theHouse of Representatives in 1981 (Curtin), 1984 (Fremantle), and 1993 (Canning), with the latter being her only independent candidacy at federal level. At all other elections, she contested theSenate, where she was generally placed second or third on the Democrats'group voting ticket.[15]: 350 Although never elected to parliament, de la Hunty served two periods as aCity of Melville councillor, from 1988 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2003.[14] This political affiliation contrasted with the background of her first coach,Betty Judge, who was the wife ofKim Beazley Sr. and mother ofKim Beazley, both prominentLabor politicians.
De la Hunty was one of several female Australian Olympians who carried the Olympic Flame at the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Games.[1] In 2001, she attracted media attention by auctioning her sporting memorabilia including her Olympic gold medals.[10] She was criticised by some for that but asserted she had a right to do so and the income generated would help pay for her grandchildren's education and allow a sizeable donation to assist in securing old-growth forests from use by developers. Her memorabilia were eventually acquired for theNational Sports Museum in Melbourne by a group of anonymous businessmen who shared her wish that the memorabilia would stay in Australia.
In 1950, she married geologist Lawrence Edmund de la Hunty, who had been one of her students at Perth Technical College. They had four children: Phillip (1953), Barbara (1957), Matthew (1960) and David (1963). Matthew was the lead singer in Australian rock bandTall Tales and True. Barbara graduated in Science.[citation needed] Phillip's intended medical career was destroyed by heroin addiction though he later graduated with honours in Science.[16] David is anophthalmologist practising inRockingham.[17] Lawrence died of a heart attack in 1980, aged 56.[16]
De la Hunty was appointed Officer of theOrder of Australia (AO) on 26 January 2001 for service to the community, particularly in the areas of conservation, the environment and local government, and to athletics as an athlete, coach and administrator. She had been appointed Member of theOrder of the British Empire (Civil) (MBE) for services to athletics on 1 January 1957.
Her body was found on 16 February 2004 on her kitchen floor, but the coroner determined that she died on the evening of 11 February. There was no full autopsy and the coroner said the cause of death was "unascertainable", though not inconsistent with natural causes.[16]
The Western Australian government honoured her with astate funeral, the first ever for a private citizen.[16]
In 2005, some members of her family approached the coroner regarding the circumstances of her death. In 2006 an investigation was conducted by detectives from the major crime squad. In 2008probate was granted after a dispute over her will was resolved in the stateSupreme Court.
Shirley Strickland Reserve inArdross, a suburb of Perth, is named in her honour.
In 2001, she was inducted onto theVictorian Honour Roll of Women.[18] In 2011, Shirley was posthumously inducted into theWA Women's Hall of Fame, and in 2014, Strickland de la Hunty was inducted into theInternational Association of Athletics Federations'Hall of Fame
Commonwealth Games champions in women's100 metres hurdles | |
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| 80 metres hurdles (1934–1966) | |
| 100 metres hurdles (1970–present) |
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| International | |
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| People | |
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