Kathy Watt…gold medalist for the women’s road race, Barcelona 1992
Steve Bradbury: Last Man Standing
Australia’s first Winter Olympic gold medallist recounts his career and the events relating to his win in the 1000 metres men’s short track skating final at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics
Lawrie Lawrence: swim coach of two gold medalists…Jon Sieben (Los Angeles 1984) and Duncan Armstrong (Seoul 1988)
Three Australian Olympians at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics with Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira.
From left: Betty Cuthbert, Albert Namatjira, Marlene Mathews, Gloria Cook
John Devitt…gold medallist freestyle swimmer from the Melbourne 1956 Olympics (4x200 metres men’s relay) and Rome 1960 Olympics (100 metres freestyle)
Frank Beaurepaire: multi-medalist over three Summer Olympics (London 1908, Antwerp 1920 and Paris 1924), Beaurepaire won 3 silvers and 3 bronze in freestyle swimming events from 100 metres up to 1500 metres. Beaurepaire latterly played an important role in the Melbourne 1956 Olympic bid.
THE FITZ FILES
Illustration: John Shakespeare
OUR “Golden Girl”, Betty Cuthbert - the star of the 1956 Olympics - returned last Thursday from Barcelona, where she became the first Australian to be inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame. For the past three years she has been in a nursing home in Mandurah, south of Perth, with multiple sclerosis and, it is for this reason it took no less than her great friend Rhonda Gillam and two professional carers to get her to Europe for the gala occasion. The highlight of the night, for her, came when the most famous inductee of all, Usain Bolt - the fastest human on the planet - came across, bowed, touched her tenderly on the shoulder and exclaimed: “Four Olympic gold medals and 16 world records … Wow! … you sure could run.” Betty says the ceremony was surely the pinnacle of her sporting life.
Dale Begg-Smith (the most successful Australian Winter Olympian, with 1 gold medal and 1 silver: Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010 respectively)
