Shirley Strickland de la Hunty

Shirley Strickland de la Hunty (born July 18, 1925, Guildford, Western Australia—found dead February 16, 2004, Perth) was an athlete from Australia who won seven Olympic medals between 1948 and 1956, in an era when Australian women dominated track events.

Strickland first competed at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, where she won a silver medal as a member of the Australian 4 × 100-meter-relay team that finished a tenth of a second behind the winner. She also earned bronze medals in the 100-meter sprint and 80-meter hurdles and was credited with a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter race. A photo-finish print of that event, published in 1976, revealed that she had in fact finished third and should have been awarded a bronze medal.

In 1950 Strickland married geologist Laurence de la Hunty. At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Strickland de la Hunty became the first woman to run the 80-meter hurdles in less than 11 seconds, winning a gold medal with a time of 10.9 sec; she also earned a bronze medal in the 100-meter sprint. At the 1956 Games in Melbourne, she won gold medals in the 80-meter hurdles (10.7 sec) and the 4 × 100-meter relay. Her seven medals set a record for most medals won by a female competitor in Olympic athletics competition; Polish sprinter Irena Szewińska tied the mark in 1976. Strickland de la Hunty also set a world record in the 100-meter run (11.3 sec) in 1955 and won two gold and two silver medals in the Commonwealth Games and three Australian championships in the 440-yard run.

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After she retired from competition, Strickland de la Hunty helped manage the Australian women’s Olympic teams in 1968 and 1976. Aside from her involvement with athletics, she was a lecturer in physics and mathematics at Perth Technical College. In 1957 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). In addition, she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 and promoted to the status of Legend of Australian Sport 10 years later.

Along with other notable female Olympians from Australia, Strickland de la Hunty was given the honor of carrying the Olympic torch at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. She was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2001 and was inducted into the Western Australia Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011. Her image was featured on a commemorative Australian postage stamp in 1998.

On February 16, 2004, Strickland de la Hunty was found dead in her home. It was believed that she had died several days earlier, possibly on February 11. The coroner attributed her death to natural causes.