Betty Cuthbert

Betty Cuthbert (actually Elizabeth Alyse Cuthbert, born April 20, 1938 in Sydney, Australia ) is a former Australian athlete, the 1956 and 1964 a total of four times Olympic champion. It is according to the number of gold medals one of the six most successful track and field athletes of all time (as of 2012).

Career

Cuthbert began only in high school with the sprint training and ran in the spring of 1956 in 23.2 s world record in the 200 -meter run. This made ​​her the favorite at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in the same year. First, however, she started in Melbourne in the 100 - meter race in which her ​​compatriot and experienced Olympian Shirley Strickland de la Hunty was a world record holder, the clear favorite. It was equivalent to a sensation when Strickland already eliminated in the heats. Cuthbert eventually won the final, and their first gold medal. With this surprising success behind them, the gold medal was easy to win over 200 meters. Your third gold medal she won the Australian 4 x 100 - meter relay.

At the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 their special disciplines was dominated 100 and 200 meters from the US-American Wilma Rudolph. Cuthbert difference at 100 meters already in the heats of, entered not more than 200 meters and finished her career for the time being.

In the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1962 in Perth, she came back on the international athletics stage - this time about 400 meters. This change paid off, and Betty Cuthbert won the 400m her fourth Olympic gold medal at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

In 1979 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. At a wheelchair dependent, she was one of the bearers of the Olympic torch at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. 2012 Cuthbert was included in the IAAF Hall of Fame.

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