Athletics Australia – News – Strickland Hall of Fame honour

Australian triple Olympic gold medallist Shirley Strickland de la Hunty AO MBE has been afforded international athletics’ highest honour after being announced overnight as one of 12 legendary athletes to be inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame in Monaco (MON) later this month.

The late Strickland de la Hunty will enter the Hall along with 11 other legends of international athletics including American sprinter Wilma Rudolph, women’s 400m world record holder Marita Koch of the former East Germany and Finnish distance runner Lasse Viren.

The West Australian will join 2013 inductee Marjorie Nelson (nee Jackson) and her 1956 Olympic teammate Betty Cuthbert as the three Australian athletes elevated to Hall of Fame status by the IAAF.  She will become one of just 48 athletes in the history of the sport to be induced into the IAAF Hall of Fame.

Athletics Australia President David Grace QC said Strickland de la Hunty was a most worthy inclusion in the Hall.

“Shirley was a truly remarkable athlete and Athletics Australia recognised her phenomenal career when we inducted her into our own Hall of Fame in 2000,” Grace said. 

“She inspired the nation with her performances on the track and we are truly delighted that her accomplishments have now been recognised by the IAAF. Although Shirley passed away in 2004, we congratulate her family on this high honour to a remarkable Australian which is richly deserved.”

A hurdler and sprinter, Strickland de la Hunty was a triple Olympian and won an amazing seven Olympic medals – three gold, one silver and three bronze – across the Games of 1948, 1952 and 1956.  She also won three gold medals and two silver at the Commonwealth Games.

Strickland de la Hunty was a member of the silver medal winning Australian 4 x 100 metres relay team at the 1948 London Olympic Games, also winning bronze in the women’s 80 metre hurdles and 100m.  She narrowly missed a medal in the women’s 200m final in London (GBR), finishing fourth in a photo finish which was later hotly contested.

At the 1950 British Empire (Commonwealth) Games in Auckland (NZL), Strickland de la Hunty took gold in the women’s 80m hurdles as well as in the 440 yards and 660 yards medley relays. She also won silver in both the 100 yards and women’s 220 yards final.

She clinched her first individual Olympic gold medal by winning the women’s 80m hurdles final in 1952 in Helsinki (FIN) in a time of 11.01 seconds, also taking bronze in the women’s 100m final.  She rounded out her Olympic career at the home Games in Melbourne in 1956 by thrilling the crowd with gold medal performances in the 80m hurdles and the women’s 4x100m relay.

Strickland de La Hunty will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame by the IAAF during the 2014 World Athletics Gala on Friday 21 November.

To read a full biography of Strickland de la Hunty click here.

To see details on all 12 2015 IAAF Hall of Fame inductees click here.

2014 IAAF Hall of Fame Inductees

Valeriy Brumel, Glenn Davis, Heike Drechsler, Hicham El Guerrouj, Marita Koch, Robert Korzeniowski, Janis Lusis, Bob Mathias, Wilma Rudolph, Shirley Strickland de la Hunty, Lasse Viren, Cornelius Warmerdam

About the IAAF Hall of Fame

Inaugurated in 2012 as part of the IAAF’s centenary celebrations, the IAAF Hall of Fame welcomed 24 athletes in its first year, followed by 12 more athletes in 2013.

For the first 24 inductees, there was a set of strict minimum criteria of at least two Olympic or world titles plus at least one world record. This criteria was altered for 2013 and beyond to allow athletes whose achievements had an ‘extraordinary impact on our sport’ to be considered as well. All members must have been retired from the sport for a minimum of 10 years.

To keep the process as independent and as transparent as possible, the athletes considered for each induction are proposed by the IAAF Hall of Fame selection panel which consists of five athletics historians, all long-standing members of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians (ATFS) including its president. The panel is chaired by IAAF senior vice president Bob Hersh, who has himself been a member of the ATFS for more than 35 years.

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