Marlene Mathews


Marlene Judith Mathews AO is a retired Australian Olympic sprinter. She has been described as 'one of Australia's greatest and unluckiest' champions.

Early career

Mathews attended Fort Street High School in Sydney and began competing in athletics in the late 1940s.
At the 1950 Australian Championships, she placed fourth, behind Shirley Strickland, in the 80 m hurdles and ran in the winning state relay team, but was not selected for the 1950 British Empire Games team.
A few days after her 16th birthday at the NSW Championships, she ran a great race at the New South Wales Championships 100 yards final, placing second to world record-holder Marjorie Jackson and beating four members of the Australian Empire Games team, including Olympic medalist Strickland.
Mathews was considered a certainty to gain selection to the 1952 Summer Olympics before a leg injury forced her out of competition.

International career

In 1954, recovered from her injuries, she ran second to Jackson in the National 100 yards championship and was duly selected to run in her first international championships at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. She was unlucky again, breaking down injured in her heat of the 100 yards.
At the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, she won two bronze medals, over 100 metres and 200 metres. In both races she was beaten by countrywoman Betty Cuthbert and German Christa Stubnick.
In a controversial move, she was left out of the gold-medal winning Australian 4×100 metres relay team as she was 'not considered a good relay runner" but soon after the Games she assisted an Australian team to world records for 4×200 metres and 4×220 yards relay events.
She proved her versatility in the sprint events by setting a new world record at 400 metres with 57.0 seconds on 6 January 1957.
On 20 March 1958, at the Australian Championships, she set a new world record over 100 yards with 10.3 seconds, and two days later she ran 220 yards in 23.4 seconds and set another world record. In both races, she defeated world-record holder and Olympic champion Cuthbert.
At the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, Mathews took out the 100 yards and 220 yards, again beating Cuthbert. She was ranked #1 in the world for both 100 metres and 200 metres in both 1957 and 1958.
Mathews' final competition was at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where she was eliminated in the 100 metres semi-finals.

Personal details and honours

Mathews married fireman Barry Willard in 1958 but they later separated. She was an assistant manager of the Australian Olympic Team at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. She became a Member of the Order of Australia in 1979 for her services to athletics, and an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1999. Mathews was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 and into the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame in 2010. In 1993, the State Transit Authority named a RiverCat ferry after Matthews. In 2018 a bronze sculpture of her was unveiled at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, Australia. This makes them the first female athletes added to the bronze sculptures in the Sydney Cricket Ground precinct.

Statistics

Personal bests
EventTimeWindPlaceDate
100 y10.30.0Sydney, Australia20 March 1958
100 m11.5–Sydney, Australia10 March 1956
200 m23.40.0Sydney, Australia22 March 1958
220 y23.40.0Sydney, Australia22 March 1958
400 m57.0–Sydney, Australia6 January 1957
440 y57.0–Sydney, Australia6 January 1957

World Records
EventTimePlaceDate
100 y10.3Sydney, Australia20 March 1958
200 m23.4Sydney, Australia22 March 1958
400 m57.0Sydney, Australia6 January 1957
440 y57.0Sydney, Australia6 January 1957
4 × 200 m1–36.3Sydney, Australia5 December 1956
4 × 220 y1–36.3Sydney, Australia5 December 1956

World Rankings – 100m and 200m – rankings commenced in 1956.
YearEventRanking
1956100m3
200m4
1957100m1
200m1
1958100m1
200m1
1959100m2
1960100m9

Australian Championships Record – prior to 1963 Championships were held every two years
Year100y220y80m hurdles4×110y relay
1950––41
1952––––
195423–1
195632–1
195811–1
19603DNQ–2