Betty Cuthbert

Betty Cuthbert, born Elizabeth Alyse Cuthbert on 20 April 1938 and died on 6 August 2017, was an Australian sprinter and a four-time Olympic champion, nicknamed Australia's Golden Girl. Born in Merrylands, New South Wales, she grew up in Ermington and worked in her family's nursery. At the 1956 Melbourne Games, aged eighteen, she won the 100 m and the 200 m and ran the final leg of the Australian 4 x 100 m relay, which won in a world record. Injury ended her 1960 Rome Games in the 100 m quarterfinals and she retired, but she returned and won the 400 m at the 1964 Tokyo Games, the first Olympics to hold that event for women, for her fourth gold. She is the only Olympian, male or female, to win gold in the 100, 200 and 400 metres. She set world records from 60 metres to 440 yards, lived with multiple sclerosis from 1969, and was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame as a Legend in 1994.