SYDNEY, 18 February 2004 — Australia’s most successful Olympic track-and-field athlete Shirley da la Huntey, who ran under the name Shirley Strickland, died in her Perth home yesterday aged 78, the Australian Olympic Committee said.
AOC President John Coates described de la Huntey as an Australian track legend.
She was the first female athlete to win back-to-back Olympic finals, clinching gold in the 80 meters hurdles at the 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne Games.
She added another gold in the 4x100 meters at Melbourne and finished her career with a total of seven Olympic medals from three Games, more than any other Australian athlete.
“Shirley was a legend of the track, one of our greatest-ever Olympians,” Coates said in a statement.
“We extend our deepest sympathy to Shirley’s family. When she finished running Shirley made a significant contribution to sport as a coach and an administrator.”
Athletics Australia chief executive Simon Allatson said Strikland’s death was a loss for the sporting world and the Olympic movement.
“She was an icon in Australian Olympic sport throughout her career but particularly in the period when she competed in the late 40s and through to the Melbourne Olympics in 1956,” he said.
“And she won medals in 1948, 1952 and 1956, she had an outstanding athletics record and career so certainly we’re deeply saddened within this sport but I would imagine her loss would be felt throughout the Olympic movement.” Allatson said she was one of Australia’s greatest athletes — a fact which had been recognized with her induction into the Hall of Fame.
“Clearly she is one of our very best athletes ever produced by this country,” he said.
She is survived by four children and 15 grandchildren.
Drug-Tainted Toth Quits Athletics
In San Jose, California, American shot putter Kevin Toth, who tested positive for the banned stimulant modafinil and the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), has given up athletics, the San Jose Mercury News reported yesterday.
“This thing has been dragging on. It is hard to prepare for the Olympics while this is hanging over your head,” his lawyer Howard Jacobs told the paper.
“If he is retiring and still fighting it is because he strongly believes that he didn’t do anything wrong.”
Jacobs said Toth still intended to clear his name by proving that neither THG nor modafinil were on the list of banned substances when he tested positive and that athletics authorities could not scientifically prove the substances enhance performance.
Last April Toth threw 22.67m, the best distance since Randy Barnes threw a world record 23.12m in 1990.
