Marlene Mathews

Marlene Judith Mathews AO (later Willard; born 14 July 1934) is a retired Australian Olympic sprinter. She has been described as 'one of Australia's greatest and unluckiest' champions.^[why?]

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.

In 1954, recovered from her injuries, Mathews ran second to Jackson in the National 100 yards championship (and third in the 220 yards) 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 (gold) and German Christa Stubnick (silver).

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.