The latest weekend Australian Magazine carries a moving feature article by Trent Dalton about Australia's Golden Girl , Betty Cuthbert , who has had multiple sclerosis for 46 years , looked after the past 24 years by a remarkable friend , Rhonda Gillam, in Western Australia.
By Peter Simon
Fast Betty
|
It makes particularly melancholy reading for me as I was a pupil at the Ermington Public School, Sydney , when she attended with her twin sister, Marie . I had an early interest in photography then and took shots of Betty and Marie at a sports meeting. Unfortunately , Marie was out of focus and cropped .
Years before she became famous at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics , winning three Gold Medals in track events , this is Betty with an Ermington rosette . Even then the Cuthbert twins could run like the wind , especially Betty .
Years before she became famous at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics , winning three Gold Medals in track events , this is Betty with an Ermington rosette . Even then the Cuthbert twins could run like the wind , especially Betty .
Her family ran a nursery not far from the school and had a large brother , John, who worked there ; in recent years a rose has been named after Betty. The nursery overlooked the Parramatta River and fumes from petro-chemical plants and other factories... paint , even pickles wafted across to Ermington.
When I left the school and went to high school , I caught the train daily from West Ryde to the city , crossing the Parramatta River , the often searing fumes encountered along the way. Over the years I have wondered if the discharges from these factories played a part in Betty's illness.
At high school , I took up long distance running, attended an after school coaching class not far from where Betty trained and took part in cross country races . My minor fame to sporting prowess was that I was a member of the 1953 North Newtown Intermediate High School athletic team , winners of the Mick Simmons Trophy for the champion school at the combined intermediate school carnival.
Moving away from Ermington and beginning work on a Sydney newspaper, I noticed Betty's rise to fame in Australian track events. After her wins at the Melbourne Olympics Betty was given a huge mayoral reception at Parramatta, special mention made of "spastic children " in the crowd. Now this once great, inspiring athlete is confined to a wheelchair , hardly able to speak or move .
In the 1960s I caught up with her in New Zealand when she was making a triumphant tour and I was a reporter on the Rotorua Post , a photograph of us together , above , run in the paper , with me recalling how the Cuthberts embarrassingly beat me and other boys in annual races to find the fastest sprinters at Ermington . She was on her third visit to New Zealand and working on her book, Golden Girl, the story of her rise to fame and views on training .
The main street in the Ermington shopping centre is named Betty Cuthbert Avenue and there is a statue of her in full, open-mouthed running style at the Melbourne Cricket Ground .
Moving away from Ermington and beginning work on a Sydney newspaper, I noticed Betty's rise to fame in Australian track events. After her wins at the Melbourne Olympics Betty was given a huge mayoral reception at Parramatta, special mention made of "spastic children " in the crowd. Now this once great, inspiring athlete is confined to a wheelchair , hardly able to speak or move .
The main street in the Ermington shopping centre is named Betty Cuthbert Avenue and there is a statue of her in full, open-mouthed running style at the Melbourne Cricket Ground .
