Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman is an Aboriginal Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. Her personal best of 48.63 seconds currently ranks her as the ninth-fastest woman of all time, set while finishing second to Marie-José Pérec's number-four time at the 1996 Olympics. She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she had lit the Olympic Flame.
Mary Denise Rand, MBE is a British former track and field athlete. She won the long jump at the 1964 Summer Olympics by breaking the world record, the first British female to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field. Until Emma Finucane in 2024, she was the only British female athlete to win three medals in a single Games.
Tamsyn Carolyn Lewis is an Australian media personality and former track and field athlete who won a total of eighteen Australian Championships across the 400 metres, 800 metres and 400m hurdles. She first represented Australia in 1994, and won the 800 metres in the 2008 World Indoor Championships.
Debbie Arden Brill, is a Canadian high jump athlete who at the age of 16 became the first North American woman to clear 6 feet. Her reverse jumping style—which is now almost exclusively the technique of elite high jumpers—was called the Brill Bend and was developed by her when she was a child, around the same time as Dick Fosbury was developing the similar Fosbury Flop in the US. Brill won gold in the high jump at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, and at the Pan American Games in 1971. She finished 8th in the 1972 Summer Olympics, then quit the sport in the wake of the Munich massacre, returning three years later. She won gold at the IAAF World Cup in 1979 and at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. She has held the Canadian high jump record since 1969, and set the current record of 1.99 metres in 1982, a few months after giving birth to her first child.
Marlene Judith Mathews AO is a retired Australian Olympic sprinter. She has been described as 'one of Australia's greatest and unluckiest' champions.
Pamela Kilborn-Ryan, AM, MBE is an Australian former athlete who set world records as a hurdler. For three years, she was ranked as the world's top woman hurdler.
Dame Yvette Winifred Corlett was a New Zealand track-and-field athlete who was the first woman from her country to win an Olympic gold medal and to hold the world record in the women's long jump. Williams was named "Athlete of the Century" on the 100th anniversary of Athletics New Zealand, in 1987.
Bronwyn Thompson is an Australian former long jumper. She was the former Commonwealth record holder and holds the Australian record for the long jump. She has been ranked as high as number two in the world. Her greatest achievements include winning gold in the long jump at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and placing fourth at the 2004 Olympic Games. However, Thompson suffered numerous injury setbacks during her career and retired at the end of the 2008/09 Australian domestic season
Tasha De'Anka Danvers is a British Olympic bronze medallist, who finished in third place in the 400 metres hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She was born in London to two athletes, Dorrett McKoy and Donald Danvers, who both moved to the United Kingdom from Jamaica as children.
Steven Leslie Hooker OAM is an Australian former pole vaulter and Olympic gold medalist. His personal best, achieved in 2008, is 6.06 m making him the fourth-highest pole vaulter in history, behind Sergey Bubka, Renaud Lavillenie and Armand Duplantis.
Melinda Gainsford-Taylor is a retired Australian athlete, who specialised in sprint events.
Dianne Burge, OAM was an Australian sprinter who competed in two Olympic Games and won three gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. She was awarded the title South Australian 'Athlete of the Century' by Athletics South Australia. Burge died on 11 June 2024, at the age of 80.
Doris Jessie Carter, OBE was an Australian military officer, public servant, and athlete who specialised in the high jump. She was the first Australian female track and field athlete to compete in an Olympic Games final.
Athletics is a popular sport in Australia, with around 34,000 athletes, officials and coaches currently registered with the national association.
For the Scottish international footballer see Kris Commons
Angela Ballard is an Australian Paralympic athlete who competes in T53 wheelchair sprint events. She became a paraplegic at age 7 due to a car accident.
Jodi Elkington-Jones is an Australian athlete who has cerebral palsy. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and has also competed in two Commonwealth Games, winning gold in the 2014 Games in the F37/38 long jump. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in athletics.
Kim Annette Robertson is a New Zealand former track and field sprinter. She represented New Zealand at three Commonwealth Games, one World Indoor Championship, three IAAF World Cups and three Pacific Conference Games. She was also selected in the 1980 Moscow Olympic team in the 400 meters but did not compete due to the NZ Government boycotting the event.
Gordon Phillip Windeyer is an Australian former track and field athlete who competed in the high jump. He was the gold medallist in the event at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games, setting a games record mark. A three-time winner at the Australian Athletics Championships in the 1970s, he is a former Australian record holder with a best of 2.21 m.
Brandon Starc is an Australian high jumper. Starc currently trains in Sydney, Australia, under the guidance of his coach Alex Stewart. As a national representative and high achieving athlete, Starc is supported and represented through the New South Wales and Australian Institutes of Sport.
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