When Raelene Boyle made Betty Cuthbert cry

By Peter Fitzsimons
Updated January 20 2018 - 11:33am, first published 8:52am

It was one of the great moments in Australian sport. You see, when Raelene Boyle won gold in her last race, at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games in 1982 - roaring home in the 400 metres - the stadium roared even as the nation came to a standstill. Raelene, a beloved figure, denied gold in the previous two Olympics at the hands of East Germans (say no more), had at least and at last had the perfect finish. And who has been organised to present the medal at such an emotion-charged, proud, national moment? Why, none other than Betty Cuthbert! Betty, a legend of her own time, had three Olympic gold medals to her credit from a quarter-century earlier, before she had contracted multiple sclerosis - which is why she is now, in 1982, mostly wheelchair-bound. But not for this occasion! No, to give Raelene her medal, Betty is determined to do it on her own two feet, and now, painfully, slowly, makes her way forward unaided right to the dais in the centre of the stadium. As the crowd roars even more, she presents the bronze and silver medals, and now reaches up with the gold medal to put it around the neck of the crowd's heroine, while the big screen flashes the very words the announcer is intoning to the stadium, "RAELENE - OUR GOLDEN GIRL".

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