Shirley Strickland (now Shirley De La Hunty) (born July 18 1925 in Northam, Western Australia) has won more Olympic medals than any other Australian in athletics.
Strickland graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Science in 1945 and, in 1946, won honours with physics.
In the 1948 Olympics in London, Strickland finished third in both the 100m and 80m hurdles and won silver in the 4x100m relay.
In the 1952 Games in Helsinki she earnt a gold medal in the 80m hurdles, blitzing the field in world record time of 10.9seconds. An unfortunate baton mix up cost her her second gold in the 4x100m relay.
She set a new world record of 11.3 sec for the 100m in Poland in 1955.
In the 1956 Olympics she won gold again in the 80m Hurdles and in the 4x100m relay team.
She maintained her Olympic involvement in athlete administration with the Australian teams, during the 1968 and 1976 Olympics in Mexico City and Montreal. She has also been active in politics: standing as a candidate for the Australian Democrats and being a spokesperson for a number of environmental groups.
