Betty Cuthbert, Australia’s “golden girl” of track and field, revered for her Olympic gold-medal feats and then her long and spirited struggle against multiple sclerosis, has died in Western Australia. She was 79.
Her death was confirmed on Sunday by Athletics Australia, the national governing body, which said she died overnight. The newspaper The Australian said she died south of Perth. She had been living in a nursing home in that area.
When she burst from the blocks at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Cuthbert, a shy 18-year-old with golden hair, was little known in the world of elite sprinters, despite having set a world record in the 200 meters.