Raelene the Rebel

[kitkat1]

PART OF A RAELENE BOYLE BIO ON THE ATHS AUSTRALIA WEBSITE . . .

At the Adelaide national championships she qualified for sprints at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where she finished fourth in the 100 metres — missing out on a bronze medal in a photo finish — then won silver in the 200 metres. The woman who beat her in that race, Poland’s Irena Swezinska, was one of the enduring champions, a woman who later equalled Strickland’s record tally of seven Olympic medals.

It was during those Games of 1968, when Boyle had not long turned 17, that Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, watched the young Australian sprinter in action and offered the opinion: “I have not seen a girl so beautifully balanced.”

Balanced she was on the track, but there were some rough edges to the youthful Raelene — some of them uncannily reminiscent of the early Dawn Fraser. As a little girl growing up close to Pentridge Jail, she hated wearing dresses, loved beating up boys, knocked around with her brothers Rick and Ron, played street cricket with rubbish-tin wickets, and swiftly learned to swear with flair. She was a natural non-conformist with a stubborn streak, and she quickly developed an aversion to over-zealous administrators.

Amateur officialdom was never too tolerant of rebels, whatever their talent — and Boyle found herself in trouble for all kinds of alleged misdemeanours. Just a few of the accusations against her were that she looked over her shoulder during races, grabbed the finishing tape with both hands, walked barefoot in inappropriate places, wore frayed jeans, ran backwards in competition, swore after a race and failed to wear her registered number. Of course, she also happened to win often.

She was reprimanded, even suspended — but never subdued. Ever defiant, never diplomatic, she once took to wearing a bright-red T-shirt emblazoned with the words: I RUN FOR FUN.

[pierrejean]

I love her biography, a strongly recommended book. Mexico so young so fast, München, she had a lot to say about Stecher, Montreal the disqualification, Moscow the individual boycott, then more recently the other battles…

[Pioneer]

I had/have(?) the track and field book Boyle wrote with Ron Clarke doing the forward. Quite an excellent book for people of varying track and field experiences and full of great photos.

[kitkat1]

@Pioneer

I had/have(?) the track and field book Boyle wrote with Ron Clarke doing the forward. Quite an excellent book for people of varying track and field experiences and full of great photos.

Pioneer, which book was that?

I had an early paperback called “Run Raelene Rage” which was basically a document of all the bother she got herself into. Funny girl. Bloody talented, competitive.

Apparently video of the Montreal 76 Olympic 200m start showed she did not break the first time she was called, which presumably unsettled her enough to actually break the second time and get disqualified in the final. I don’t know but I wonder if she would have won that final had she been allowed to start. She said somewhere that most of her training under the coaching of Shirley Strickland had been toward the 200. She was fourth in the Montreal 100m.

[Pioneer]

@kitkat1

Pioneer, which book was that?

I had an early paperback called “Run Raelene Rage” which was basically a document of all the bother she got herself into. Funny girl. Bloody talented, competitive.

Apparently video of the Montreal 76 Olympic 200m start showed she did not break the first time she was called, which presumably unsettled her enough to actually break the second time and get disqualified in the final. I don’t know but I wonder if she would have won that final had she been allowed to start. She said somewhere that most of her training under the coaching of Shirley Strickland had been toward the 200. She was fourth in the Montreal 100m.

KitKat, I can’t recall the name though I tried to search for it on the net, today. The copy I had was a hard back but only about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch thick. Great pictures of Borzov/Robert Taylor in the Munich 100, Geoff Capes, Victor Saneyev, Matthews/Collett in the 400, Thomas Munkelt/Guy Drut/Thomas Hill in the 110h, and though I’m not a big middle distance fan the fanastic photo of Kip Keino vs. Pekka Vasala(sp?) in full extension of their respective kicks at the end of the Munich 1500, etc.etc.

[kitkat1]

There was a hardcover book called something like Athletics The Australian Way which I found a copy of. They had champions of the day explaining how to do an event. I remember Raelene Boyle saying “sprinting is taking long steps fast”, which probably messed up a generation of young sprinters who died trying to take a Tommie Smith-like 3-metre stride at a Jim Hines-like turnover.

[Pioneer]

@kitkat1

There was a hardcover book called something like Athletics The Australian Way which I found a copy of. They had champions of the day explaining how to do an event. I remember Raelene Boyle saying “sprinting is taking long steps fast”, which probably messed up a generation of young sprinters who died trying to take a Tommie Smith-like 3-metre stride at a Jim Hines-like turnover.

That’s probably the same book.

Nothing like some “sound” advice to keep your opponents struggling with the bounding strides .

In the book, there were illustrations of various exercises they recomended for each event. I think they also mentioned Cerutty/Elliott, Lydiard possibly.