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Profile - Raelene Boyle
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Raelene Boyle was one of Australia's most successful athletes but also one of the unluckiest. Though she won seven Commonwealth Games gold medals and three Olympic silvers in a career lasting from 1968 to 1982, Raelene was never able to achieve her aim of Olympic Gold. Raelene Boyle was born into a working class family in the suburbs of Melbourne. Her family were keen sports and were serious cyclists; Raelene's brother Ron represented Australia in the 1976 Olympic cycling team. |
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Raelene Boyle burst on the scene in the Australian season of 67/68 as a naive sixteen year old amateur and suprised everyone with great performances at the 1968 Australian Championships and Olympic trials. Raelene took out the Junior 100m and 200m and ran a strong 4th in a very fast 200m race. Throughout the championships Boyle had run six Olympic qualifying times for the 100m and 200m and she was rewarded by her selection in the Olympic team. The shy youngster was homesick while in Mexico City for the 1968 Olympics and found some aspects of Olympic life overwhelming. She was expected to be Australia's number three sprinter in a very strong squad. Commonwealth Champion Diane Burge was world-ranked 3 and 2 for the 100m/200m in 1967 and another teenager, Jenny Lamy was ranked 7 and 4 in the same events. She showed cool nerves running huge personal best times to win through to both the 100m and 200m finals. In the 100m final, she rang a strong race to figure in a photofinish for third place. An official told Boyle she had won the bronze medal, but just before the medal ceremony, Boyle was devastated to find she had been officially placed fourth behind Americans Wyomia Tyus and Barbara Ferrell. The US sprinters had confused Boyle just before the final by performing 'strange exercises' at the starting line. The Americans explained they were limbering up with a dance called the 'Tighten Up'. After the disappointment of the 100 final Boyle vowed to 'beat those bloody yanks in the 200'. She achieved her goal in style, smashing her personal best and the Olympic record en route to the final. She battled gamely to win the silver medal behind the great Polish champion, Irena Szewinska who ran a new world record. Boyle smashed the Commonwealth and World Junior records in second and another Australian youngster Jenny Lamy took the bronze medal in her best ever time. The Australian team of Boyle, Lamy, Burge teamed with the world number one hurdler Pam Kilborn looked likely to be the only challengers to the all-conquering American team. Shortly before the Games, it was discovered that officials had failed to enter Kilborn's name in the entries and she had to be replaced with 400m runner Joyce Bennett. Bennett was a very competent sprinter but sessions of baton changing practice were wasted.
In the event, the Australian team ran well setting two new Commonwealth records, but they could only finish fifth. After the Games, Raelene returned home and continued to run in junior events which earned the scorn of some commentators. Regardless she achieved a rare 100m/200m/400m treble at the 1969 Australian Junior Championships and was selected to run the 200/400 double at the inaugural Pacific Conference Games. At these Games in Tokyo, Boyle won the 200m after being disqualified from the 400m (in which she had run second) for allegedly running out of her lane. Raelene used the disqualification for additional motivation in her 200m and later added another Gold medal with the 4x100m relay team. At the age of eighteen she won her first individual national titles, taking the 1970 100m and 200m titles in 11.1 and 22.9 respectively. These were the fastest times ever clocked in Australia and Boyle won the sprint double for the next three years. She was selected in the 1970 Commonwealth Games team and came away from Edinhurgh with three gold medals for her efforts in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. While competing in domestic events, Boyle had experienced some problems relating to officials and took the opportunity in 1971 to tour the United States for competition. In the 1972 Munich Games, Boyle was expected to be one of Australia's best chances for a gold medal at the track. She ran consistently in the 100m rounds but was no match for the muscular, powerful East German champion Renate Stecher. Boyle thought her chance might come in the 200m but her preparation was interrupted by the Black September terrorists who invaded the Munich Olympic village and killed a number of Israeli hostages. When the 200m resumed, Boyle was content to cruise through to the final and save her energies for an all out sprint in the final. Boyle was able to hold on to the all-powerful Renate Stecher and even seemed to make headway in the straight, but was unable to catch the German who set a new world record with her 22.40 time. Boyle had to be content with a Commonwealth record of 22.45 and beating the old world record-holder and Olympic Champion, Irena Szewinska. In 1973 Boyle was again selected in the 1973 Pacific Conference Games. She won gold medals in both 100m and 4x100m events at these championships, but was surprisingly beaten by Denise Robertson in the 200m. Robertson, from Queensland, was to become Boyle's arch-rival throughout the seventies and is better known by her married name of Denise Boyd. In the Commonwealth Games selection trials late in 1973, Robertson had run 100m in a Commonwealth record time of 11.0 and took the spotlight away from Boyle in the lead up to the Christchurch Games. Boyle had suffered injuries during the Canadian PCG tour and had to ask the selectors for more time to prove her fitness. In Christchurch her form was as good as ever. She beat the favourites Andrea Lynch (England) and Denise Robertson with a phenomonal start in the 100m final and later returned to down Robertson and Ghana's Alice Annum in the 200m. Her time in the 200m was her second fastest of all-time (22.50) and although Robertson had set a PB of her own, she was well behind Boyle. Boyle became only the second woman (after Marjorie Jackson) to repeat a 100m/200m double and also won a third gold in the 4x100m relay final. Her victory celebrations after her wins made her one of the superstars of the Games.
Raelene Boyle was back to her best in the 1974 Commonwealth Games After her Commonwealth Games success, Boyle took time out to have surgery and missed the 1974 Australian titles. She travelled to London in 1974, staying with her friend and rival Andrea Lynch in London. Boyle seemed to have recovered from her injuries when she won the British National 100m and 200m championships beating her friend Lynch. Further problems kept her out of domestic competition until late 1975 when she returned to the track to resume her rivalry with Denise Robertson and try to earn Olympic selection. She started off the Olympic year of 1976 with a bang, joining Queenslanders Robertson, Barbara Wilson and Sue Jowett in setting a new world record for the 4x200m relay. Though she was beaten by Denise Robertson throughout the season, Boyle again produced the goods in the National Championships winning the 100m and 200m comprehensively from Robertson and the 14 year old 'Emmaville Express', Debbie Wells. Now coached by Olympic legend Shirley Strickland-dela Hunty in Perth, Boyle prepared for the Montreal Games with enthusiasm. Just prior to leaving Australia for the Games, Boyle ran a fast 22.6 for 200m in Sydney and looked likely to add to her tally of Olympic medals. In the Montreal Games, Boyle was awarded the honour of carrying the Olympic flag in the Opening Ceremony. This was the first time a woman had ever been chosen for this rare role. When the sprint competition began in Montreal, with the 100m, Boyle cruised through her heats comfortably. She ran her fastest ever time (at sea-level) in the semi-final with an 11.22 run. This performance was not helped by a slow start after Raelene had false-started in the semi. She false-started again in the 100m final and did not get away well when the race commenced. She ran a game fourth in 11.23 seconds behind the strong East and West German trio of Annegret Richter, Renate Stecher and Inge Helten. She re-focussed herself on the 200m and looked one of
the form athletes through the rounds. In the semi-final she had the
misfortune to be disqualified for false starting twice. Boyle was
furious and appealed against the decision to no avail. Devastated, she
was consoled by friends and her brother Ron, who was also in the
Olympic team. Barbel Eckert (Wockel) won the 200m final. Silver
medallist Annegret Richter, speaking on behalf of the medalists said
all had considered Boyle to be a medal chance. Richter had picked
Boyle as the favourite.
Raelene continued running in Montreal and helped the Australian
4x100m relay team of Barbara Wilson, Debbie Wells, Denise Robertson
and Boyle to fifth place and set an Australian record of 43.18 that
would last for 24 years.
She became motivated again early in 1977 when Montreal Olympic
Champions Annegret Richter (100m) and Irena Szewinska (400m) competed
in a series of meets in Australia. Boyle beat both champions over
their favorite distances and looked to be at her best again. She was
selected in the inaugural 1977 World Cup team for 100m/200m and 4x100m
relay,but only ended up running in the relay event after a
disagreement with officials.
Official troubles continued through the 1977/78 season when she was
overlooked for selection in the 1977 Pacific Conference Games in
Canberra and refused full funding to attend the 1978 Commonwealth
Games trials in Brisbane. At the trials she beat Denise Boyd in a
hotly contested 100m race but could not hold off her rival over 200m.
As in 1974, both Boyd and Boyle were selected for both Commonwealth
Games sprints and the relay.
In Edmonton, Boyle and Boyd appeared the gold medal favourites
through the rounds and both won their semi-final races comfortably. In
the final, England's talented Sonia Lannaman, who had run poorly in
the heats, managed a suprise victory. Running from an inside lane,
Boyle and Boyd (alongside each other in Lanes Seven and Eight) were
unable to notice the English sprinter running away with the title.
Boyle took the silver medal, just ahead of Boyd but was unable to take
part in the 200m final or relay due to injuries.
After her disappointment in Edmonton, Raelene Boyle considered her
future. With the aid of new coach Ron Dewhurst, she decided to
concentrate seriously on the 400m for the first time. This paid
immediate dividends in 1980 where she dominated the 400m in Australia
and earned a berth on her fourth Olympic team. The Jimmy Carter led
Western boycott of the Moscow Olympics and political pressures within
Australia led to Boyle withdrawing from the Olympic team.
She came back in 1982 determined to go out on a high with a seventh
Commonwealth Gold medal. She broke the national 400m record while
preparing for the Brisbane Games and was a warm favourite for the
championship. In the 1982 Games, she was dominant in the 400m final
and again became Australia's most loved female athlete. She won a
further silver medal in the 4x400m relay before retiring from the
sport.
Raelene Boyle has mixed sports commentary, coaching and landscape
gardening in her career since 1982. In 1996 she was diagnosed with
breast cancer and today is a spokesperson raising awareness about the
disease and assisting with fund-raising endeavours.
More about Raelene Boyle - COMING SOON!!
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