1 Sep 2022

NZ Sporting History: Yvette Corlett's career

From Afternoons, 2:25 pm on 1 September 2022

Today's in NZ Sports History we're looking at Dame Yvette Corlett, the first woman from Aotearoa New Zealand to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the 1952 games in Helsinki.

70 years ago this year she jumped an incredible 6.24 metres using the hitch-kick technique, which was ground-breaking at the time.

Angela Walker wrote the biography "Ideals Are Like Stars: The Dame Yvette Williams' Story", she talks to Jesse about this amazing woman.

Cover of Yvette Corlett Biography "Ideals are like Stars" by Angela Walker (PHOTO: Supplied)

Yvette Williams being interviewed on Melbourne radio 3KZ along with (from left) Bert Sutcliffe (New Zealand Test cricketer), Reginald Arnold (Australian cyclist), Tony Charlton (Australian sports broadcaster), 1951. (PHOTO: CORLETT FAMILY COLLECTION)

Posing with her trophy collection in the studio of Dunedin photographer E. A. Phillips, 1951 (PHOTO: E. A. PHILLIPS)

Yvette Williams breaking the world record with a jump of 6.28 metres in Gisborne, 20 February 1954. (PHOTO: CORLETT FAMILY COLLECTION)