Christine's Story
Western Australian Christine Stanton was one of Australia’s most consistent female high jumpers of the 1970s and 1980s. Encouraged by her teachers, she began competing in senior athletics at 13 and became one of Australia’s early exponents of the Fosbury Flop. As 16-year-old Christine Annison, she won the 1976 national title and was initially selected for the Montreal Olympics, only for that selection to be overturned. Stanton made her Olympic debut at Moscow 1980, clearing 1.91 metres to finish equal sixth.
A serious ankle injury later threatened Stanton’s career and temporarily forced her to change her take-off leg. She recovered to win silver at the Brisbane 1982 Commonwealth Games before placing equal 11th at Los Angeles 1984. In 1985, she cleared a career-best 1.96 metres, then won Commonwealth Games gold in Edinburgh the following year. Stanton finished seventh at Seoul 1988 with an Olympic-best clearance of 1.93 metres. She won eight Australian high jump championships and one national long jump title and was inducted into the Western Australian Hall of Champions in 2000.
