Norma's Story
1934 -
Norma Croker finished fourth in the 200 metres at Melbourne 1956, behind Betty Cuthbert, Christa Stubnick (Germany) and Marlene Mathews. The German team at Melbourne comprised representatives from West and East Germany, with Stubnick hailing from East Germany. The medallists in the women’s 100m and 200m were the same, and in identical order. This occurrence is unique in these events, for men and women, at the Olympic Games.
In the 4x100m relay, Croker joined with Cuthbert, Shirley Strickland and Fleur Mellor to claim the gold medal from Great Britain and the United States and to create a new world record of 44.5 seconds. Mathews, the bronze medallist in the 100 and 200m was somewhat surprisingly omitted from the relay team. A member of the United States team was Wilma Rudolph who at Rome 1960 would win three gold medals in the 100 and 200 metres and the 4 x 100 metres relay. Croker won her gold medal a week before David Theile won his in the 100 metres backstroke. Hence, she became the first Queenslander to win an Olympic gold medal. At Rome 1960 Croker, now competing as Norma Fleming, was eliminated in the preliminary rounds of the 200m and the relay and finished fifteenth in the long jump.
