Olympian, Judy Pollock, addresses Rotary Club

Judy, whose vocational career was as a school teacher, spoke of her early years growing up in Mt. Macedon that fuelled her love of running.  Her feature race was the 400 yd and 800 yd events but she also competed at the 1500 m distance.  Over her career she attended three Olympic Games - Tokyo in 1964, Munich in 1972 and Montreal in 1976.  She has won an Olympic Bronze Medal in 1964 where, as Judy Amoore, she finished third behind Betty Cuthbert at the first staging of the women's 400m at Tokyo 1964.

 

Later Amoore (Pollock) became world record holder in the 440 yards and 880 yards and next competed at Montreal 1976 when, at 36 she made the semi-finals of the 800m and broke 2 minutes for the race. She was not competing for Mexico City 1968 and injury precluded her from competing at Munich 1972 although she was selected in the team.

 

Over her career Judy has established a number of Australian and World records and one of those records stood for 36 years.  In other years she has competed and won gold and silver medals in various Commonwealth (Empire) games as well as World Masters Games in Toronto in 1985.

 

Judy spoke of her love of running and her constant striving to be a better runner.  She just competed and trained to better herself.  In her early years there was not the sponsorship or funding for athletes that there is nowadays so she spoke of the difficult, early days to get to major competitions.

 

The terror attacks on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich are ever present in her memory. She was staying in the athletes village when the horror of the attacks put a dark cloud on the Olympics.

 

All Rotarians present at the Dinner meeting thoroughly enjoyed Judy's talk and insight into her remarkable athletics career, her lasting friendships with other great Aussie athletes like Ron Clark, Betty Cuthbert and Raelene Boyle. 

 

 

 

For more details on Judy's career go to .....