Dorothy Tyler joins athletics Hall of Fame

by Sam Munnery

sam.munnery@essnmedia.co.uk

BRITISH high jump legend Dorothy Tyler MBE has hailed her entry into the England Athletics Hall of Fame as the "icing on the cake" of her glittering career.

The double Olympic silver medallist, who became the first British woman to have won an Olympic athletics medal in 1936, was honoured at a star-studded ceremony in Birmingham last Sunday.

Mrs Tyler, now 89, was inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside some of the most famous names in athletics, including Jonathan Edwards, Steve Backley, Steve Cram, Ron Pickering and Ann Packer.

Her career featured two Olympic silver medals, one at the Berlin Games in 1936, aged 16, and another in London in 1948. She also equalled the world record in 1936, although it was never officially ratified, before breaking it by clearing 1.66 metres three years later.

But for all she achieved, Mrs Tyler said that being part of England Athletics Hall of Fame was "very important" to her.

"This is the icing on the cake," she admitted. "I'm now one of only four women in the Hall of Fame, alongside Mary Rand, Ann Packer and Sally Gunnell.

"It puts me up with Seb Coe and Roger Bannister - although Roger Bannister had two people helping him [when he broke the four-minute mile barrier in 1954]."

Mrs Tyler, who lives in Sanderstead, can look back on an outstanding athletics career despite it straddling the Second World War.

In 1938, aged 17, she won the Empire Games title in Sydney before breaking the world record the year after.

After marriage and an enforced absence of eight years due to the war, she made an astonishing comeback and again went tantalisingly close to Olympic victory in London in 1948.

In 1950 she retained the Empire Games title after a gap of 12 years and placed second in the European Championships with the same height as the winner, her team-mate Sheila Alexander.

Coached by Arthur Gold, she changed her style from the outmoded scissors to the western roll in 1951 and placed equal seventh at the 1952 Olympics before winning another silver at the Commonwealth Games two years later.

A fine all-rounder, she won the WAAA long jump and pentathlon titles in 1951, setting a British record in the latter.

She later became a coach, official and British team manager as well as taking up golf, winning the national over-80 title three times, and still maintains a keen interest in athletics.