Betty Beazley (née Judge; 21 March 1921 – 13 September 2015), known as Betty Judge during her career, was an Australian

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

world record holder at

880 yards The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since th ...

, 330 yards and 300 metres. She coached the Olympic champion

Shirley Strickland Shirley Barbara de la Hunty AO, MBE (née Strickland; 18 July 1925 – 11 February 2004), known as Shirley Strickland during her early career, was an Australian athlete. She won more Olympic medals than any other Australian in running sports. ...

, and was also the mother of

Kim Beazley Kim Christian Beazley (born 14 December 1948) is an Australian former politician and diplomat. He was leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and leader of the opposition from 1996 to 2001 and 2005 to 2006, having previously been a cabinet ...

, a former

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia The deputy prime minister of Australia is the deputy chief executive and the second highest ranking officer of the Australian Government. The office of deputy prime minister was officially created as a ministerial portfolio in 1968, althoug ...

and

Governor of Western Australia The governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of the monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. As with the other governors of the Australian states, the governor of Western Australia performs constitutional ...

Athletics career

Judge's

career spanned the period 1939 to 1947. She set world and national records for 880 yards, 330 yards and 300 metres. Athletics Gold profile
/ref> On 2 March 1940 Judge broke the world 880 yards record at the Western Australian State Amateur Athletic Championships at

Leederville Oval Leederville Oval (known as Medibank Stadium under a naming rights agreement between 2006 and 2016) is an Australian rules football ground located in Leederville, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The ground is used as a home ground by two c ...

with a time of 2 minutes 24.7 seconds, 1/9 second inside the old world record that was set by Mary Lines in 1922. On 8 February 1947 she broke the record again by 0.5 second during an inter-club championship at Leederville Oval. The Australian record stood until 13 December 1947 when broken by Kit Mears at the Victorian State Championships. On 13 April 1940 Judge broke the world 300 metres record at the Women's Pageant of Sport at the WACA with a time of 39.9 seconds, 0.1 second inside the world record. On 15 February 1941 she broke the world 330 yards sprint record at

with a time of 39.8 seconds.

Coaching and official career

Betty Judge was the first coach of Olympic champion

, who set at least two world records and won seven

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

medals. From 1948 to 1952, as Betty Beazley, she was president of the Australian Women's Amateur Athletics Union.

Personal life

Judge married Australian politician

Kim Edward Beazley Kim Edward Beazley (30 September 1917 – 12 October 2007) was an Australian politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1945 to 1977, representing the Labor Party. He was Minister for Education in the Whitlam Go ...

on 7 February 1948. Although the two had known each other at

Perth Modern School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , location = Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia , country = Australia , coordinates = , mapframe-stroke-colour = #C60C30 , mapframe-marker-co ...

and the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

, a chance meeting at a church function sparked their whirlwind courtship and marriage. The couple had three children, Kim Christian Beazley (who became

), Merrilyn Wasson and David Beazley. Betty Beazley was widowed in October 2007; her own death came in September 2015, aged 94.Kathryn Diss (16 September 2015)
"Betty Beazley, mother of former Labor leader Kim Beazley, dies in Perth"
– ABC News. Retrieved 16 September 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Judge, Betty 1921 births 2015 deaths Olympic coaches for Australia World record setters in athletics (track and field) People educated at Perth Modern School Athletes from Perth, Western Australia University of Western Australia alumni Track and field athletes from Western Australia