Betty Beazley (née Judge; 21 March 1921 – 13 September 2015), known as Betty Judge during her career, was an Australian athletics world record holder at 880 yards, 330 yards and 300 metres. She coached the Olympic champion Shirley Strickland, and was also the mother of

Kim Beazley Kim Christian Beazley (born 14 December 1948) is an Australian former politician and diplomat. Since 2022 he has served as chairman of the Australian War Memorial. Previously, he was leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the ...

, a former

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia The deputy prime minister of Australia is the deputy Chief executive officer, chief executive and the Deputy prime minister, second highest ranking officer of the Australian Government. The office of deputy prime minister was officially creat ...

and Governor of Western Australia.

Athletics career

Judge's athletics 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 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 Leederville Oval with a time of 39.8 seconds.

Coaching and official career

Betty Judge was the first coach of Olympic champion Shirley Strickland, who set at least two world records and won seven

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

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 on 7 February 1948. Although the two had known each other at Perth Modern School and the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, 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 Australian Athletics Championships winners