Great Australian Sportspeople of the 20th century Quiz

Answer: Rod Laver

Rodney George "Rod" Laver was born on the ninth of August 1938 in Rockhampton, Queensland. Though only 1.73m or 5'8" in height and with a medium build, he developed into a champion tennis player by mastering a superb serve and volley game with aggressive ground strokes.

He quickly rose up the Australian tennis ranks and was in the Davis Cup squad very early in his career, after taking out the Australian and US junior championships in 1957. He then went on to win the Australian Open in 1960 and Wimbledon the following year.

In 1962 he reached the pinnacle of the sport by taking out the four majors, namely the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US championships, and became the second only player to achieve this. Joining American Donald Budge who had pulled off this feat in 1938. Unfortunately Laver's signing of a professional contract led to his dismissal from the, then, amateur game. Upon tennis opening up in 1968 he became the first Wimbledon champion of the open era, followed by a second "Grand Slam" sweep in the following year.

There will forever be an argument about the game's greatest player but Rod Laver has proven to be among the best. So it is very fitting that the Rod Laver Stadium is the venue for the Australian Open each year.

Answer: Heather McKay

Heather Pamela McKay was born on the 31st July 1941 in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. Her great successes came in the Women's British Open Squash Championships, which was the forerunner of the World Championships that were instigated in 1979. Heather was the inaugural winner of the first two of these before retiring.

Not only was she undefeated in those 18 major tournaments. she dropped a set only once - that being in the first set of her final match against Britain's Sue Cogswell.

Answer: Walter Lindrum

Walter Albert Lindrum was born on the 29th August 1898 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. With his grandfather winning the first world billiards championship in 1869 and his father winning the Australian title at the age of 20, it was inevitable that Walter would follow in their footsteps.

In his career he set 57 records including a massive break of 4137 in 1932. In this break he scored 902 nursery cannons (where the balls remained close together) and that precipitated a change in the rules so that the cue ball had to cross the baulk line every 200 points. Lindrum, however, still managed scores exceeding 2000 points on occasions. What also made his expertise so famous was that he was up against the greatest all round cueist of all time in Englishman Joe Davis who won the first 15 world snooker championships and became Lindrum's greatest billiards rival. Co-incidentally, Walter Lindrum and the Australian cricket team led by the game's greatest ever player, to that time, Don Bradman were in London together in 1934 and cricket's eminent writer of the time, Neville Cardus, paid Walter the ultimate compliment by referring to Bradman as the "Lindrum of cricket".

Answer: Betty Cuthbert

Elizabeth "Betty" Cuthbert was born on the 20th April 1938 in Sydney and throughout her running career set world records over 60 metres, 100 yards, 200 metres, 220 yards and 440 yards. Her greatest achievements came at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games where she won the 100 metres and 200 metres races and then anchored the women's 4 x 100 metres relay team to victory.

After suffering injury at the 1960 Rome Olympics she then set her sights on the inaugural 400 metres at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, which she duly won and became the first athlete, male or female, to win the three Olympic sprints - the 100, 200 and 400 metre races.

The unimaginable happened to this great athlete when she was stricken with multiple sclerosis in her early forties and was confined to a wheelchair.

However at her "home" Olympics at Sydney in 2000 she was assisted to carry the flame into the arena on the opening night.

Answer: Jeff Fenech

Jeff Fenech was born on the 28th May 1964 in St. Peters Sydney. As a 20-year-old flyweight boxer he competed at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where he was declared a clear winner in a quarter final bout against a Yugoslav opponent, but a mysterious recount was ordered with the decision then going against him, which cost a shot at a gold medal. Unperturbed, he returned to Australia and after showing some amazing talent was offered a world bantamweight title fight after only seven professional fights and by winning became the third fastest boxer in history with that few fights to take a title.

He then went on to super bantamweight and featherweight titles within a couple of years. Along the way Fenech won a tough match against the Olympic gold medallist Steve McCrory with a TKO in 14 rounds and the American sportingly let Jeff wear his gold medal in front of the home crowd.

The trilogy between Fenech and the great Ghanaian world champion Azumah Nelson enthralled the boxing world with the final result being one win apiece and one draw.

Answer: Cathy Freeman

Catherine Astrid Salome "Cathy" Freeman was born on the 16th February 1973 in Mackay Queensland and developed into a great sprinter, particularly at the 400 metres flat race. Her success started at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland as a 17-year-old by being a member of the winning Australian 4x100 metres relay team in 1990, before scoring double gold in these Games four years later in the 200 and 400 metres races in Victoria, Canada.

After taking out the World Championship 400 metres final in 1997, she came back in 1999 to again win the world title. To show how proud Australia was of her, Cathy was selected to light the Olympic flame for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and although very nervous she completed this honor with great aplomb.

The icing on the cake was when she won the 400 metres gold medal easily and became the first Australian indigenous person to claim an Olympic gold medal, to go with her Commonwealth gold and world championship honours.

Answer: Herb Elliott

Herbert James "Herb" Elliott was born on the 25th February 1938 in Subiaco, Western Australia, and developed into one of the greatest middle distance runners of all time, finishing his career (sadly all too soon) undefeated. It was often thought that a sub-four minute mile was not possible, until someone forgot to tell Englishman Roger Bannister in 1954.

When Herb took this distance on three years later it was just a matter of whether the world record would be beaten on each occasion. He set the world record at 3.54.5 in 1958, beating the previous mark by 2.7 seconds. Elliott developed his great stamina under the guidance of visionary coach Percy Cerutty who put him through a torturous campaign that included running up very steep sand hills at Portsea Victoria until he dropped.

Herb's crowning achievement came in the 1500 metres final at the 1960 Rome Olympics when he won very comfortably and beat his own world record in 3.35.6. He, regretfully for all athletics fans, decided to retire in 1961 as athletes back then were amateurs, and in the business world he also proved a winner by becoming CEO of a huge mining company.

Answer: Dawn Fraser

Dawn Lorraine Fraser was born on the 4th September 1937 in Balmain, New South Wales and under early guidance by swimming coach Harry Gallagher soon developed into a champion 100metre swimmer and won her first Olympic gold at the 1956 games in Melbourne as a nineteen year old and set the world record for the event - a record that she would break nine times - including a swim in 1962 when she recorded 59.9 seconds and was the first woman to break the minute barrier for the event.

In Melbourne she also struck gold as a member of the Australian 4x100 metres relay team that won in a world record time. Following on she took out the gold in Rome and Tokyo. Also six gold medals came to her from victories in tha British Commonwealth Games.

However, Dawn was a controversial character by doing things her way and classed by some as a larrikin, so when a flag was taken from the flagpole outside the Emperor's Palace during the Tokyo Olympics, Dawn was initially blamed - a charge that she denied.

In the end no charges were laid and she was given the flag as a souvenir.

However, the Australian Swimming Union suspended her for ten years, but lifted the ban just prior to the 1968 Mexico City games. It left the 31 year old swimmer no time to prepare and so a great career had finally come to an end.

Answer: Jack Brabham

John Arthur "Jack" Brabham was born on the 2nd April 1926 in Hurstville, New South Wales and was a flight mechanic who started out racing midget cars in 1948. Following much success in this area, he moved to the United Kingdom and joined the elite Cooper Racing Team where, besides racing, he assisted in the design of mid-engine race cars to be entered into the Formula One grand prix juggernaut. So it followed that he came out as the champion grand prix driver in 1959 and 1960 before forming the Brabham team in 1962 and ultimately won the 1966 grand prix title in a car completely designed by himself.

Answer: Margaret Court

Margaret Court nee Smith was born on the 16th July 1942 in Albury New South Wales and became one of the greatest female tennis players in history. Suffice to say she won 11 Australian, 5 French, 3 Wimbledon and 5 US singles titles, including a grand slam of all titles in 1970. Add to this 20 titles in women's doubles and 21 in mixed doubles, including a grand slam of all titles in 1963 and 1965.

In 1983 she earned theological qualifications and, following ordination, founded the Margaret Court Ministries.