Born: West Perth, W.A.
19 September, 1909 – 29 August, 1983
The first of Western Australia’s great track and field performers, Clara (Decima) Norman forged a reputation as a world-class athlete at the 1938 Empire Games in Sydney.
She won a record of five gold medals at the peak of a short but brilliant career that was interrupted by World War II.
She was in her 29th year when she won the 100yds (11.1sec), 220yds (24.5sec) and long jump (19ft 0 1/4in). She was also a member of Australia’s winning teams in the 440yds and 660yds relays.
Short at 157cm (5ft 2in) and lightly built at 48kgs (7st 12Ib), she ran with an unusual hunched shoulder action, yet she equalled the world record-holder for the 90yds hurdles. She moved from Perth to Sydney to prepare for the 1940 Olympic Games, but they were not held because the outbreak of war.
Her last appearances in Perth were for New South Wales at the 1940 Australian Championships, in which she won the hurdles and was part of the winning sprint relay team.
Miss Norman, who changed her name to Hamilton by deed poll in 1971, was a driving force behind the formation of the WA Women’s Amateur Athletic Association in 1937. Her bid for selection in the Australian team for the 1936 Olympic Games had been frustrated because there was no WA association to submit her official nomination. Thus a combination of official red tape and a world war combined to deny Decima Norman the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games.
A talented all-rounder who also represented WA in hockey, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List in 1982 for her services to athletics. She died of lung cancer the following year. She was a non-smoker.