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• Born 05 January 1912
• Australia/Victoria

Doris Carter became the first Australian woman to reach an Olympic final, competing in the High Jump at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

Carter had been near the top of world rankings for a number of years and her national record of 5' 3 3/8 (1.609m) set in 1935 lasted for over twenty years.

Doris Carter was seventeen in late 1929 when a small group of young girls met in Melbourne to arrange athletics competitions for women.

The tall Doris soon showed out in the High Jump - where she could consistently clear a relatively good height of 4'9 - and was duly selected in the first Victorian team to contest a national championships for women.

These inaugural championships were held in her' hometown of Melbourne and Carter did well with her silver medal in the High Jump behind national record-holder and champion Rosa Winter.

Doris did not contest the 1932 National Championships, which were held in Sydney, but she took out the National Games High Jump - at Melbourne that year - with an effort of 4'11.  

From 1933 to 1940, Carter was undisputed High Jump champion of Australia, winning the national title on the five times the championships were conducted.  She was a teacher on the Victorian and South Australian borders and had to drive 250 miles each weekend to compete at interclub events in Melbourne.

In 1934, she was extremely unlucky not to gain selection in the Empire Games team to compete in London. She twice broke the national record in the High Jump early in the year, with 5'2 in the Victorian Championships - in front of Empire Games selector Hugh Weir - and later 5'3.  Both these performances were rated highly in the 1934 world lists, with her best effort ranking her second in the world, behind South African Marjorie Clark

Besides being the Australian High Jump champion, she had also improved at hurdles and discus and was considered a fine all-rounder. A number of other good Australian women also had strong claims for selection in 1934, but presiding men's officials decided to completely exclude women on the excuse that sending woman and a requisite chaperon would reduce the number of male athletes who could be sent.  The Aussie women were dealt a double blow as the Women's World Games were also being held in London that year, immediately after the Empire Games.

Undaunted, Doris set a new national record in the High Jump in 1935 - ranking her second in the world again - and seemed assured of Olympic selection in 1936.  Early that year, she won the national championships in Sydney, the National Games (and Olympic trials) in Adelaide and equalled her own national record of 5' 3 3/8 (1.609m) in Melbourne.

Consequently, she was selected in the Olympic team - the first female field athlete to be selected to represent Australia.  In Berlin, Official Games photographer and movie maker Leni Riefenstahl spent a lot of time recording Carter's action in practice before the Games.  The Germans considered Carter to be among the best in the world and rated her as a strong medal chance.

In the Games, Carter became the first Australian women to reach an Olympic athletics final, when she placed equal fifth. She could not approach her national record after suffering soreness from training on the hard cinders track.

In 1938, Carter became (with Eileen Wearne) the first Australian women athlete to compete at both Olympic and Empire (Commonwealth) Games when she won the 1937 National Championships High Jump.

She disappointed her fans in Sydney when she could not take a medal in a good standard High Jump competition and was also unplaced in the Discus (in which she was the national record-holder).

At Doris Carter's last National Championships, at Perth in 1940, she won her fifth consecutive High Jump title and her second Discus title.  Additionally, she won silver in the 90y Hurdles behind Decima Norman and a bronze in the 4x110y relay.

Carter continued to compete in Victoria until 1942, when she took up duty in the Women's RAF.  In 1956, she was appointed manageress of the Australian women's athletics team, when the Olympics were held in her home town of Melbourne.

PERSONAL BESTS

220y		27.7	Melbourne	23 January 1932
440y		69.8	Melbourne	26 February 1930
80m Hurdles	12.2y	Melbourne	03 February 1940*
		* two watches showed 11.9
High Jump	1.609	Melbourne	06 April 1935
Long Jump	16'3	Melbourne	03 February 1940
Shot Putt	29'3	Melbourne	22 March 1937
Discus	126' 11 1/2	Melbourne	02 December 1939	
Javelin		86' 0	Melbourne	06 March 1937

PROGRESSION

YEAR	High Jump	80m Hurdles	Discus
1930	1.47
1931	1.37
1932	1.498
1933	1.524		13.3y est	83'9
1934	1.60		13.4y		97'2
1935	1.609		12.8y		94' 8 3/4
1936	1.609		12.3y		100' 11 1/2
1937	1.57				99' 3 1/2
1938	1.57 5'1 3/4	13.2y		108' 4
1939	1.498		12.5y		126' 10 3/4
1940	1.56 5'1 1/2	12.2		106' 9 3/4
1941	1.447		13.2y	
1942	1.447		13.5

INTERNATIONAL HONOURS

1936	5=	HIGH JUMP	OLYMPIC GAMES
1938	5	HIGH JUMP	EMPIRE GAMES
		DISCUS 		EMPIRE GAMES

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

HIGH JUMP	1933	1935	1936	1938	1940
DISCUS		1936	1940

NATIONAL RECORDS

HJ	1.574   	Melbourne	03 March 1934
	1.60		Melbourne	17 March 1934
	1.609		Melbourne	06 April 1935
	1.609		Melbourne	01 February 1936
		
Discus	33.02		Melbourne	12 March 1938
	126' 11 1/2	Melbourne	02 December 1939

The above biography is a basic profile. As soon as I have time, the more detailed bio will replace this page.

An unofficial, non-profit, just-for-fun, page but © 1995-2003 by Graham Thomas