Dorothy Hyman

Dorothy Hyman (born 9 May 1941) is a retired English sprinter. She competed at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics in the 100 m, 200 m and 4 × 100 m events and won one medal in each of them, three in total. She also won individual 100 m gold and 200 m silver at the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade and, representing England, completed the 100 yd/220 yd sprint double at the 1962 Commonwealth Games.

Winner of the 1963 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, she has a stadium in her home village in Cudworth, Barnsley, named in her honour. In 2011, she was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.

Hyman was born in a family of a coal miner. Starting from the age of 13 she was a junior national champion at every age group. When she was 17 she set a senior world record in 4×110 yard relay at the 1958 Commonwealth Games and finished second in the 4 × 100 m relay at European championships. At the 1960 Olympics she won her every 100 m race, except for the final. In 1962 she won multiple medals at the Commonwealth Games and European championships, for which in 1963 she was voted Britain's Sports Personality of the Year. She was injured in 1964, and thus won only one medal at the 1964 Olympics, in the relay. She retired shortly after the Olympics, wrote an autobiography in 1965, and got paid for that. This payment prevented her from returning to amateur international competitions later in the 1960s, when she reconsidered her retirement. Instead she became an athletics coach at the Dorothy Hyman Track Club in her home town and occasionally competed at the national level. Later she worked in the administration of the National Coal Board and taught people with learning disabilities.