Athletics Career
She made her international debut in Brisbane at the 1982 Commonwealth Games, winning the 400m hurdles in a Commonwealth record time of 55.89.
Flintoff finished sixth in the inaugural event at the 1984 Summer Olympics hosted by Los Angeles. In 1986, after setting Australian records at both the 400m flat and 400m hurdles during the year, she won both events at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
In 1987, she won a silver medal at the 1987 World Championships and became the first Australian athlete to win an IAAF Grand Prix Final, taking out her specialty 400m Hurdles event.
In 1988, she won the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, despite having just received news of her sister, Noeline's death. Her winning time of 53.17 seconds still stands as the Australian record in 2011.
Flintoff-King was one of the bearers of the Olympic Torch at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She carried the Olympic Torch at the stadium, as one of the runners for the final segment, before the lighting of the Olympic Flame.
Married to her coach Phil King with three children, Flintoff-King coached Australian sprinter Lauren Hewitt in the early 1990s and has mentored World Champion Jana Rawlinson.
Read more about this topic: Debbie Flintoff-King
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)