On 7 September, 1960, Dixie Willis lined up in the final of the women’s 800 metres at the Rome Olympic Games. Almost 52 years later, it’s about time she was told she finished the race.

An inexperienced 18-year-old from Western Australia, Willis had run fastest time in the previous day’s heats. For the first 700 metres of the final, she was either in the lead or contesting it with the eventual winner, Lyudmila Shevtsova of the Ukraine/Soviet Union.

From that point on, it’s not exactly clear what happened. Nor does the available evidence provide a complete picture of Willis’s run up the final straight. But it does present a compelling case that she crossed the finish line and should be regarded as a finisher, rather than the non-finisher she is universally reported to have been.

In summary, the evidence is: host broadcaster film shows Willis crossing the finish line at a jog-walk some 20 seconds after the winner; the official Australian Olympic report lists her as a finisher; further host broadcaster film shows Willis off the track with around 70 metres to run after either stepping on the plinth, or being contacted or baulked by other runners and slumping briefly to hands and knees; finally, a picture of the finish in the official Games’ Report shows all nine finalists on the track as the winner crosses the line.

The film (which you can find at YouTube, ‘Brenda Jones (Carr) Silver 800m’) shows four women in contention for the medals in the final straight– Willis and her Australian teammate Brenda Jones, Shevtsova and Germany’s Ursula Donath.

With 70 metres to run, Willis loses the lead and is then tightened for room as the Soviet runner and Jones press past. A stride or two later, she loses balance, throws an arm in the air, and steps onto the infield.

It is not obvious what caused Willis to step off the track. Perhaps she was clipped as the others moved past or trod on a heel as they moved in, perhaps she trod on the track border, perhaps she just lost concentration. In any case, her reaction indicates it was not intentional. Another excerpt (‘Rome Olympic Games 1960 Women’s 800m’) shows her slump briefly to her hands and knees just after stepping onto the infield.

And there Dixie Willis’s Olympic final appeared to come to an end. In any case, her fate was submerged by Jones’s silver medal less than a step behind Shevtsova’s world record-equalling win in 2:04.3.

There is no unanimity about the reporting and recording of Willis’ result, either in contemporary reports or compilations since. Among the annotations are: “fell 90 meters from the finish”, “fell in final”, “fell in final and did not finish”, “with 150 meters (sic!) to go, she suddenly threw her hands in the air and staggered off the track,” “scratched” and “tired badly and fell when she tripped over the track border”.

Not even the IAAF World Record Progression book gets it right, stating in the description of Shevtsova’s equal world record - “led at the 700m mark, then fell over and did not finish”.

The ‘historical results’ section of Athletics Australia’s website records “did not finish (fell).”

The official report of the Rome Olympics lists Willis as ‘scratched’. Clearly this does not have the meaning we assign to it (i.e. did not participate). From other middle-distance results in the report, however, it would seem to mean ‘did not finish’.

As for Willis, she just assumed she had been disqualified and took the matter no further. 

And there it seemed destined to rest, until Athletics Australia statistician Paul Jenes was sent the YouTube footage by Trevor Vincent as part of research he (Jenes) was doing on Jones (now Brenda Carr). To his astonishment, he noticed Willis jog/walk across the line more than 20 seconds after the medallists.

So Willis had got to the finish.

Further evidence emerged. A picture in the Games official report (Vol. II, p.190), taken as the first two crossed the line, clearly shows nine runners on the track. Given that the eighth finisher – Zbikowska of Poland – recorded 2:11.8, 7.5 seconds slower than the winner, the depth of the picture must have been at least 45 metres, indicating Willis had come straight back onto the track then jogged slowly to the finish.

Finally, the smoking gun: the Australian National Sports Museum unearthed a copy of the official Australian 1960 Olympic report. Willis’s performance was recorded as “ninth in final, no time taken.”

The athletics section manager in Rome was Judy Patching – subsequently secretary-general of the Australian Olympic Federation (now AOC) and the team manager was Syd Grange, subsequently AOF president. They were hardly likely to have got it wrong, which seems to take care of the (admittedly remote) possibility Willis may have been disqualified.

After all these years, then, it seems the only possible conclusion is that Dixie Willis did finish the 1960 Rome Olympic women’s 800 metres final. It’s long since time to acknowledge that fact.

Dixie Willis went on to set world records for both 800 metres and 880 yards in 1962 and to win the gold medal in the latter event at the 1962 Commonwealth Games.

Trevor Vincent, who has been the driving force in digging out the facts of the 1960 race, was the 3000 metres steeplechase gold medallist at those Games.