ExOlympic champion Jackson to
be state governor
Reuters
28 June 2001 – Adelaide - Australian
ex-Olympic champion Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, who won the 100 and 200 metres sprint double
at Helsinki in 1952, was named on Thursday as governor of South Australia state.
“I think this is just that little bit better than the gold medal,” Jackson-Nelson said after her appointment was announced by South Australia Premier John Olsen.
Dubbed the “Lithgow Flash” after the town outside Sydney where she comes from, Jackson-Nelson was the first Australian woman to win an Olympic track and field gold medal and broke 10 world sprint records during her career.
She will serve as the official representative of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in South Australia for five years from October.
Olsen said Jackson-Nelson had been selected for the largely ceremonial role for her ability to inspire and her outstanding voluntary work raising funds for research into leukaemia.
Australia, settled by Britain in 1788, is a constitutional monarchy with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth its head of state, represented in Australia by a governor-general and governors in each of its six states.
