Speaker 1: Get over and working once again to conversations. My guest
Speaker 1: today is a legend of Australian sport. No truly a legend.
Speaker 1: She is a legend in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: Raylene Boyle. How are you? Thank you for joining me?
Speaker 2: I'm well, Cornsey, I'm sitting here in almost we've had rain,
Speaker 2: not like you. It's quite green up here in the
Speaker 2: Sunshine Coast, but I'm well, thank you.
Speaker 1: How long have you been living up to you?
Speaker 2: I've been up here in nearly thirty years?
Speaker 1: Wow? Why? I mean, are Victorian? Why the Sunshine Coast? Look?
Speaker 2: When I was ill with my cancer, with my breast cancer,
Speaker 2: the original one, I just couldn't cope with the cold
Speaker 2: in Melbourne any longer, going through chemo, through winter and
Speaker 2: doing all the hard yards. When it came to that stuff,
Speaker 2: I just had to make a decision. So I decided
Speaker 2: to I'd lived up here before and it was an
Speaker 2: easy decision, and both my brothers moved here as well,
Speaker 2: and it's been a good decision. Although I'm starting to
Speaker 2: dislike the rain at this stage this.
Speaker 1: Year, there's something about the warmth, There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: We come to Adelaide, you get the best of both worlds.
Speaker 1: We do have winter.
Speaker 2: I'll be down there in the next month actually to
Speaker 2: catch up with my buddy Margie Jackson.
Speaker 1: Oh what a lady. What a lady. You're a Victorian girl,
Speaker 1: born and bred in Kobo.
Speaker 3: Lucky.
Speaker 1: That's Carlton area. Isn't that Carlton district? Did you? I read?
Speaker 1: I read somewhere you awarded a medal by the Anti
Speaker 1: Football League. Was that of taking the mickey? Or did
Speaker 1: you not really like football?
Speaker 2: I never had anything to do with football, still don't.
Speaker 2: I've never I've been to a couple of games for
Speaker 2: Breast Cancer Network, but I haven't really been to a
Speaker 2: whole footy game. It's just not been in my culture.
Speaker 2: My culture was more individual sports. My older brother was
Speaker 2: an Olympic cyclist, and I of course ran, and that
Speaker 2: was more the setting that we were comfortable in, and
Speaker 2: we would doers rather than watchers.
Speaker 1: Well, tell us about your back mument. You had three
Speaker 1: older brothers.
Speaker 2: That I've got, an older and a younger brother.
Speaker 1: Well that was Wikipedia, They're wrong picking correct it? And
Speaker 1: older and a younger brother. Yes, what did mom and
Speaker 1: dad do?
Speaker 2: Dad was an engineer. He you know, he worked around
Speaker 2: a little bit and then he ended up at the
Speaker 2: Melbourne City Council and that's where he stayed until he
Speaker 2: died at fifty. And my mum was basically a housewife.
Speaker 2: But Dad had these grandiose, I don't know, concepts of
Speaker 2: buying and selling pushbikes and so, yeah, we had cycling shops,
Speaker 2: god knows what. I don't think they ever made money,
Speaker 2: but probably introduced him to women all.
Speaker 3: Over the place.
Speaker 2: And yeah, mum pretty much ran those. She was quite
Speaker 2: a depressed and a sad woman in many ways. I
Speaker 2: don't think she was ever that happy. And she died
Speaker 2: of cancer at seventy. So, you know, I see all
Speaker 2: my friends going through the nasties with their parents now.
Speaker 3: Of.
Speaker 2: Dementia and Alzheimer's and all sorts of things. I didn't
Speaker 2: get that far in life with my parents beforehand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, fifty was young.
Speaker 2: He heart disease and did nothing about it.
Speaker 3: So I just dropped in one day.
Speaker 1: You said that little aside about your dad meeting women.
Speaker 1: What does that mean is that one of the reasons
Speaker 1: your mother was sad?
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 2: I think dad was a bit of a womanizer, and
Speaker 2: I think Mum probably was, you know, a woman who
Speaker 2: was chronically depressed and didn't really want to participate in
Speaker 2: the fund that dad wanted, and he moved on. But
Speaker 2: they stayed together, but I don't think it was an
Speaker 2: absolutely deliriously happy marriage. But I moved out of the
Speaker 2: house when I was eighteen nineteen.
Speaker 1: What were your schooling years? Like?
Speaker 2: My schooling years were, you know, pretty bad? Actually it
Speaker 2: wasn't my ghost school. I just couldn't sit still in
Speaker 2: class and I really couldn't understand why they were teaching
Speaker 2: me French because I was never going to go to
Speaker 2: France and.
Speaker 1: There might have been of an Olympic Games.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, but I didn't think like that. I sort
Speaker 2: of thought, well, where I am coming from from Coburg,
Speaker 2: I'll probably be working a sandwich shop or something for
Speaker 2: the rest of my life. And I didn't realize that
Speaker 2: I would see the world and have the most amazing
Speaker 2: experiences that a person can have. But yeah, so I
Speaker 2: wasn't very good at school. I can still remember missus Kozik,
Speaker 2: my French teacher. She'd say, ray Lean, I've given you
Speaker 2: three out of one hundred because you've felt your name
Speaker 2: right was well, okay, fair enough, but I objected to school.
Speaker 2: I once I did go to the Olympics, school pretty
Speaker 2: much fell by the way.
Speaker 1: So when did you when did you realize? When did
Speaker 1: somebody recognize and that you had this athletic talent?
Speaker 2: I think probably when I was at primary school eleven
Speaker 2: maybe twelve. There was no doubt that I could run fast.
Speaker 2: Certainly I wasn't a goutcount but he's extraordinary. But I
Speaker 2: was sort of leaning that way that I just could
Speaker 2: run fast, and I was oblivious to the idea of
Speaker 2: using that somehow or having the ability to use that
Speaker 2: somehow to actually enhance my life.
Speaker 1: What changed who came along?
Speaker 2: I think probably experience of Olympics.
Speaker 1: To get to the Olympics, you mustn't You had to
Speaker 1: knuckle down at some stays, you had to take it
Speaker 1: a bit more seriously.
Speaker 2: Well, I was sixteen and my father didn't want me
Speaker 2: to go to the first Olympics, something to Mexico City.
Speaker 2: He sort of said, well, if I do let her go,
Speaker 2: then she's not going to train for it in any
Speaker 2: aggressive manner. So I did about three months worth of training,
Speaker 2: three times a week for a three quarters of an hour,
Speaker 2: and I did exactly the same session every time, and
Speaker 2: that took me to a sew ofver medal and a
Speaker 2: fourth in thee hundred meters. So obviously there was some
Speaker 2: raw talent there and I think that that sort of
Speaker 2: in a way gave me the direction I needed to
Speaker 2: actually do something with my life, and sport was going
Speaker 2: to be the guiding guiding light.
Speaker 1: That is so dismissive that I have to explore it
Speaker 1: a bit more. You just cannot train for three months
Speaker 1: and goo to the Olympic Games. But we need a break,
Speaker 1: so I need to challenge you on that when we
Speaker 1: come back. And that's okay. Raylean Boyle is my guest.
Speaker 1: Folks back shortly. Raylean Boyle is my guest on conversations everybody,
Speaker 1: our great Olympic athlete, a legend in the Sport Australia
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, member of the British Empire mb and Order.
Speaker 1: It's an am Order of Australian award that she has
Speaker 1: been granted. But before we went to the break railing,
Speaker 1: I was intrigue, as though you hardly trained it all
Speaker 1: to go to that first Olympic Games in Mexico. Now,
Speaker 1: there must have been a coach who saw something, and
Speaker 1: it must have been a coach who knuckled down and
Speaker 1: gave you a program. I mean, just up and go
Speaker 1: to the games and win a silver medal.
Speaker 3: Surely that's pretty much what happened.
Speaker 1: I don't believe you.
Speaker 3: My father was.
Speaker 2: He believed at sixteen I was far too young to
Speaker 2: be doing heavy duty work because I was still growing.
Speaker 2: And he said, you know, basically to the powers that be,
Speaker 2: she'll go to the next one, so she doesn't really
Speaker 2: need to go to these ones. And the powers that
Speaker 2: be accepted that and sent me over there for experience.
Speaker 2: I think they saw something, you know, big in the future.
Speaker 1: How did you feel about that when your dad was
Speaker 1: not that enthusiastic about it. Did you feel, as I
Speaker 1: was an ambition that it was being thwarted?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know I read in the paper that
Speaker 2: I was selected and I was the youngest, and I thought, oh, this.
Speaker 3: Is pretty cool.
Speaker 2: I'll get on a plane and go away for a
Speaker 2: couple of you know, a couple of hours flight, and
Speaker 2: then I'll have a bit of running and come home.
Speaker 2: I guess it just the penny didn't drop that it
Speaker 2: was going to be a very long way away and
Speaker 2: that I was going to be away for six weeks
Speaker 2: and that, Yeah, I had to have some form of
Speaker 2: discipline to get myself to the track and it warmed
Speaker 2: up and get out and ready to race, and it
Speaker 2: was very intimidating.
Speaker 3: In front of her.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a massive stadium in Mexico. I was about
Speaker 2: sixty or seventy thousand people, but it was a huge
Speaker 2: thing in Mexico. And yes, it really opened my eyes
Speaker 2: to the world and gave me that gave me the
Speaker 2: ideas that fitted into the concept of you can make
Speaker 2: something of this. Not that I was ever going to
Speaker 2: make any money out of it then, but certainly that
Speaker 2: I could make something of this and be good at
Speaker 2: something in my life.
Speaker 1: I did read that you don't have that much memory
Speaker 1: of Mexico, but surely the experience of standing on the
Speaker 1: dais must have stayed with you.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes it did, it did.
Speaker 2: And I Yeah, that silver metals the only one I have.
Speaker 2: The other two ones in the Gallery of Sport in Melbourne,
Speaker 2: I think, and one I gave to a friend because
Speaker 2: it was her birthday of the day I run.
Speaker 1: It, but yeah, he gave it away. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The metals are symbols of medals. Are more important than records.
Speaker 2: Let me just say at this significant time, it's nice.
Speaker 2: It's nice that gout outs running so fast, and that's brilliant,
Speaker 2: But the metals are the things you keep. The records
Speaker 2: are taken away from him there as time goes by,
Speaker 2: new methods and new equipment and the whole lot of
Speaker 2: it means that records are broken, which is chantastic.
Speaker 1: We'll come to that issue because one of yours has
Speaker 1: just been broken up after fifty seven years. But I
Speaker 1: want to talk about that a bit later. But Mexico
Speaker 1: is renowned for the black POWs salute.
Speaker 2: It was renowned for quite a few things, Cornsey.
Speaker 3: It was renowned for altitude.
Speaker 2: So I think it was six eight hundred feet or something.
Speaker 2: It was bloody high and the air was thin. But
Speaker 2: being a seventy year I had no idea what was
Speaker 2: going on. I used to walk up the stairs. The
Speaker 2: others got the elevator to the eighth floor, and you
Speaker 2: know Ron Clark.
Speaker 3: Of course, the.
Speaker 2: Story wasn't He actually stopped breathing and his heart stopped
Speaker 2: after the ten thousand meters. And then of course we
Speaker 2: had Frosberry jumping backwards over the high jump, and we
Speaker 2: had Beman Beaman doing that.
Speaker 3: Unbelievable long jump.
Speaker 2: So there was a lot happened, and then we got
Speaker 2: to Peter Norman and Carlos and the black counsel at
Speaker 2: Smith here, Carlous and Smith and the blacker. I don't
Speaker 2: know that it was so much a black power so
Speaker 2: that it was a message because Smith, who organized it,
Speaker 2: is actually a well educated, very nice man.
Speaker 1: We've been lucky enough to interview him previously. And he
Speaker 1: was ostracized afterwards, wasn't.
Speaker 2: He he was, which I think is very sad, very sad.
Speaker 2: But then you see, I forget the swimmer as it was.
Speaker 2: It wasn't Chalmers who didn't get on the dais at
Speaker 2: a swimming major swimming. I think it might have been
Speaker 2: the Olympics, might have been World Championships because the Chinese
Speaker 2: guy who won the race was a renowned drug chip
Speaker 2: and so here he refused to get on the dais
Speaker 2: for the silver medal in objection to I guess the
Speaker 2: big picture is the interference of drugs in sport.
Speaker 1: Well, you're going to be impacted on that so negatively
Speaker 1: later in your career. But was there any any indication
Speaker 1: that when you were this naive seventeen year old. I
Speaker 1: supposed when you came back to Australia, had life changed
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yes, we did these faux pictures of me
Speaker 2: going back to school and the kids whole welcoming me.
Speaker 2: I don't think I went to school for Finnish very many,
Speaker 2: if any, whole days after that, But my life changed dramatically.
Speaker 2: You know, the media requests, it was very different then.
Speaker 2: We didn't have these sorts of link ups that you
Speaker 2: and I are on. It was really in person mostly,
Speaker 2: and you know you've been in the public eye. The
Speaker 2: requests come through and I don't think my family or
Speaker 2: I don't think I knew how to deal with that.
Speaker 2: So that was another massive growing pattern that I had
Speaker 2: to go through.
Speaker 1: So when you say that, how did that impact negatively
Speaker 1: on you and the family?
Speaker 3: I think it did.
Speaker 2: I think there were positive sides to it, and I
Speaker 2: think without doubt there are negative sides to it. But
Speaker 2: it certainly made me grow up very quickly. Because I
Speaker 2: still was a pretty naive, innocent seventeen year old. That
Speaker 2: changed very quickly, quaranty. But yeah, I came home a
Speaker 2: different person. But I think in that first problem six
Speaker 2: months life changed very dramatically for me, and expectation was
Speaker 2: one of the things that probably was the most punishing,
Speaker 2: because all of a sudden I was expected to know
Speaker 2: what to do and how to deal and how to
Speaker 2: be able to have a sandwich with the Queen and
Speaker 2: know what to do if you know, as a poor example,
Speaker 2: probably get you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It was also I love that. I love that analogy.
Speaker 1: So what was it like having a sandwich with the Queen?
Speaker 3: She was a lovely lady.
Speaker 2: I loved the Queen. Really, I didn't have a sandwich
Speaker 2: with her, but I did meet her at many different functions,
Speaker 2: though she wouldn't have remembered me.
Speaker 1: I don't think, Oh you never know, you never know.
Speaker 1: Did she present you with the NBA.
Speaker 2: No, I went to Government House in Victorian received that.
Speaker 2: But I did receive my AM from the Great Margie
Speaker 2: Jackson when she was a governm in South Australia. I
Speaker 2: had a private ceremony, even though Margie felt that was
Speaker 2: probably not the way to go. It should have been
Speaker 2: a public thing. But I rang and asked if I
Speaker 2: could just have a private ceremony with friends and family,
Speaker 2: and she agreed.
Speaker 1: We love Marjorie Marge one of.
Speaker 2: The best examples of living a good life and doing
Speaker 2: the right thing in every situation. Marge's and I speak
Speaker 2: to her. I speak to us sort of every week
Speaker 2: or two weeks, and I just love her. She's very
Speaker 2: close to me.
Speaker 1: That's underpinned by a tragedy though, losing her husband.
Speaker 2: So yes, yes, I think all of those things are
Speaker 2: examples if you move on with life. I think when
Speaker 2: it comes to Margie losing Peter, she moved forward. She
Speaker 2: still had three kids to defeed and get to school,
Speaker 2: and life had to go on. And it was a
Speaker 2: bit like that when I was diagnosed with cancer. Was
Speaker 2: it's like, do you drop your marbles now or do
Speaker 2: you actually pull everything together and move forward and try
Speaker 2: and like the most of the experience you've had. And
Speaker 2: that's what I did with Breast Cancer Network Australia. I
Speaker 2: was on their board for twenty four years and I
Speaker 2: was there helping or trying to help as much as
Speaker 2: I could, and the network could with women who were
Speaker 2: newly diagnosed and diagnosed with breast cancer and blokes.
Speaker 1: No, and I know one of my good friends, an
Speaker 1: outstanding sports died of breast cancer. Can we go back
Speaker 1: to the expectation. So you've come home from Mexico with silver.
Speaker 1: Munich is the next Olympic Games. Are you fired with ambition?
Speaker 1: Are you determined that you can go one better in Munich?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: I was certain I could. I was certain I could.
Speaker 2: I came home and certainly I didn't train hard initially,
Speaker 2: but leading up to those games, the last two years before,
Speaker 2: from seventy on, I put I put my spokes on,
Speaker 2: and I was ready to do what I needed to
Speaker 2: do to win a gold medal. And I believe that
Speaker 2: I could do that, which I think is a good
Speaker 2: way to go into training because you don't object to
Speaker 2: what's going on, and you never walk away from a
Speaker 2: session because you really have this belief that you can
Speaker 2: do something.
Speaker 3: And I believed I could do something. Over there.
Speaker 1: Was your dad still your coach?
Speaker 2: No, I'd moved on from him, and I was being
Speaker 2: trained by a lady by the name of Arnie Dott,
Speaker 2: whose family I moved in with when my life with
Speaker 2: my family fell apart.
Speaker 1: How did that happen?
Speaker 3: I was just I got into trouble with.
Speaker 2: Athletics Victoria, and they banned me for three months for
Speaker 2: wearing jeans with freight ends. And not wearing shoes when
Speaker 2: I was at the National Championships. Oh my god, it's
Speaker 2: changed so much. But I was so pathetic and the
Speaker 2: media interest in drove us nuts in my family home
Speaker 2: and dad last Arnie Dodd if she could cope with
Speaker 2: me living with her family for a little while while
Speaker 2: everything settled down. And I just saw a different, different
Speaker 2: way of life, I guess, and I liked it.
Speaker 1: In last aid was Antie Dodd, an athlete.
Speaker 2: Annie Dodd had been a hurdler, yes, okay involved, so
Speaker 2: she ended up coaching me into two games.
Speaker 1: Rayleing Boil is my guest, folks, What a story, what
Speaker 1: a life, the ups and downs of it? Back shortly,
Speaker 1: Welcome back, everybody. Look if you just tuned in with
Speaker 1: chatting with Rayleing Boyle, it's a great chat. She's so
Speaker 1: open and frank a young girl who goes off to
Speaker 1: the Mexico Olympics and wins a silver medal at the
Speaker 1: age of seventeen, comes back, starts to take athletics a
Speaker 1: bit more seriously, falls out with mum and dad moves
Speaker 1: in with Ardie Dott, who coaches leading up to the
Speaker 1: Munich Olympics. Now Munich Olympics should have been probably the
Speaker 1: highlight of your career, and as it turned out, I mean,
Speaker 1: you did it remarkably well, coming home with two silver medals,
Speaker 1: which in any other era would have been gold. But
Speaker 1: tell us about the Munich experience, can you please, Because
Speaker 1: there's so much happened there.
Speaker 3: I leave.
Speaker 2: The era that I went through at Olympics was a
Speaker 2: pretty sad era to be trick. There were so many
Speaker 2: international problems pushed.
Speaker 3: To the fore.
Speaker 2: I came up against these Germans, which I'm sure a
Speaker 2: lot of your listeners know, and these Germans were systematically doping,
Speaker 2: but with male hormones. They're female athletes, so they were
Speaker 2: on a drug called oral tarennobol, and so they in
Speaker 2: fact were more inclined towards male strength. And really a
Speaker 2: female's not going to beat a male if some standard ever,
Speaker 2: and so I went over there believing I could win
Speaker 2: gold medals and came up against an artist Decker, who
Speaker 2: was a good bloke, And that was my first introduction
Speaker 2: against artificial means of an athlete, and I was devastated,
Speaker 2: really that I didn't beat it.
Speaker 1: So when you're confronted with these physical specimens, are you intimidated.
Speaker 1: Were you intimidated?
Speaker 2: I think you're intimidated more by the communist part of it.
Speaker 2: That they were herded like cattle. They might nod their head,
Speaker 2: but that's about all a recognition they'd give you. You
Speaker 2: could never be a friend of theirs because they weren't
Speaker 2: allowed to be friends outside of their German community. It
Speaker 2: was a very sad thing for me to watch.
Speaker 1: Did you ever get a chance to meet Renada Sticker
Speaker 1: in normal circumstances later in life?
Speaker 3: Yes? I did.
Speaker 2: Sixty minutes took me over to Germany and did a
Speaker 2: story on the drug situation. And I went to where
Speaker 2: she lived, which was a little place called Jana Jenna
Speaker 2: in our language, which was where the pharmaceutical company Clipped
Speaker 2: that made.
Speaker 3: The drugs that they used. But she.
Speaker 2: Had her husband sitting I reckon his face was a
Speaker 2: foot away from hers, and he had been the person
Speaker 2: who had driven.
Speaker 3: The drugs for her, so he'd.
Speaker 2: Give them her and she'd take them in. And they're
Speaker 2: no longer together. But yeah, so she was an interesting character.
Speaker 2: She just rejected everything that was said. You know, did
Speaker 2: you take drugs? No? Would Raylen have beaten you?
Speaker 3: No? Should you give the medals back.
Speaker 2: No, it was really quite an awkward situation for me
Speaker 2: because it was in I think it was in ninety
Speaker 2: six and I was still quite ill, and you know,
Speaker 2: it was just fascinating. The other interesting place they took
Speaker 2: us too was the Stars He had caught us, which
Speaker 2: ran everything in Germany, and it was it was like
Speaker 2: walking into a freezer. It was so cold, so impersonal,
Speaker 2: even though no one was there, just the make up,
Speaker 2: the way the building had been built, the single person,
Speaker 2: non stop elevator that you just hopped on and hopped
Speaker 2: off while it was still moving. The they had a
Speaker 2: card room with all of every individual in the countries
Speaker 2: had a card and a cross section with a file room,
Speaker 2: and they kept a record on everything every individual did,
Speaker 2: how many times I went to the toilet a day,
Speaker 2: when they ate their lunch, when they ate their breakfast,
Speaker 2: if they went to work or stayed at home, who
Speaker 2: they mixed with.
Speaker 3: And I am not kidding you.
Speaker 2: If you ever got a chance to go to Germany's
Speaker 2: that was so confronting. You know, we have so much freedom,
Speaker 2: and I think I appreciated my freedom and being born
Speaker 2: in Australia far more after that visit than ever I
Speaker 2: have in my life.
Speaker 1: I did read a comment that you made. You would
Speaker 1: far prefer to be a silver medalist living in Australia
Speaker 1: than a gold medalist living in East Germany.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt about that. And I would reckoned that
Speaker 2: Renada Stecca would probably have changed the medals with me
Speaker 2: places with her?
Speaker 3: Did she look at not going to happen?
Speaker 1: Did she look different? Did she had she had the
Speaker 1: male features softened?
Speaker 2: No, she looked pretty much the same, you know with
Speaker 2: your age. She was an interesting one because because it
Speaker 2: affected my life, I could actually look at her files
Speaker 2: and her card and she had written a letter to
Speaker 2: the powers to be or over there at the time,
Speaker 2: saying that she didn't want to stay on the stuff
Speaker 2: for forever, she just wanted to go on it when
Speaker 2: the games were coming up.
Speaker 1: Why would the IOC not take action there when the
Speaker 1: evidence is so obvious.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know whether it opens a can of worms
Speaker 2: for them or it's all the information is all documented,
Speaker 2: it's all there. The whole structure of how they did
Speaker 2: things is there, but the IOC won't look at it.
Speaker 2: And I think probably because they think, well, where do
Speaker 2: we start and where do we finish how many individuals
Speaker 2: now have been caught for drugs. It's the drugs in
Speaker 2: sport are an interesting area that I can't ever agree with,
Speaker 2: and in fact it's changed my whole outlook about sport
Speaker 2: and how I watch it.
Speaker 1: Do you watch any sport these days?
Speaker 3: I watched.
Speaker 2: Gout Gout, I've met him and I watched him run
Speaker 2: at the National Championships on the Tully, But no I
Speaker 2: have I have not a lot of interest in sport.
Speaker 1: If if the I made a decision to strip them
Speaker 1: of those athletes of their medals, would you accept the
Speaker 1: gold medal?
Speaker 2: Absolutely without that. That's not just because I want a
Speaker 2: gold medal, because you know, cheats don't prosper, or they shouldn't.
Speaker 3: But in the world was bought sheets do prosper.
Speaker 1: Raylen Boyle is my guest, folks, was so much only
Speaker 1: not even halfway through her life, so much to talk
Speaker 1: about back shortly. My guest on conversations is Raylene Boyle,
Speaker 1: the Great Raylene Boyle a member of the Bought Australia
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, but not only a member, she's a legend,
Speaker 1: elevated all these other awards too. She's a member of
Speaker 1: the British Empire. MBA and am we're talking about the
Speaker 1: drama in Munich. Raylen came home with two silver medals.
Speaker 1: As we said previously, in another era, without drug cheats,
Speaker 1: they would have been gold medals. Of course, Munich is
Speaker 1: most remembered for the terrorist attack. Were you insulated from that?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: No, Actually we were the women's quarters at that stage.
Speaker 2: The quarters were separate women and men, and the women
Speaker 2: were behind the fence as they should and actually should
Speaker 2: have been. Behind the fences were the closest accommodation to
Speaker 2: the shootings of the Israelis in their quarters, so we
Speaker 2: could hear the guns. We could see the terrorists walking
Speaker 2: around the top of their building. When they shot individuals
Speaker 2: and killed them, they dragged them out into a courtyard
Speaker 2: that was very close to us, dragged their bodies out,
Speaker 2: and it was horrible. It was horrible, and I can
Speaker 2: honestly say when this whole gaza things started again, I
Speaker 2: was sick in to my stomach and nervous and very
Speaker 2: upset by it. Because I am a true believer that
Speaker 2: you know, life is given.
Speaker 3: To us to use as well as we can.
Speaker 2: It's not given to us to fight for ridiculous things
Speaker 2: that are not going to change. And the people that
Speaker 2: have been killed the same as the people in Munich.
Speaker 3: It was you know, eleven that the Israelis died. That
Speaker 3: was just horrible.
Speaker 2: And they were young people, and they were coaches, and
Speaker 2: they had babies and husbands and wives at home. I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: I just can't forgive for that.
Speaker 1: Oh dear me, you're still You're still young, and you're
Speaker 1: still at the peak of you at the peak of
Speaker 1: your powers. And then then we go to Montreal.
Speaker 3: There was a disaster of an Olympics.
Speaker 1: Oh no, you know, but you're you're the first lady
Speaker 1: to carry the flag for the Olympic team.
Speaker 3: I think it was the last time I wore address.
Speaker 1: Is that right? Do we do? We have to relive
Speaker 1: the disqualification?
Speaker 2: Oh, look at that is something that happened. I being
Speaker 2: an argumentative little bugger. I I did break the well.
Speaker 3: I didn't break the first time.
Speaker 2: There was a noise behind it that the starter heard,
Speaker 2: and I heard and I went. And then the second one,
Speaker 2: I was coming off the blocks to argue the point,
Speaker 2: and the starter didn't give me a moment's time to
Speaker 2: talk to him, and he just disqualified me, which was
Speaker 2: devastating at the time, A feeling that it was one
Speaker 2: of those feelings where you think, I'll never feel like
Speaker 2: this ever again. I'll never feel this bad ever again.
Speaker 2: But of course you do as you go on in life.
Speaker 1: Well you do because life dealt you a couple of
Speaker 1: rough hands. I mean, you had breast cancer and you
Speaker 1: got over that, and then you had ovarian cancer.
Speaker 2: For heaven's sake, Yeah, how lucky am I?
Speaker 1: Well, well, I don't think lucky, but I mean you've
Speaker 1: you've fought them off. I mean that must be an
Speaker 1: inspiration to other people going through the same ordio.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: I think originally the breast cancer, I mean, it was
Speaker 2: a horrendous time in my life, the same as it
Speaker 2: is for everybody. But I think it gave me an
Speaker 2: opportunity to give back and make change or the women
Speaker 2: for the better. And a lot of the things we
Speaker 2: did really have made a big difference, and they're ongoing
Speaker 2: now and we have a good relationship with the government,
Speaker 2: and pushing new drugs through is a much easier path
Speaker 2: than it used to be, even though it's always a
Speaker 2: struggle because it's costly for the government. But I've met
Speaker 2: the most wonderful people and had enormous experiences out of
Speaker 2: being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Speaker 3: And the ovarian didn't kill me.
Speaker 2: Might one day, But you know, what doesn't kill you
Speaker 2: makes you stronger.
Speaker 1: That intrigues me. Why did you recover when so many
Speaker 1: others don't?
Speaker 2: Ah, I look, it all comes down to the type
Speaker 2: of breast cancer and the type of well the ovarian
Speaker 2: I was an early diagnosis, That's why I got through that.
Speaker 2: But the breast was it. It depends on the type
Speaker 2: of breast cancer you've had or you've got.
Speaker 3: Depends on a whole lot of things.
Speaker 2: You can't pinpoint any one thing that makes a difference
Speaker 2: for me and not for another woman. But yeah, it
Speaker 2: was horrible experience. I didn't have very big boobs either.
Speaker 2: I thought, nothing.
Speaker 1: Make me laugh. It's not funny.
Speaker 2: It's not funny, but you've got to be able to laugh,
Speaker 2: you laugh at yourself.
Speaker 1: I just wonder what message that can you give to
Speaker 1: ladies who I guess they're all vulnerable, some more than others.
Speaker 1: Is there a message there that it is.
Speaker 2: To be aware of your body, to be aware of
Speaker 2: any changes and have them checked. Don't just think I've
Speaker 2: got a little lump there and go away, or you
Speaker 2: know my nipple doesn't look right, that'll change. Just go
Speaker 2: and have the damn thing check. Because the earlier you
Speaker 2: get at the better chance you've got of having a
Speaker 2: normal life and a long life. So always consider yourself first.
Speaker 2: Women put themselves back in the long list of you know,
Speaker 2: a husband, children, parents, and sometimes that causes a problem.
Speaker 1: You had a record that lasted for fifty seven years
Speaker 1: and a young kid from Perth just broke it. And
Speaker 1: I know we talked about records there you just borrow records?
Speaker 1: I think is that? Is that a term? You borrow records?
Speaker 1: But you win medals? How did you feel like was
Speaker 1: there a touch.
Speaker 2: Of oh no, No, I felt really good about it
Speaker 2: that you know, finally there are some kids coming through.
Speaker 2: We've got a very good showing of young sprinters, both
Speaker 2: male and female at the moment. Records going means progress
Speaker 2: is being made.
Speaker 3: So that's very.
Speaker 2: Important in a sport that I was so passionate about
Speaker 2: and I still love watching to a certain degree. It's yeah,
Speaker 2: records have to be broken for progress.
Speaker 1: Have you met young Leah O'Brien i've spoken.
Speaker 2: To from the fine She sounds like a really lovely kid.
Speaker 2: She ran very well in the women's hundred at the
Speaker 2: National Championships, and Tory lewis just leader. But Torian have
Speaker 2: to be five years older than her, I would think,
Speaker 2: But no, I was very impressed.
Speaker 3: Mind you.
Speaker 2: These kids are so different to my era because they're
Speaker 2: all they're all very seriously trained.
Speaker 3: Nick.
Speaker 1: I understand that. It intrigues me that you had such
Speaker 1: minimal training in preparation for that record. You broke that
Speaker 1: in Mexico, didn't she?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Did you know it was a record? Did that?
Speaker 3: Probably? They're probably not. I went into races not to
Speaker 3: break records.
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone does, really. I went into races
Speaker 2: to win them, and that was what it was about.
Speaker 2: Anything else was ancillary.
Speaker 1: Coming to the end. Are you're living in You're living
Speaker 1: in the Gold.
Speaker 3: Coast, Sunshine Coast.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: Put me down at the Gold Coast corner.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: I've got I've got ev and I don't live in Hell.
Speaker 1: I've got a niece who lives up there, and a
Speaker 1: great niece is a great little surfer too. She might
Speaker 1: actually go.
Speaker 3: So it's a good place to be for surfing.
Speaker 1: So you look back over that life. I mean, we
Speaker 1: don't and we don't know it. You're still on the
Speaker 1: early seventies. Love's lost and loved and you look bad.
Speaker 1: Any regrets?
Speaker 3: Not really.
Speaker 2: I I had some lovely partners. I was engaged to
Speaker 2: a going perth for a while, but that obviously didn't
Speaker 2: suit my last time lovely guy. I still talk to
Speaker 2: him regularly. We've still got a lot in common.
Speaker 3: We still have a.
Speaker 2: Laugh to get and yeah, I just I've got a
Speaker 2: female partner that I've had for thirty years, and I'm
Speaker 2: happy in this world.
Speaker 1: And it's easy. It seems so much easier to be
Speaker 1: in that sort of relationship these days, am I right?
Speaker 2: It is back early. I don't think I realized that
Speaker 2: I prefer to female partner until I was in my twenties,
Speaker 2: well into my twenties. But the nice thing about Jude,
Speaker 2: my partner, is that she's got three children, and I
Speaker 2: now have grandchildren as well, So that's lovely for me,
Speaker 2: that next generational thing. Little Sam and Will are a
Speaker 2: delight and we're expecting them up for an Easter egg
Speaker 2: hunt for Easter. But yeah, my life at times has
Speaker 2: been scary because of my sexuality, I suppose, But you
Speaker 2: have become those things, and you have to be true
Speaker 2: to yourself. And I think that's the bottom line. I
Speaker 2: haven't got anything to sell. I haven't got anything to
Speaker 2: I don't know nag on about or talk on about.
Speaker 2: I'm just me and I'm content in my skin, and
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 3: Has been a good life.
Speaker 1: You have your life to talk about, you have your achievements,
Speaker 1: you have you the records, the record, I mean, the
Speaker 1: record is there for everyone to see. It's an amazing record.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sponsie, you know, in today's world, I'd rather talk
Speaker 2: about my fourteen month old Golden Retriever that's around and
Speaker 2: wanting to.
Speaker 3: Have a game.
Speaker 1: Does it eat everything inside?
Speaker 3: Has been a bit naughty of late. She did eat
Speaker 3: a pair of Jude's shoes the other Yes, that's not
Speaker 3: my fault.
Speaker 2: I don't leave my shoes out and my dog has tastes.
Speaker 2: She would not chew my Nikes because she would be No,
Speaker 2: she'd be killed.
Speaker 1: Who were you sponsored by Nike all the way through?
Speaker 2: No, I was sponsored by Puma. Nike wasn't around. Nike
Speaker 2: came in to be about nineteen seventy two, and pretty
Speaker 2: much I moved over to them when they came to Australia.
Speaker 2: Pumore really wonderful to me, after me extremely well. But
Speaker 2: I needed a job and Nike offered me a job
Speaker 2: and I went across and I liked their shoes and
Speaker 2: so they've been wonderful to me and still are.
Speaker 1: Well how does your day look these days?
Speaker 2: Well, my day today was I've been up, I've taken
Speaker 2: the girl for a walk, I've had my breky because
Speaker 2: I'm homeline, and I've been back to bed and read
Speaker 2: the paper and I did get out of bed to
Speaker 2: come and do this and do you with you? And
Speaker 2: I'm about to go to the gym. So he doesn't
Speaker 2: help me lose weight, but he stops me from falling
Speaker 2: over and losing my balance and all that.
Speaker 1: Stuff that's so important. Balance.
Speaker 2: The two things that I think I've noticed getting older
Speaker 2: are one balance and two opening jars.
Speaker 1: Oh tell me about that.
Speaker 2: But Mike, I love Mike, and he you keep me
Speaker 2: trim talking true think I've been going to in about
Speaker 2: five years, and I can honestly say I did have
Speaker 2: a few fools. One was in Adelaide, and I just
Speaker 2: had to get over that because if I wanted a
Speaker 2: young dog, for example, I had to have balance to
Speaker 2: be able to walk her. And if I wanted to
Speaker 2: live my life in my own home, I needed to
Speaker 2: look after those incidentals. But major incidentals as they are.
Speaker 1: What a delight catching up, What a delight speaking to you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 3: You're welcome. Corn say, I think we need to do a.
Speaker 1: Series, mate, I can do it. I can dove a
Speaker 1: bit deeper, but I just didn't know how far to go.
Speaker 3: That's right. No one never knows quite what to do
Speaker 3: with me.
Speaker 1: Well, if there's no rules, we could do one.
Speaker 2: Oh, if there were no rules, A lot of people
Speaker 2: that'd love to have done one like that.
Speaker 3: Good gossip.
Speaker 1: I'm sure don't talk about that. Thanks so much, Rylaane,
Speaker 1: all the best. Conci Rylan Boil was my guest. Folks,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us.