The Soda Room podcast: Marjorie Jackson-Nelson’s legacy that means much more than gold medal

From Olympics to the Governor’s office, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson has a lifetime of remarkable accomplishments – but there’s one that sits above all others.

In a lifetime of remarkable accomplishments, Olympian and former SA governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson says her greatest achievement is the leukaemia fund set up in memory of her late husband Peter.
She sat down for The Soda Room podcast with Mark Soderstrom.

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The Soda Room is presented in collaboration with the Sunday Mail.

Below is an edited transcript of the podcast – listen in full in the player above or click here to go to the site.

Mark Soderstrom: Marj, I’m so excited to see you. Congratulations on the 70th anniversary of your gold medals at the Helsinki Olympic Games. You got a couple of gold medals but you probably got something a little bit more than that, didn’t you?

Tell us about your husband Pete, because he was over there cycling for Australia wasn’t he?

Marjorie Jackson-Nelson: Yes. I’d never met him before.

MS: Where did you meet?

MJN:On the plane (on route to the Helsinki Olympics in 1952). And back in those days, you never spoke to a boy, really, unless you were introduced to them.

So the boys from running in NSW, a lot of them I knew. But you just smiled and said hello.

Well, I think we were halfway between here and Darwin. And the boxing manager said, “Well, this is ridiculous. We’re going away for two months. Nobody’s speaking to one another”.

So he made everyone get up on that plane and go around and introduce themselves to one another. So that was all right, you could talk to them then …

And then he (Peter) asked me out in London. Yeah. And I knew him six weeks, he asked me to marry him. And I thought, wow, fancy waking up to this gorgeous looking hunk. So I went “Yes”. I didn’t know anything about him at all.

MS: This is even before you got back from the Olympics, you’d already agreed to get married? You hadn’t even met before you left! So tell us, so you are going around meeting everyone on the plane? Did he catch your eye? Or did you catch his? What happened?

MJN: Well, it was just one night we were in London and the boxing manager said, I’m going for a walk. And of course our manageress would never leave me out of her sight.

So she said she’d go too so I said I’d go and suddenly Peter came from somewhere and said, “Oh, I’ll go too”. And we walked along and the next thing he held my hand. So that was all right with me. And when you think about it, oh God.

MS:What a beautiful love story.

MJN:I didn’t ever see what he saw in me, but I didn’t care.

MS: Marj, you’re selling yourself short. And obviously, he was over there at the Olympics with cycling. And he was an SA boy, which is why you’re still here now?

MJN:Yes. Yes. We would have been married … God, in 1953. We got married.

MS: Can I ask too, you obviously go to the Commonwealth Games after you win your Olympic golds and win another three golds (in 1954). You’re still young. Was there any consideration to stay running for Melbourne for ’56?

MJN:Well, no, not really, because we had no money. I earned one pound 17 and six a week. I gave mum a pound and then 17 and six I had to clothe myself, buy my running shoes. And it used to take me over six months to pay them off. They were five pound five each. And I got two pairs of those made. So I had to save to buy those and we had to provide our own starting blocks …

MS: And this is where you’re the fastest woman on the planet.

MJN:We had no money but when I think back, when we got married, we really only could afford the honeymoon and the ring. We had nowhere to go. His brother went away for a week’s holiday and we stayed there.

And then Peter’s boss lent us one of his bedrooms, and we lived in that for a long while. I never got anything out of athletics but the one thing I did see was the world. So I’m quite grateful for that.

MS: So you think of all the adversity that you have to overcome and no money, you were still able to have that achievement, you must feel so proud.

MJN:I am now, I didn’t really realise until later years, really, what I’ve done. And one of the grandchildren wanted to see one of my scrapbooks. And I’ve got, you know, got it down. And I thought, gee, I started to read them. And I thought I didn’t know it was that good?

So I was pleased to be able to repay my parents, and Lithgow (where she grew up) and Australia.

Yeah. I mean, I really love my country. And I was so proud that I’ll always be the first at something (Marjorie Jackson-Nelson was the first Australian woman to win an Olympic gold, beating hurdler Shirley Strickland by three days).

MS: You’ve said that first one, you won the first gold medal, it was something for your parents. So they had obviously given up a lot and sacrificed a lot for you to be able to achieve your goals.

MJN:They were you know, it’s as I’ve gotten older I’ve realised I should have thanked them more. I had a very wise father, which I didn’t appreciate at the time.

When I was 15, I had my photo in the paper. And I must have been going round with my head in the air. And then dad just took me in and he said, “Look. God gives us all a gift. Yours just happens to be running, you’re no better than anybody else. And don’t forget it.”

And then when I came back from the Olympics, the reporters said to my dad, well, you must be proud of your daughter now. And he said I’ve always been proud of her. And it didn’t affect them like I was.

Nothing was ever said much in the house about it. Like I remember I broke a world record at training, well I never went home and told them. It was just something I’d done. Until my trainer said to dad, where he worked with the Small Arms Factory, wasn’t that great. And he said, Marj didn’t tell me. I never thought to tell him. I was weird.

MS: What has this whole journey and everything that you’ve achieved? What does it taught you? What have you learned about yourself, perhaps through

MJN:My kids hate me saying this. But I always say “can’t” isn’t in my dictionary … although I’m starting to think differently now, because just lately I seem to be saying I can’t do this!

But when I was young, I just found as I went through life that we were really becoming a great nation of ants. You put a C in front of it, you’ve got “can’t” and you put a W in front of it and you got “want”.

And that brought it home to me when Peter died. And I realised we’re so wrapped up in money and material possessions that somewhere along the way, we’ve lost what life means and how to live it. And that really brought it home to me where I would have given up everything to have kept him.

So I think that was the message I’ve got out of life and everything I’ve done in my life, as Dad said to me when I won, you know, you’re now an Olympic champion, a world champion. You should set an example by the way you live your life.

And I’ve tried to do that in my 90 years.

MS: I think you’ve done that wonderfully well and not just on the track but certainly in everything else you’ve done since as governor and certainly leading a lot of the Commonwealth Games teams in that time. Sounds like your dad was a pretty wise man.

MJN:A wonderful human being and I … now I wished I’d have listened but at 15 and 16 you don’t.

And you learn the lessons of life. I mean, I’ve had so many knocks in my life, you wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through. But you either go under or you strive above it.

So, you know, when I lost Peter, I was left with three young children. Well, I had to bring them up.

And you know, I think the greatest achievement to me is our Peter Nelson leukaemia fund. We’ve put 10 researchers through now here in South Australia. And it’s now administered by the Cancer Council for me because I can’t do the fundraising now like I used to, but it’s still going.

I’m very, very proud of that, for what I did with leukaemia.

MS: You’ve raised an enormous amount of money for Peter’s foundation. You should be very proud of that.

MJN: Actually prouder than my gold medals. Because the gold medals really were for me, where if something can be found, through research, it’s helping other Australians. And that’s more important to me than any gold medal really. And that’s why I look at life anyway.

MS: Marj, are you a South Australian or a New South Welshwoman or what? How do you see yourself? A bit of both?

MJN: Yes. Well, this is the longest I’ve ever lived somewhere – here. From 1953.

MS: But you’re still a NSW girl at heart, obviously, from Lithgow

MNJ: They built a statue of me up there in Lithgow. I’ll always call Lithgow home.

MS: Does it sometimes feel that it was a completely different life?

MJN:Oh, yes. That’s what I say. That’s when I was reading these things the other day, it was like it was really about someone else. I didn’t realise the impact it had back here in Australia.

And you know, getting the telegram from the prime minister and all that, I thought that was wonderful.

And meeting the Queen over there, she had a meeting for the Commonwealth athletes and we went to Buckingham Palace and they came and just said to me the Queen wishes to meet you. That’s why I’ve been such a fan of hers.

But what got me was, she knew every race I had competed. And she knew every time that I’d done … and then of course, being governor, I ended up meeting her two or three times.

MS: All those years later, you were reacquainted. You had her over at your place this time?

MJN: I did. She stayed with me (at Government House). She stayed there two or three days.

MS: Now you’ve got to tell us about Prince Philip, because he was an interesting sort of guy and was happy to say anything that came into his mind. What was he like?

MJN:Oh, he was lovely. He was good fun. He was full of life. I don’t think he cared what he said. But you know, like he wasn’t holding back in any way. Whereas she’s more sedate.

But he, you could have a laugh, a real good laugh. No, I found him quite delightful to be honest.

MS: Marj, thank you so much, I feel very honoured that you’ve given me the chance to chat with you.