Story: New Zealand identity

'It's leap year'

'It's leap year'

On 23 July 1952 Yvette Williams won the gold medal for the long jump at the Helsinki Olympic Games.  Three days later Sid Scales mused on the achievement in this cartoon published in the Otago Daily Times, Williams's home-town paper. She had already won a gold in the event at the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland, and at the Vancouver Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954 she won three gold medals – in the long jump, shotput and discus. In that year she also broke the world record for the long jump. Williams's success made her a national heroine and confirmed ideas of New Zealanders as physically strong and adept.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: H-721-030
Cartoon by Sid Scales

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page:

Fiona Barker, 'New Zealand identity - War and sport', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/cartoon/34610/its-leap-year (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Fiona Barker, published 20 Jun 2012