Personal details
Full Name:
- Yvette Winifred Corlett
Lifetime:
- 25 Apr 1929–13 Apr 2019
Biography

The sports writer Peter Heidenstrom rated Yvette Williams as his 'New Zealand Athlete of the Century'. There is no doubt that she was one of our greatest-ever athletes - and probably the most versatile.
Read more...Events In History
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20 February 1954Yvette Williams sets world long jump record
Eighteen months after winning the long jump at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Williams set a new world record of 20 feet 7½ inches (6.29 m) at an athletics meeting in Gisborne. Read more...
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23 July 1952Yvette Williams leaps to gold at Helsinki
Yvette Williams (later Corlett) won the long jump to become New Zealand’s first female Olympic medallist. Read more...
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Main image: Yvette Williams jumping, 1954
Yvette Williams jumping at Carisbrook, Dunedin