Anne Audain

For trailblazing endurance star Anne Audain, no obstacle was too tough on her journey to the top of the global distance running tree.

Adopted as a baby and born with a bone deformity in both feet, the Aucklander underwent successful corrective surgery to later become one of the world’s first professional female athletes, a world 5000m record-holder and Commonwealth 3000m champion, in a story fit for a Hollywood blockbuster.

Raised in Otahuhu in South Auckland, her adopted parents noticed as a toddler she walked by shuffling on her heels and doctors later identified the bone deformity. Advised to undergo the surgery when her bones would be adequately strong at age 13, Anne was the victim of school bullying.

“I was teased and pushed on to a concrete water fountain at the age of seven or eight and I almost lost my sight in one eye,” she recalls of one unsavoury incident.

It was only the quick work of medics which saved her sight and she was to thank doctors again when she underwent the necessary corrective bone surgery. The complicated operation involved scraping off excess bone and re-attaching tendons to the big toe to allow Anne to use the front part of her foot.

“When the plaster casts came off I looked down and my feet looked like everybody’s feet,” she says. “It was a real thrill.”

Having never previously played sport, she decided at the age of 14 to follow in the footsteps of many of her neighbours and school-mates and join the local Otahuhu Athletics Club.

She tried all the athletics events but quickly found an aptitude for middle-distance running and cross country, winning the Auckland senior cross country title and placing third in the Auckland senior women’s 800m at the age of 15.

Excited by her running ability, the 1956 Olympic 5000m silver medallist Gordon Pirie started coaching the fledgling talent and her progression continued.

Aged just 16, she qualified for the 1972 Munich Olympics in the 800m and 1500m but, just three weeks before the Games, she was withdrawn from the New Zealand team. “They said I was too young to go, which in hindsight was the right decision,” she explains. “I was too young, it would have been an overwhelming experience.”

However, such was her talent, Anne was to make her international debut the following year at the inaugural IAAF (now World Athletics) World Cross Country Championships in Belgium, placing an outstanding ninth in the senior women’s race (there was no junior race back then) at the age of 17.

“It was a very exciting trip, a whole bunch of fun when I landed at Auckland Airport. It was, ‘Wow, that was amazing but now I have to go back to the real world’,” she recalls.

A student at Auckland Teachers College, she went on to compete in front of Kiwi fans at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, finishing sixth in the 1500m final.

In 1975, she earned another top-ten spot at the World Cross Country Championships in Rabat before winning selection – after completing the national 800m and 1500m double – to make her Olympic debut in Montreal in 1976.

Anne has happy memories of watching John Walker strike 1500m gold and Dick Quax take silver in an absorbing men’s 5000m final – although the experience in Canada was challenging as a Kiwi because of the African boycott triggered by New Zealand’s decision to play South Africa, an apartheid state, at rugby.

“All the African athletes had arrived in the Athletes’ Village but I watched them pack up and go home because of the boycott,” recalls Anne. “New Zealand was not very popular and we were booed as we walked into the stadium, which was not a fun experience.”

Anne herself failed to advance beyond the heats of the 800m and 1500m but set a New Zealand record in the latter event of 4:10.68.

“I broke my New Zealand record and you can’t ask for anything better than that,” she says. “But, at that time, I just wasn’t good enough on the world stage.”

Despite struggling with ongoing foot injuries when competing in cross country, in 1977 she returned to compete in the World Cross Country Championships in Dusseldorf. Once again Anne performed with distinction, finishing the top New Zealander in ninth.

In 1978, she suffered a badly-sprained ankle after being knocked over by a car during a training session at the Auckland Domain and missed the opportunity to compete at the Edmonton Commonwealth Games.

Following the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and increasingly frustrated with her coach, Anne split from Pirie and quit the sport.

Yet salvation came in the form of her second coach, John Davies, the 1964 Olympic 1500m bronze medallist. Davies had guided Mike Ryan to Olympic marathon bronze at the 1968 Olympic Games and was also achieving some great results with Anne’s fierce Kiwi middle-distance rival at the time, Lorraine Moller.

Anne, who never intended to return to the sport, took on the advice of her former mother-in-law, who suggested John as a possible coaching option. She wisely heeded her sage words. John was happy to coach the Aucklander and Anne was back training again after several months away.

“I was very grateful I got a second chance with John,” explains Anne. “He instantly made a difference. I was really out of shape when he took me on but we said, ‘Let’s have a go at making the next World Cross Country team in March 1981’. At the trials I finished sixth, and I only made the team by two seconds, but I think I surprised a lot of girls because I was overweight and out of shape. I was on my way under John.”

She went on to place 27^th at the World Cross Country Championships in Madrid but her life was quickly to take a different twist when she decided to relocate to live in the US.

Excited by the increasingly vibrant US road racing scene and encouraged by the fact Kiwi running stars Dick Quax, Rod Dixon and Lorraine Moller were all based in the States, she settled in Denver, Colorado.

Committing to six-to-ten-week programmes set by John, which were sent by mail, she thrived under the Lydiard training model. Introducing long runs into her weekly training regime every Sunday helped build her endurance base and she quickly saw the fruits of her labour.  

In her first US road race, she finished third over 10km in New Orleans, recording a swift 33:12 – despite tripping and falling at the start.

However, if the decision to move to the US was big, her world was to quickly spin on its axis after accepting an invitation to compete in the 15km Cascade Run Off in Portland, Oregon.

Organised by Phil Knight of Nike, the ‘game-changing race’ would openly offer $50,000 in prize money with $10,000 each for the winning man and woman.

In an era of amateurism, the top athletes could not be rewarded, although ‘under-the-table’ payments were frequent. Yet Anne – alongside fellow Kiwis Allison Roe and Lorraine Moller, who also competed in Portland – decided to take a stand against the hypocrisy.

“I had travelled the European track circuit and had seen all the under-the-table money the men were getting,” explains Anne. “I understood the consequences that I could receive a lifetime ban from the sport by competing in the race, but I just wanted to be a professional,” explains Anne. “My aim was to finish fifth or sixth and to earn enough money to stay in the States a bit longer, but I ended up winning the race and receiving $10,000.”

The response? “I immediately got a telegram from the New Zealand AAA telling me I was now a banned athlete.”

The reaction in the States, however, was quite different. They welcomed the star Kiwi into races and, in 1981, she earned a total $22,000 in prize money that year and signed a Nike contract of $400 a week – which was three or four times more than she earned as a teacher back in New Zealand.

In 1982, she was in the form of her life. She went undefeated throughout the US road race season but she was not completely done with the track. Despite the ban which precluded her involvement in official track meets, she and her coach were keen to target the women’s world 5000m record.

John sidestepped the ban by organising a race at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium with official timers and she ran 15:13.22 to trim 1.29 seconds from the world record, although the mark at the time was not ratified.

Happy to continue to compete on the increasingly lucrative road running circuit, she had no plan to take part in the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane but was persuaded by John, who had heard rumours the ban would be lifted, that she could become New Zealand’s first female Commonwealth track gold medallist.

The rumours proved correct. Selectors could not bear the prospect of such a world-class performer being unavailable for selection and the ban was lifted one week before the Commonwealth Games. 

Anne approached the 3000m final in great shape but was told by John because of the windy conditions that in no circumstances should she her adopt her usual front-running tactics. The Kiwi vowed to heed her coach’s advice, but that was not how the race panned out.

“I had been drawn in lane one on the curve, a dangerous place to be,” she recalls. “I took off fast to protect myself to avoid being pushed or jostled, and I found myself out front. Twice I tried to slow down but nobody came past, so I said to myself ‘To hell with this, I’m just going for it’.”

Hitting the bell in front with only England’s Wendy Sly for company, she made her winning kick with 200m to go to claim a comfortable win by nearly three seconds in 8:45.53.

“I honestly don’t remember a lot about the race but I knew with 50m to go I’d won it,” she explains. “It was such a feeling of relief, after all the ups and downs, to have finally achieved what I always thought I was capable of. Here I was in 1982, the best year of my career, winning the Commonwealth title, undefeated on the road race circuit and they also later ratified my 5000m world record. I could have retired at that moment knowing I had reached the top.”

Finishing 1982 as a 5000m world record holder and world number two in the 10,000m, she figured those two events represented her best chance of success at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

However, as neither event was on the Olympic programme, she instead targeted the inaugural Olympic women’s marathon.

“I never wanted to step up to the marathon, I never enjoyed the training, but I had no choice,” she explains.

Despite her misgivings about the marathon, she impressed on her maiden appearance over the 42.2km distance, running 2:32:15 at the 1983 Chicago Marathon – at that time the fastest ever marathon debut time by a woman. She had also banked the Olympic qualification time, although the selectors insisted she achieve the mark a second time, which she did at the 1984 Los Angeles Marathon.

However, the additional demands of preparing for and running a second marathon qualification mark took their toll at the Olympic Games. Approaching the race fatigued from her exertions and competing in hot temperatures, Anne struggled, quit at 21 miles (around 34km) and was hospitalised.

Anne claimed the final major championship medal of her career in 1986, when winning 10,000m silver at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. Struggling with a cold, she was outgunned in the final 600m by Scotland’s home hope Liz McColgan, but she was immensely proud of her efforts.

“Running that race with a cold made me very ill and it took me about two months to recover,” she recalls. “Considering I almost didn’t start, I was thrilled with a silver medal.”

The Auckland-raised athlete made her third and final Olympic appearance at the 1988 Seoul Games, finishing a respectable 11^th in the final in 32:10.47.

She also placed 11^th over 10,000m at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in her home city of Auckland before retiring from the sport the following year.

Post-retirement, Anne founded the Idaho Women’s 5km in Boise – a race which attracted at its peak some 17,000 female runners. Today it has reverted into a mixed event with races over 5km, 10km and the half marathon, and Anne works as the Chief Inspirational Officer.

Married to Chuck Whobrey in 1997, she has lived for the past 23 years in Southern Indiana. She has one daughter, Elizabeth, and three grandchildren.

Still running four to five miles every day, Anne looks back with enormous gratitude at her treasure trove of athletics memories.

“I don’t care how rich anyone is, a billionaire can’t buy my life or experiences,” she says. “No amount of money can purchase that.”

Written by Steve Landells