Ideals Are Like Stars: The Dame Yvette Williams Story - Angela Walker

The first New Zealand woman to win an Olympic gold medal, a feat not repeated for forty years.

Ideals Are Like Stars is the remarkable true story of Yvette Williams, a trailblazing young athlete who defied the odds to win gold in the long jump at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. Ignoring the pressure to abandon her dreams and become a housewife, Yvette’s sports career is a highlight reel of newly set records which propelled her into the spotlight. Well-known for her rigorous training, down-to-earth nature and sense of humour, Yvette was the epitome of the Kiwi sporting hero – humble, hardworking and dedicated – who won the hearts of the nation. To this day she is regarded as a national treasure and her story is destined to inspire many young Kiwi athletes to follow in her wake.

Author Angela Walker has written a remarkably intimate narrative account of the life of one of our nation’s finest athletes. Angela, who herself competed at the Olympics (Seoul) 36 years after Yvette, has drawn on never-before-seen diaries, as well as interviews with the late Kiwi icon to recreate the day-to-day world of Yvette on the page. This is a long overdue celebration of an extraordinary sporting life and a highly engaging chronicle of a young woman’s quest for excellence.