Bobby McDonald (Yorta Yorta)

Event

• Sprinter

Biography

In the late 1880s to early 1900s Bobby McDonald was a star runner, but more so, his ingenuity changed the sport of athletics forever. In 1887, McDonald developed what we now know today as the ‘crouch start’. McDonald initially developed this 'sitting style' to counter the cold and the strong winds while awaiting the starter's gun.

“I first got the idea of the sitting style of start (as I always called it) to dodge the strong winds, which made me feel cold and miserable while waiting for the starter to send us away,” McDonald told The Referee in 1913.

“One day while sitting down, almost, the starter sent us away, and I found that I could get off the mark much quicker than ever I could standing, and afterwards I always used the sitting or crouch start. I never saw anyone using what is known as the crouch start before I did.”