Denise Boyd is a former Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n Olympic

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 sprinter

Sprint (race)

Sprints are short running events in athletics and track and field. Races over short distances are among the oldest running competitions. The first 13 editions of the Ancient Olympic Games featured only one event—the stadion race, which was a race from one end of the stadium to the other...

, who reached two Olympic finals in the 200 metres

200 metres

A 200 metres race is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 m track, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques are needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first...

 sprint. Boyd won the gold medal

Gold medal

A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...

 for 200 metres at the 1978 Commonwealth Games

1978 Commonwealth Games

The 1978 Commonwealth Games were held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from 3 to 12 August 1978, two years after the 1976 Summer Olympics were held in Montreal, Quebec...

 in Edmonton.

Boyd's best performances were:

• 100 m
  100 metres
  The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...
  
  : 11.35 (Moscow, 1980)
• 200 m: 22.35 (Sydney, 1980)
• 400 m
  400 metres
  The 400 metres, or 400 metre dash, is a common sprinting event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 . On a standard outdoor running track, it is exactly one lap around the track. Runners start in staggered positions and...
  
  : 51.48 (Melbourne, 1983)

Her husband, Ray Boyd

Ray Boyd

Raymond Boyd is a former athlete from Australia, who competed in the Pole vault.Boyd won eleven Australian Championships in the Pole Vault, ending his career on a high note when winning the Gold medal at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane...

 was also a Commonwealth Games champion and double-Olympic representative in the pole vault

Pole vault

Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long, flexible pole as an aid to leap over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, as well as the Cretans and Celts...

. The Boyds have three children, all of whom are successful athletes:

• Alana
  Alana Boyd
  Alana Boyd is an Australian Olympic pole vaulter.The 2008 Australian Champion, Boyd was selected for the 2007 World Championships, but did not make the final.Her personal best jump is 4.56 metres, achieved in July 2008 in Monaco...
  
   (born 10 May 1984) - 4.55 m Olympic pole vaulter

• Jacinta (born 10 February 1986) - 6.64 m long jump
  Long jump
  The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point...
  
  er

• Matthew (Matt) (born 29 April 1988) - 5.35 m pole vaulter