She entered four events and two of them, long jump and discus, were scheduled to start an hour apart on the afternoon of the legendary "Mile of the Century" race between Roger Bannister and John Landy.

"But because the Duke of Edinburgh arrived at the stadium later than expected the discus was put back an hour, which meant the two events coincided," said Williams, one of New Zealand's all-time great athletes.

"This caused me a real problem as the long jump was held on one side of the stadium and the discus on the opposite side, 100 metres or more away.

"So I had to have one long jump then dash across the stadium, change from my long jump spikes to my discus throwing shoes, have a throw then head back for another long jump.

"This continued throughout the two competitions - 12 dashes across the stadium and 12 changes of shoes.

"I was very, very busy."

Despite all that, Williams won gold in both events.

"Considering the circumstances I believe that winning the two events at the same time was probably the best performance of my career," she said.

And what a career it was.

Williams was the first woman to be named New Zealand "sportsman" of the year, in 1950, when she was the star of the show at the Auckland Games, winning gold in the long jump and silver in the javelin despite the fact she had barely thrown one before.

She took the award again in 1952, the year she won Olympic long jump gold in Helsinki. After which, she was given a huge public reception in Auckland on her return, and open-car parades all the way home to Dunedin.

Six months before the Vancouver Games, at the age of 23, Williams broke the long jump world record set by the great Dutchwoman Fanny Blankers-Koen.

Both Williams and Blankers-Koen would have made outstanding pentathletes or heptathletes, but no such thing existed until the 1960s and the women's multi-disciplinary events were not part of the Commonwealth Games until 1970. 

"Yes, I would have liked it if the pentathlon or heptathlon had been on the programme," Williams once said. 

"There was a pentathlon organised for me in Dunedin once and I think I went quite close to the world record."

Williams was not only an outstanding all-round track and field athlete, she also played basketball for her country.

After she won Olympic gold in the long jump in 1952, New Zealand had to wait 40 years to cheer their next female Olympic champion, sailor Barbara Kendall in Barcelona.

Williams trained three times a day, as well as working full-time.

"I used concrete blocks and sandbags for weights," she said. "I would honestly say I trained harder than most athletes of today."

Williams married in 1954 and retired from athletics to start a family. She had four children, and taught PE at local schools.