When Quita Shivas was at school she won every sports race, so it was no surprise when she enrolled at the University in 1946 that she continued her passion for athletics and won every event she entered. She went on to become one of the UK’s most accomplished runners and the country’s first woman doctor to run in the Olympics.
Born in Aberdeen in April 1925, Isobel was nicknamed Quita at a young age. She attended Aberdeen High School for Girls and, as a teenager during World War II, regularly went firewatching during the lethal bombings that Aberdeen endured.
After leaving school she worked in University’s pathology department before enrolling as a medical student.
While studying, she was a member of the university’s athletics, hockey and golf clubs, gained an athletics full blue in 1946 and was vice president of Aberdeen University Athletic Association from 1949-50. She was also in the Scottish University Athletic Union for several years and its woman’s captain in 1949. Her triumphs included silver at the 1947 Paris World Student Games, gold and bronze at the same event four years later in Luxemburg and gold at the British Women’s Amateur Athletic Association championships. She also set a new inter-university record and equalled the Scottish all- comers’ record.
She graduated MB ChB from Aberdeen in 1951 and moved to London where she pursued her athletics career, joining Spartan Ladies Athletics Club while working at Hammersmith Hospital. She continued to race, and win, regularly before fulfilling her ambition by being selected to represent Britain in the 100yds at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 where she came third in her heat.
After reaching the Olympics she retired from athletics to concentrate on her medical career. She completed her post-graduate training in the north of Scotland and thoroughly enjoyed her time in Insch, Aberdeenshire, during her GP training. She qualified as an anaesthetist in 1956 and while living in Edinburgh met her future husband, Stuart Barber, a forestry consultant.
They married in Aberdeen in 1963 and lived in Edinburgh but, within a couple of years and following the birth of their daughter Judith, they moved to Newstead, near Melrose, where they spent the rest of their married life.
Quita maintained her interest in athletics throughout her life before passing away in 2013 aged 87. She was a true boundary breaker in the world of sport and her legacy continues at the University to this day, thanks to the support of her daughter Judith, through the Quita Shivas Athletics Fund which supports the Athletics Club.
