Background
Strong was born in Cuddington, Cheshire and remained in the village throughout her career.
Strong was born in Cuddington, Cheshire and remained in the village throughout her career.
She studied at Northwich Grammar School Foreign Girls, now known as The County High School, Leftwich.
She went on to improve on that in the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane Australia, by getting the gold medal. With the eastern European countries absent through boycott at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Strong went into the 100 metres hurdles event as favourite. However, in the final Benita Fitzgerald-Brown of the United States ran the race of her life to take gold in 12.84 seconds, 0.04 seconds faster than the Briton.
She did earn selection for the European Championships later that year, but withdrew from the team
After competing in the 1987 indoor season she retired from athletics. At the height of her career Strong was among the most popular athletes in the United Kingdom among a public who regarded her as "one of us", and even admitted to having an occasional cigarette after a race.
60 metres hurdles – 8.11sec Cosford, United Kingdom 11 March 1984
100 metres hurdles – 12.87sec Zurich, SUI 24 August 1983 – British record 1983-1988.