Marlene Judith Mathews AO (later Willard; born 14 July 1934) is a retired Australian Olympic sprinter.

[3] Mathews attended Fort Street High School in Sydney and began competing in athletics in the late 1940s.

A few days after her 16th birthday at the NSW Championships, she ran a great race at the New South Wales Championships 100 yards final, placing second to world record-holder Marjorie Jackson and beating four members of the Australian Empire Games team, including Olympic medalist Strickland.

[5] Mathews was considered a certainty to gain selection to the 1952 Summer Olympics before a leg injury forced her out of competition.

[11] This makes them the first female athletes added to the bronze sculptures in the Sydney Cricket Ground precinct.