[1] Born in Cumberland, New South Wales, Caird began competing in athletics as a teenager, trained by the former coach of quadruple Olympic champion Betty Cuthbert, June Ferguson.

To the surprise of most observers, Maureen crossed the line just .07secs ahead of her fellow Australian, in a new electronic world record time of 10.39.

[1] This upset made Maureen Caird the youngest individual Olympic champion in athletics (at the time, that record was broken by Ulrike Meyfarth in 1972) and earned her the world number one ranking.

At the 1970 Commonwealth Games, she finished second behind Kilborn in the 100 m hurdles[1](which had replaced the 80 m internationally)—this was despite suffering from glandular fever during the event.

[4] Prior to these Games Maureen had won the 1970 Australian titles in both the 100m and 200m hurdles,defeating Pamela Kilborn and setting world records in the latter on 2 occasions.