Great Britain’s legendary ex-Olympic champion Mary Rand dies, aged 86
· Yahoo Sports
Legendary athlete Mary Rand, the first British woman to ever win Olympic gold in track and field, has died at the age of 86.
Great Britain’s original “golden girl”, Rand topped the podium in the long jump at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, doing so with a world-record leap of 6.76m.
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She then went on to achieve a feat that wouldn’t be replicated until Emma Finucane’s heroics at Paris 2024, adding pentathlon silver and 4x100m relay bronze to her Tokyo haul to become the only British female athlete to win three track and field medals in a single Games.
Born in the Somerset town of Wells on 10 February 1940, Rand passed away in California, where she lived with her husband John Reese.
“UK Athletics is saddened to hear of the death of Olympic, European and Commonwealth champion Mary Rand, at the age of 86,” a statement from British Athletics read.
Rand was voted the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year for her success in 1964 before being awarded an MBE in the 1965 New Year Honours.
Mary Rand were her three Olympic medals from Tokyo 1964 (Getty Images)She later took home long jump gold in the 1966 Commonwealth Games held in Kingston, Jamaica, going one better than the silver she had achieved eight years earlier at the event in Cardiff. She also won two bronze medals at the 1962 European Championships.
Rand retired from the sport just before the 1968 Mexico City Olympics after seriously damaging an Achilles tendon, which saw her miss out on the squad.
GB teammate Ann Packer, who similarly took home gold at the Tokyo Games, shared a room with Rand at the event and branded her as “the most gifted athlete I ever saw”.
“She was as good as athletes get, there has never been anything like her since. And I don't believe there ever will,” Packer said.
More to follow.