Mary Rand, first British woman to win Olympic athletics gold, dies aged 86

Mary Rand, the first British woman to win an Olympic track-and-field gold medal, has died aged 86.

Rand claimed the long jump title in Tokyo in 1964, breaking the British and Olympic records with her first attempt of 6.59 metres and going on to smash the world record with a leap of 6.76m.

She also won silver in the inaugural women’s pentathlon and bronze as a member of the 4x100m relay team in Japan, becoming the first British woman to win three medals at a single Olympic Games.

In a post on X, UK Athletics said it was “saddened to hear of the death of Olympic, European and Commonwealth champion Mary Rand, at the age of 86”.

UK Athletics added: “She became the first British woman to win three medals at a single Olympic Games at Tokyo 1964 and blazed a trail for women in the sport.”

Rand, whose first husband was British rower Sydney – with the couple having a daughter, Alison, who was two years old at the time of her Olympic triumph – went on to win long jump gold at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica.

Injury, though, ended her Olympic title defence and she failed to make the squad in 1968, retiring in September of that year, aged just 28.

Rand was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1964 and was made an MBE in the 1965 New Year Honours.

Over the course of her career, she won 12 national titles across long jump, high jump, sprint hurdles and pentathlon.

Ann Packer, who won Olympic 800m gold in 1964 and was Rand’s room-mate in Tokyo, described her as “the most gifted athlete I ever saw”.

In 1969, Rand married her second husband, American Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic decathlon champion and emigrated to the United States. They were together 22 years, having two daughters, Samantha and Sarah.

Rand later married John Reese and continued living in the US, with a home in California and then moving to Nevada.