Mary Rand

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Medal record
Competitor for United Kingdom
Women's athletics
Olympic Games
Gold	Tokyo 1964	Long Jump
Silver	Tokyo 1964	Pentathlon
Bronze	Tokyo 1964	4 x 100 m relay
European Championships
Bronze	Belgrade 1962	Long Jump
Bronze	Belgrade 1962	4 x 100 m relay
Commonwealth Games
Silver	Cardiff 1958	Long Jump
Gold	Kingston 1966	Long Jump

Mary Denise Rand, MBE, (née Bignal) (born 10 February 1940) in Wells, Somerset is a former British track-and-field athlete. She won the gold medal in the long jump at the 1964 Summer Olympics, becoming the first-ever British female to win an Olympic gold medal in a track and field event. Six days later, room-mate Ann Packer won gold in the 800 metres.

She now lives in the United States [1].

There is a plaque commemorating the world record long jump (6.76 metres) by Rand at the 1964 Olympic Games located in the Market Place at Wells, Somerset, England, where she was born and grew up.

At the age of 17, Rand set a British national record of 4046 points in the pentathlon [2]. She won a silver medal in the 1958 Commonwealth Games long jump and came seventh in the European pentathlon championships.

In the 1960 Olympics, she set a British record of 6.33m in the qualifying round, which if repeated, would have won her a silver in the final. In the final she fouled two of the three jumps and finished ninth. She also finished fourth in the 80m hurdles. She won a bronze medal in the European Championship long jump in 1962.

At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, to add to her gold in the long jump, she won a silver medal in the pentathlon (her total of 5035 points putting her in second place in the all-time rankings), and then a bronze as a member of the Great Britain team that finished third in the 4x100 metres relay.[3]

Rand was awarded the Member of the British Empire in the 1965 New Year's Honours List and voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 1964.

In 1966, she won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games long jump. Due to injury, she failed to make the 1968 British Olympic team and decided to retire in September that year.

She was succeeded as the 'golden girl' of British athletics by her good friend and London Olympiades club-mate, Lillian Board

[edit] References

Olympic champions in women's long jump
1948: Olga Gyarmati \| 1952: Yvette Williams \| 1956: Elżbieta Krzesińska \| 1960: Vera Krepkina \| 1964: Mary Rand \| 1968: Viorica Viscopoleanu \| 1972: Heide Rosendahl \| 1976: Angela Voigt \| 1980: Tatyana Kolpakova \| 1984: Anişoara Cuşmir-Stanciu \| 1988: Jackie Joyner-Kersee \| 1992: Heike Drechsler \| 1996: Chioma Ajunwa \| 2000: Heike Drechsler \| 2004: Tatyana Lebedeva

British Olympic champions in women's athletics
1964: Mary Rand (long jump) \| 1964: Ann Packer (800 m) \| 1972: Mary Peters (pentathlon) \| 1984: Tessa Sanderson (javelin) \| 1992: Sally Gunnell (400 m hurdles) \| 2000: Denise Lewis (heptathlon) \| 2004: Kelly Holmes (800 m & 1500 m)