LONDON: Mary Rand, the first British woman to win an Olympic athletics gold medal when she broke the long jump world record at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, has died aged 86, UK Athletics announced on Friday.

Rand broke the British and Olympic records with her first attempt of 6.59 metres in Tokyo and went on to smash the world record with a leap of 6.76m.

Rand’s distances in Tokyo were all the more impressive given she was jumping on a wet runway and into a 1.6m/s headwind.

At the same Games, she also won a silver medal in the multi-event pentathlon and was also a member of the British quartet that took bronze in the sprint relay.

Rand was the only British female athlete to win three medals at a single Olympics until track cyclist Emma Finucane equalled her feat in Paris two years ago.

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

The governing body 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 — went on to win long jump gold at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica.

But injury ended her dream of an Olympic title defence and she failed to make the squad for the Mexico Games of 1968, retiring in September of that year, aged just 28.

Britain’s 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 and had two daughters.

Rand later married John Reese and continued to live in America, with a home in California before moving to Nevada.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2026