Mary Rand, the British track and field athlete who blazed a trail for women by winning three Olympic medals at the Tokyo Games in 1964, has died at the age of 86.<\/p>\n
Rand was one of the giants of her sport: the epitome of speed, power and grace. Her long jump victory in Tokyo made her Britain\u2019s first female Olympic gold medallist in athletics, and she followed it up with a silver in the pentathlon and a bronze in the 4x100m relay.<\/p>\n
That supreme talent was also fused with 60s style. She was famously called \u201cMarilyn Monroe on spikes\u201d by one journalist, because of her blonde highlights, while Mick Jagger declared her to be his dream date.<\/p>\n
After Rand\u2019s death was announced, the tributes were led by Mary Peters, one of her four roommates in Tokyo and a pentathlon gold medallist at the 1972 Games, who told the Guardian: \u201cShe was the golden girl of her era and the most gifted athlete I ever saw.<\/p>\n
Rand during the long jump at Tokyo 1964, where she finished with a world record and the gold medal. Photograph: Hulton Archive\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cShe worked hard and played hard, and she was a very talented all-around athlete. She could swim, she could she could play netball, she was a hockey player. And if you put her on the trampoline she would do front and back flips.<\/p>\n
\u201cI even went with her to dart tournaments once at Crystal Palace, and whoever threw the first bullseye won a free set of golden darts. Naturally she got a bullseye with her first dart.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it is was a long jump performance on a rainy day in Tokyo that earned Rand her place in history. The gold medal that changed her life, she revealed to the Guardian\u2019s John Rodda, came following a lunch of chicken, cake and Ovaltine.<\/p>\n
Perhaps someone had hidden rocket fuel in Rand\u2019s drink too. Because despite jumping into a -1.6m headwind on a sodden tinder track, she broke the world record with a leap of 6.76m. To put that distance into context, it was just four centimetres shy of the distance required for bronze at the 2026 World Indoor Championships.<\/p>\n
Great Britain\u2019s 4x100m relay quartet with their bronze medals at the 1964 Olympics. Left to right: Janet Simpson, Dorothy Hyman, Daphne Arden and Mary Rand. Photograph: Rolls Press\/Popperfoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n