About Mary Rand
Mary Denise Rand (née Bignal; 10 February 1940 – 26 March 2026) was an English athlete who excelled at jumping, hurdles and the pentathlon. She won the long jump at the 1964 Summer Olympics by breaking the world record, the first British female to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics. Until 2024, Rand was the only British female athlete to win three medals in a single Olympics. == Early life == She was born Mary Bignal on 10 February 1940 in Wells in Somerset, where she grew up. Her father, Eric Bignal, was a chimney sweep and window cleaner while her mother, Hilda, was a nurse. Millfield School, which has educated many Olympic athletes, offered her an athletics scholarship when she was 16. She excelled in all sports and won All-England Schools' titles but was expelled for a romantic dalliance with a former pupil of the school. She was outstanding at high jump, long jump and hurdles. She was a guest of the Olympic squad at a training camp in Brighton in 1956, where she beat Britain's best high jumpers. == Athletics career == Aged 17, she set a British record of 4,046 points in the Pentathlon.
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