Overview
- UK Athletics confirmed her death on Friday at age 86, with no cause disclosed.
- At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics she won long jump gold with a 6.76m world record, added pentathlon silver and 4x100m bronze, and became the first British woman to win Olympic track-and-field gold.
- She captured long jump gold at the 1966 Commonwealth Games, then an Achilles injury cut short her 1968 Olympic bid and she retired that year at 28.
- Honours included BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1964, an MBE in 1965, and England Athletics Hall of Fame induction in 2009, and she later lived in the United States.
- Teammates and rivals paid tribute, with Ann Packer calling her “the most gifted athlete I ever saw”, and her three‑medal mark at one Games stood until track cyclist Emma Finucane matched it at Paris 2024.