Rand, who was born in Wells, Somerset, on 10 February 1940, was a prodigious expertise, attending Millfield School on a sports activities scholarship earlier than being expelled after going to Paris along with her then boyfriend and turning into engaged.
She burst on to the worldwide scene at 18 with lengthy soar silver on the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, and set a British file on her Olympic debut in Rome in 1960.
Four years later and now a spouse and mom to the primary of her three daughters, Rand set an Olympic file along with her first-round soar. Her remaining soar of 6.76m broke the world file.
In an period of amateurism, all her success got here when she was working part-time within the postal workplace at a Guinness manufacturing facility in London.
She was described as “Marilyn Monroe on spikes” by a former nationwide athletics coach and in addition caught the attention of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.
“I was at the BBC one day and the Beatles were there. I met two of them – Ringo [Starr] and George [Harrison] I think,” Rand informed Sky Sports in 2023.
“And then Mick Jagger – I never actually met him, but they asked him if he could go on a date with anybody and he said it would be me.”
