Where is Mary Rand today?

[Mr. Plod]

For you youngsters, Mary Rand was a brilliant (and beautiful) natural athlete from Great Britain who won the long jump in a new world record and got silver in the pentathlon at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. She married Bill Toomey of the USA, who won the Olympic decathlon in 1968. She moved to California, but I believe that she was divorced from Bill Toomey in recent years.

Does anyone know where she is these days?

[jhc68]

Re: Where is Mary Rand today?

Mary Rand WAS knock-out beautiful (and I am sure, still is). Preceeding the Mexico City games Rand worked out at UCSB (where Toomey and Russ Hodge home-based as well, getting counsel from Coach Sam Adams)and she was the 2nd strongest woman I had ever known up to that time (the first being Joyce Hoffman, a legendary surfer.) And she was a wonderfully cordial lady as well. All of us undergrads were in love with her.

The conventional wisdom in the UCSB track community back then was that, although they were engaged, Toomey wanted to wait until after the games to be married so he could have equal status, a gold medal wedding so to speak! I heard that they were divorced some years later.

[Mr. Plod]

Re: Where is Mary Rand today?

I think she still lives in the Santa Barbara, CA area.

[ed gee]

Re: Where is Mary Rand today?

?