Jean Desforges

Jean Pickering , nee Desforges , (born July 4, 1929 in Forest Gate , † March 25, 2013 ) was a British athlete and Olympian. Pickering was an exceptional athlete, she was not only a sprinter, but also a long jumper, pentathlete and hurdler.

At the European Championships in Brussels in 1950 , she reached 5th place in the 80-meter hurdles and won the gold medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay race. At the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 , she won the relay bronze medal together with her teammates Sylvia Cheeseman , Heather Armitage and June Foulds , behind the team from the USA (gold) and the team from Germany (silver). In the 80-meter hurdles she was fifth.

In 1954 she became European champion in the long jump with a width of 6.04 m in Bern . At the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver in 1954 , she won the bronze medal in the 80-meter hurdles , behind the North Rhodesian Edna Maskell (gold) and the Canadian Gwen Hobbins (silver). At the same event she also won the bronze medal in the long jump, behind the New Zealander Yvette Williams (gold) and Thelma Hopkins (silver), who competed for Northern Ireland .

At the British Championships she won the gold medal over 80 meter hurdles in 1949, 1952, 1953 and 1954. In the long jump she won the gold medal in 1953 and 1954. In the pentathlon she won gold in 1953 and 1954.

Pickering was inducted into the Hall of Fame for English Athletics in 2011. She was married to trainer and BBC commentator Ron Pickering. Her Ron Pickering Foundation supported numerous athletes and distributed £ 1.3 million between 1991 and 2013. In 2010 she was appointed an MBE for this . Her son Shaun Pickering was also an athlete and participated in the 1996 Olympics in the shot put competition.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Ford: Athletics world pays tribute to former Broxbourne resident Jean Pickering ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Hertfordshire Mercury March 28th 2013
2. ↑ Hall of Fame - Inductees 2011 ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , www.englandathletics.org 
3. ↑ New Years Honors List 2010 ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 313 kB)  

Web links

• Jean Desforges in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Obituary in Athletics Weekly (English)