Jean Pickering

Jean Pickering
MBE

Personal information
Birth name	Jean Catherine Desforges
Nationality	British
Born	(1929-07-04)4 July 1929 Forest Gate, London, England
Died	25 March 2013(2013-03-25) (aged 83)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 1952 Helsinki 4x100 metre relay European Athletics Championships 1950 Brussels 4×100 m 1954 Berne Long jump Representing  England Commonwealth Games 1954 Vancouver Long jump 1954 Vancouver 80 m hurdles

Jean Catherine Pickering MBE (née Desforges; 4 July 1929 – 25 March 2013)^[1] was a female track and field athlete from Great Britain, who competed mainly in the 80 metres hurdles and long jump.

She won bronze medals at the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games and is the only British woman to have won gold medals at the European Athletics Championships in both a track and a field event (4×100 m relay in 1950, long jump in 1954). During her career she set British records in the women's pentathlon and the long jump.

She and her husband, Ron Pickering, had a lasting impact on British athletics, particularly through the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund, which provides support to young track and field athletes. Her son, Shaun Pickering, followed in his mother's footsteps and went on to become an Olympian and a Commonwealth Games medallist, competing in the shot put.