Mary Heaton

Originally, Great Britain was not sending a gymnastics team to the 1936 Berlin Olympics but just five weeks before the scheduled start of the competition, they decided to send a women’s team and hastily arranged trials at Stamford Hill, London. Mary Heaton, affectionately known as “Hoddy”, was the most successful member of the squad.

Hailing from Bingley, a hotbed of Northern gymnastics in the 1930s and 40s, Heaton was coached by Olympic bronze medallist Carrie Pickles, and won the Bradford and District individual, and Yorkshire individual titles. She was also runner-up in the Northern Counties Championship in 1937. At the Berlin Games, Heaton was Britain’s highest placed gymnast, finishing in 51st place. Also, her 33rd place on the balance beam was the best on a single piece of apparatus by any of the British girls.