Margaret Thomas-Neale

Margaret Thomas was coached by Walter Maidment, and in 1951 was captain of the Cardiff Olympic Youth Club. She made her Olympic début at Helsinki in 1952. After finishing runner-up to Pat Hirst in the 1956 National Championships, Thomas (then known as Margaret Neale) came close to another Olympic selection. Hirst was the only female member of the British team at the Melbourne Games, but Neale was on stand-by as a reserve to travel to Melbourne in an emergency. Neale did get a call-up for her second Olympics at Roma four years later, however, by which time she had won the British title in 1957 and 1958, the Welsh title in 1958, and also had had two children.