Joy Wilhelmina Jordan née Buckmaster (born 13 November 1935) is a former British (middle distance) athlete in the early 1960s, who held the world record for 880 yards in 1960 and competed at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

Biography

Born in

Farnborough, Hampshire Farnborough is a town located in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England. It has a population of around 57,486 as of the 2011 census and is an important centre of aviation, engineering and technology. The town is probably best known for it ...

, Buckmaster finished third behind Janet Ruff in the 440 yards event at the 1956 WAAA Championships. She married Dennis Jordan (who would be her coach at the 1960 Olympic Games), in 1957 in north-west Surrey and competed under her married name thereafter. Jordan became the national 880 yards champion after winning the British

WAAA Championships The WAAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Women's Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) in England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event for women during its lifetime. Since 1880, the Amateur Athl ...

title at the

1958 WAAA Championships The 1958 WAAA Championships were the national track and field championships for women in the United Kingdom. The event was held at Motspur Park, London, on 7 June 1958. Results + Held on 13 September at Stoke-on-Trent See also *1958 A ...

defeating her great rival

Diane Leather Diane Susan Leather Charles née Leather (7 January 19335 September 2018) was an English athlete who was the Mile run world record progression#Women, first woman to run a sub-5-minute mile. Inspired to take up running aged 19 after watching t ...

. The same year she competed in the 800 metres event at the

1958 European Athletics Championships The 6th European Athletics Championships were held from 19–24 August 1958 in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, Olympic Stadium of Stockholm, Sweden. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. Medal summary C ...

in Stockholm, where she came ninth in the final. On 14 June 1958 in London, she competed in the

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track and field, track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap, totaling 1600 meters. It is traditionally the final event of ...

in a British team which broke the world record with a time of 3:49.9. This record would hold until 5 August 1967, when a Swedish team took it to 3:49.4 at the Ryavallen,

Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 114,556 inhabitants in 2024. It is widely known for being a textile city, home to worldwide brands and companie ...

in Sweden. The event was only recognised by the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

in 1969. In 1959, she was ranked third in the world at 800m and successfully retained her WAAA title at the

1959 WAAA Championships The 1959 WAAA Championships were the national track and field championships for women in the United Kingdom. The event was held at Motspur Park, London, on 4 July 1959. Results + Held on 8 August at Wolverhampton See also *1959 AAA Ch ...

and the 1960 WAAA Championships. At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, she represented

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

aged 24, in the 800 metres competition, where she came sixth in the final with a time of 2:07.8. The world record was broken in the final by

Lyudmila Shevtsova Lyudmila Ivanovna Gurevitch (nee Shevtsova later Lysenko; born 26 November 1934) is a retired Russian-Ukrainian athlete who competed mainly in the 800 metres. On 3 July 1960, she set a world record in this event at 2 min 4.3 seconds. She equale ...

of the Soviet Union. A few weeks after the Olympics, in

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second Garden city movement, garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first New towns in the United Kingdom, new towns (designated 1948). It is ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

on 24 September 1960, she ran 2:06.1 for the 880 yards, taking the world record from

Nina Otkalenko Nina Grigoryevna Otkalenko (née Pletnyova; ; 23 May 1928 – 13 May 2015) was a Soviet middle-distance runner. She won a European title in the 800 m at the inaugural 1954 European Athletics Championships and set multiple world records in this ev ...

(2:06.6) of the Soviet Union. Nina Otkalenko held the 800m world record for most of the 1950s. After winning a fourth and fifth consecutive WAAA title at the

1961 WAAA Championships The 1961 WAAA Championships were the national track and field championships for women in the United Kingdom. The event was held at White City Stadium, London, on 8 July 1961. Results + Held on 29 July at Birmingham University See also ...

and 1962 WAAA Championships respectively, she competed in the 800 metres event at the

1962 European Athletics Championships The 7th European Athletics Championships were held from 12–16 September 1962 in the JNA Stadium in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (present-day Serbia). Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the ''Glasgow Herald''. Just before the m ...

in Belgrade, coming fourth in the final with a British record of 2:05.0, and her career best at the 800m, where

Gerda Kraan Gerarda "Gerda" Maria Kraan (; born 30 July 1933) is a retired female middle distance runner from the Netherlands, who twice represented her native country at the Summer Olympics: 1960 (Rome) and 1964 (Tokyo). In 1962 she won the gold medal i ...

of the Netherlands won. Also in 1962, Jordan competed in the

880 yards The 800 metres, or 800 meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event sin ...

at the

1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Perth, Western Australia, from 22 November to 1 December 1962. Athletic events were held at Perry Lakes Stadium in the suburb of Floreat and swimming events at Beatty Park in North ...

in Australia, where she gained a bronze for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

with 2:05.9. Jordan finished second behind Rita Lincoln in the 1 mile event at the

1967 WAAA Championships The 1967 WAAA Championships were the national track and field championships for women in the United Kingdom. The event was held at White City Stadium, London, from 30 June to 1 July 1967. It was the last time the Championships were held at Wh ...

Personal life

She lives in

Radcliffe-on-Trent Radcliffe-on-Trent is a village and civil parish in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the Census 2011 was 8,205, falling slightly at the Census 2021 to 8,144 Location Radcliffe has a po ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

. She had a daughter in 1964, and a son in 1966.

Reference

External links

British Athletics Hall of Fame

British Pathé October 1962
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Joy 1935 births Sportspeople from Farnborough, Hampshire People from Radcliffe-on-Trent Sportspeople from Hampshire Sportspeople from Nottinghamshire English female middle-distance runners British female middle-distance runners Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Athletes (track and field) at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games World record setters in athletics (track and field) Living people Medallists at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 20th-century English sportswomen Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics