Louise Alexandra "Alix" Stevenson (née Jamieson; born 31 March 1942) is a Scottish retired athlete. She competed for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

in the women's long jump at the 1964 Summer Olympics in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan.

Career

Trained by the respected coach John Anderson, Jamieson was a national champion in multiple events (as well as a Scotland international in

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

)Scots Olympic couple recall 'amazing experience' of last of the 'Goodwill Olympics' at Tokyo 1964
Jack Davidson, 21 July 2021 and still holds the record for most golds won overall at the Scottish Athletics Championships with 16 claimed over a decade between 1960 and 1970 (two in the

100-yard dash 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length&nb ...

, three in the

80 metres hurdles 80 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling ran by women until 1972 in international competitions. Since the 1972 Summer Olympics, the event has been permanently replaced by the 100 metre hurdles. Masters athletics The distance, with different s ...

, seven in the long jump and four in the pentathlon). At British level, she claimed a long jump gold medal in 1964 at the AAA Indoor Championships and a pentathlon bronze at the 1966

AAA Championships The AAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association of England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event in the United Kingdom during its lifetime, despite the existence of the officia ...

. On a wider platform, she entered three events at the

1958 Commonwealth Games The 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games (Welsh: Gemau Ymerodraeth Prydain a'r Gymanwlad 1958) were held in Cardiff, Wales, from 18–26 July 1958. Thirty-five nations sent a total of 1,130 athletes and 228 officials to the Cardiff Games ...

(100 yards, 220 yards and high jump, though without great success), again made little impact on the 100 yards event at the 1966 Games however achieved fourth place in the long jump event, then focused solely on the long jump at her 'home' games at

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, but finished in fourth just outside the medals once more. At the 1964 Olympics, she qualified for the final group with the exact distance required – 6.00m – but was unable to match or better this score in the final; British teammate

Mary Rand Mary Denise Rand, MBE (née Bignal on 10 February 1940) is an English former track and field athlete. She won the long jump at the 1964 Summer Olympics by breaking the world record, the first British female to win an Olympic gold medal in track ...

won the gold medal and recorded a world record jump (6.76m) in the competition.

Personal life

Jamieson attended

Hutcheson's Grammar School Hutchesons' Grammar School is a co-educational independent day school for pupils aged 3-18 in Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded as Hutchesons' Boys' Grammar School by George Hutcheson and Thomas Hutcheson in 1641 It is a selective school, ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, and during her time there was awarded the nationwide 'Frances Barker Shield' for outstanding performance on three occasions. In 2009, the school's new multi-sport facility was named the ''Alix Jamieson Stadium'' in recognition of her achievements. She is one of several talented sportspeople in her family: her father Andrew was a golfer who won the

Scottish Amateur The Scottish Amateur is the national amateur match play golf championship of Scotland. It has been played since 1922 and is organised by the Scottish Golf Union. It is a "closed" event with entry currently restricted to those who were either bor ...

championship, represented Scotland and Great Britain (

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

) in team play and briefly achieved fame when he unexpectedly beat Bobby Jones, one of the leading talents of the era; her younger sister Jinty was also an athlete who competed alongside her in the 1970 Commonwealth Games; her second cousin Jean Westwood was a multiple

World champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

ice dancing Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...

; and her husband David Stevenson was a fellow competitor in the 1964 Olympics in the pole vault event. As the operators of a successful textile business (

Edinburgh Woollen Mill Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) is a Carlisle-based retailer specialising in clothing, along with interests in homewares and destination shopping for tourists. It was previously owned by the Dubai-based British billionaire Philip Day. The company ...

), together they owned several racehorses, with Gordon W. Richards as trainer.The Boss: The Life and Times of Horseracing Legend Gordon W. Richards
John Budden; Random House, 2012;

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamieson, Alix 1942 births Living people People educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Scottish female field hockey players Scottish female long jumpers Scottish female sprinters Olympic athletes for Great Britain Commonwealth Games competitors for Scotland Athletes (track and field) at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Glasgow 20th-century Scottish women 21st-century Scottish women