Frances Slaap

Both of Frances Slaap´s parents were Dutch nationals who obtained British citizenship in 1934. Frances took up athletics while at school and specialised in both the high and long jump before concentrating on the former. She won the 1957 WAAA intermediate title and the following year was selected for the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff.

A member of the Ruislip & Northwood club, one of her coaches was the former world champion and double Olympic silver medallist Dorothy Odam-Tyler. At the end of the 1959 season the four-times Olympian changed Slaap´s jumping style and it paid dividends as she made her international début against the Netherlands in 1960. Less than a month after winning the All-England Inter-Counties schools title at Shrewsbury, she was called up for the Roma Olympics, where she finished sixth.

Slaap was twice the WAAA champion, in 1964 and 1965, having previously been runner up to the legendary Iolanda Balaș in 1962. Also in 1964, Slaap attended her second Olympics with another sixth place, and that year broke the British Record with a jump of 5´9 ¼” (1.76 m), a record that stood until Barbara Inkpen lowered it in 1969.

Despite finishing second to Dorothy Shirley at the WAAA in 1966, Slaap missed out on selection for both the European Championships and the Kingston Commonwealth Games that year. Disappointed, the Harrow College for Girls biology teacher quit the sport and emigrated to Australia a few months later, but resumed her high jump career in the hope of gaining international selection for her “new” country.

Slaap returned to England in 1969 and competed in the WAAA Championships, finishing third. She later competed in Seniors events and was the 1995 Middlesex Seniors high jump champion one month before her 54th birthday.

Personal Best: HJ – 1.76 (1964).