Gillian Sheen

Gillian Mary Donaldson MBE (née Sheen; born 21 August 1928) is a British former fencer and Olympic champion in foil competition. She won a gold medal in the women's individual foil event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.[1][2] She also competed at the 1952 and 1960 Summer Olympics.[2]

Gillian Sheen MBE
Personal information
Born (1928-08-21) 21 August 1928
Willesden, London, England
Sport
SportFencing
Medal record
Women's fencing
Representing  United Kingdom
Olympic Games
1956 Melbourne Foil Individual
Representing  England
British Empire & Commonwealth Games
1954 VancouverFoil individual
1958 CardiffFoil individual

Fencing career

Sheen first took up the sport while studying at North Forland School in Kent, and won the schoolgirls title in 1945. In 1947, she took the Junior Championships and went to University College Hospital in London to become a dental surgeon. In 1949, she won her first senior national title and took the British Universities title for five consecutive years. In 1951, she won a gold medal at the World Universities Championships.

Sheen participated in the 1952 Summer Olympics but was eliminated in the second round. She went back to the Olympics in 1956 and took the gold medal for Great Britain.[3] She won with a classic technique in a period when advancing athleticism was changing the sport.[4] The press hailed her as a middle-class figure and emphasized her age (28) and gender so that she was seen as a "dark horse" competitor.[5]

She represented England and won a silver medal in the individual foil at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada.[6][7] Four years later she won the gold medal in the same event at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff.

She competed until 1963, winning her tenth and final British Championship in 1960.[8]

Personal life

She married and moved to New York City. There, she set up a dental and orthodontic practice with her husband.[3] She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to UK sport.[9]

Further reading

Sheen, Gillian. Instructions to Young Fencers (1958) Museum Press

References
  1. "Olympics Statistics: Gillian Sheen". databaseolympics.com. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  2. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Gillian Sheen". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  3. Williams, Jean (24 April 2014). A Contemporary History of Women's Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850–1960. Routledge. ISBN 9781317746669.
  4. Miller, David (19 April 2012). The Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC – Part II: The Post-War Years (1948–1980). Random House. ISBN 9781780575063.
  5. Wagg, Stephen; Andrews, David (10 September 2012). East Plays West: Sport and the Cold War. Routledge. ISBN 9781134241682.
  6. "Athletes and results". Commonwealth Games Federation.
  7. "1954 Athletes". Team England.
  8. "Dental Olympians". British Dental Journal. 213 (2): 52. 28 July 2012. doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.2012.630. ISSN 0007-0610.
  9. "No. 62666". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 2019. p. B23.


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