Dwain Anthony Chambers (born 5 April 1978) is a British
track
Track or Tracks may refer to:
Routes or imprints
* Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity
* Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across
* Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...
sprinter. He has won international medals at World and European levels and is one of the fastest European sprinters in the history of
athletics
Athletics may refer to:
Sports
* Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking
** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport
* Athletics (physical culture), competi ...
.
His primary event is the
100 metres, with a best of 9.97 seconds, which ranks him fifth on the British all-time list. He is the
European record holder for the
60 metres
60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior at ...
and
4×100 metres relay events with 6.42 seconds and 37.73 s respectively.
Chambers ran a 100 m
world junior record of 10.06 s in 1997 and became the youngest ever world medallist in the event at the
1999 World Championships, taking the bronze. On his
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
début at the
2000 Sydney Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
he was the best European performer in fourth place. He broke the
10-second barrier
The 10-second barrier is the physical and psychological barrier of completing the 100 metres sprint in under ten seconds. The achievement is traditionally regarded as the hallmark of a world-class male sprinter. Its significance has become less i ...
twice at the
2001 World Championships. In 2003 he received a two-year athletics ban after testing positive for
THG, a banned performance-enhancing drug and was stripped of the 100 m European title and record he achieved in 2002.
Chambers returned to competition in June 2006 and won gold with his teammates in the 4×100 m at the
2006 European Championships. He tried other sports, including a spell with the
Hamburg Sea Devils of the
NFL Europa league and a
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
trial with
Castleford
Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins the ...
. Sprinting success came over 60 m when he won silver at the
2008 World Indoor Championships, gold at the
2009 European Indoors, and became world champion at the
2010 World Indoor Championships.
Due to his doping ban, he was barred from the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, and much of the European racing circuit, from 2006 to 2012. The
Court of Arbitration for Sport
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...
overturned his lifetime Olympic ban, deeming it non-compliant with the
World Anti-Doping Code
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key ...
, and he competed in the
2012 London Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
. He produced a ghost-written autobiography with writer Ken Scott, ''Race Against Me'', in 2009. He is of
Afro-Caribbean
Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...
- Jamaican descent and has two sons with his partner Leonie Daley.
Biography
Early life and career
Chambers was born in
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
, and raised in
Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park is a public park in the London neighbourhood of Harringay. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey. It was one of the first of the great London parks ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
Running was a part of his family life: his older sister Christine won the senior
100 metres Finals at the English Schools Championships in 1986 and 1987 and competed in the
European Athletics Junior Championships
The European Athletics U20 Championships (formerly named the European Athletics Junior Championships up to 2015) are the European championships for athletes who are under-20 athletes, which is the age range recognised by World Athletics as jun ...
.
As a schoolboy he was coached by Selwyn Philbert who devoted himself to the young sprinter.
Chambers first athletic success came at the 1994
English Schools' Athletic Association Championships, where he won the boys' intermediate 100 m race with a time of 10.64 seconds.
International medals followed at the
1995 European Junior Championships, at which he won the 100 m and the
4×100 metres relay.
He defended these titles at the
1997 European Junior Championships, and set a then
world junior record in the 100 m with a time of 10.06 s.
[
Chambers transitioned into the senior ranks soon after, taking the 100 m ]silver medal
A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...
behind his British teammate Darren Campbell
Darren Andrew Campbell, (born 12 September 1973) is a British former sprint athlete. He was the sprint coach at Wasps Rugby Club for the 2015–16 season. He competed in the 100 metres and 200 metres, as well as the 4 × 100 metres relay.
...
at the 1998 European Championships. He achieved a new personal best in September at the 1998 IAAF World Cup
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
with a run of 10.03 s for third place and won a relay gold medal. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games
The 1998 Commonwealth Games ''(Malay: Sukan Komanwel 1998)'', officially known as the XVI Commonwealth Games ''(Malay: Sukan Komanwel ke-16)'', was a multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This edition is marked by several unprecedent ...
he was a 100 m semi finalist and set a games record as part of the 4×100 m relay team. His ability attracted the attention of former sprinter and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Mike McFarlane
Michael Anthony McFarlane OBE (born 2 May 1960) is a retired British athlete who competed mainly in the 100 metres and 200 metres. He won an Olympic silver medal in the 4×100 metres relay at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He was the 200 m go ...
, who became his coach.[ He came first in the 100 m in the 1999 ]European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
, then at a meet in Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
he became only the second European sprinter (after Linford Christie
Linford Cicero Christie (born 2 April 1960) is a Jamaican-born British former sprinter. He is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100 metres at all four major competitions open to British athletes: the Olympic Games, the World ...
) to break the ten second barrier with a time of 9.99 s.[ Fellow British sprinter ]Jason Gardener
Jason Carl Gardener, (born 18 September 1975) is a retired British sprint athlete. A fast starter from the blocks, he won an Olympic gold medal leading off Great Britain in the 4 x 100 metres relay at the 2004 Olympic Games, and is also the ...
scored a time of 9.98 s in Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
soon after, becoming the third Briton to break the barrier. In spite of this, Chambers remained some distance behind his North American counterparts.
Seville World Championships to Sydney Olympics
In his first major outing on the world stage, Chambers attained a new personal best at the 1999 World Championships in Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
, registering a time of 9.97 s for third place in the 100 m final. This made the 21-year-old the youngest ever World Championships
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, ...
100 m medallist.[ North Americans dominated the event as Maurice Greene and ]Bruny Surin
Bruny Surin (born July 12, 1967) is a Canadian former track and field athlete, winner of a gold medal in the 4×100 metres relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known a ...
took first and second place respectively, with record runs of 9.80 s and 9.84 s, respectively. The British sprint team Chambers, Gardener, Campbell and Marlon Devonish
Marlon Ronald Devonish, (born 1 June 1976) is an English former sprinter who competed in the 100 metres and 200 metres. A prodigious relay runner with particular strength as a 'bend' runner, Devonish ran the third leg for the Great Britain q ...
performed well in the 4×100 metres relay event as runners-up in a time of 37.73 s behind the US team led by Greene. World record holder Maurice Greene was hitting his peak, winning three gold medals in Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
. However, at 21 years old, Chambers had achieved more than Greene had at that age: Greene's best was 10.08 s in 1996 and he had never reached a major final.
With the 2000 Sydney Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
approaching, Chambers studied the technique of other sprinters. In an interview with BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, Chambers commented on the stamina Greene and Surin had gained from running in the
event.
He experimented with distances at the beginning of 2000, sprinting over 50, 60 and 200 m in various competitions. He set a personal best of 6.55 s in the 60 m event in
in February.