![Emily Freeman 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Emily_Freeman_2008.jpg)
Emily Kaye Freeman (born 24 November 1980) is a retired British athlete from
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
, England, personal trainer and co-founder of training and mindset company Totally Runable.
Freeman competed both nationally and internationally between 2006 and her retirement from athletics in 2014. She represented England and
Team GB
Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. I ...
in the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
,
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, ...
,
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
and
European Championships
The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...
, specialising in
100m
The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...
,
200m
The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a Sprint (running), sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run th ...
sprints and 4 × 100 m relay. Freeman worked for several years as a personal trainer with Pro Fit Personal Training at Total Fitness Gym in Wakefield. She co-founded Totally Runable after her retirement and now works full-time for that social enterprise company in and with schools, pupils, staff and parents, with the aim of inspiring and empowering others to be the people they dream of being.
Early life and education
Freeman was born in
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...
, West Yorkshire, the daughter of Paul David Freeman, a GP and Susan Elizabeth Freeman, a Nurse. She has 1 younger sister, Amy Jane Freeman-Hughes. Growing up in
Mirfield
Mirfield () is a town and civil parish in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury. At the 2011 census it had a population of 19,563. Mirfield f ...
, West Yorkshire, Freeman attended Primary School in Battyeford before Heckmondwike Grammar School, where she completed her GCSEs. From 1997 to 1999 she attended Greenhead College to take A-Levels in PE, Maths and Chemistry.
Freeman began her degree at the University of Birmingham in 1999, where she lived until 2001. Following the unexpected death of her father in 2000, she transferred to UCL to complete a Masters in Civil Engineering (MEng). She graduated from UCL with a 2:1 in 2004.
Athletics career
Childhood
Freeman began her athletics career aged 10 at Spenborough AC in
Liversedge
Liversedge is a town and former parish of Birstall, in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Liversedge lies between Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike. The Kirklees ward is ...
, West Yorkshire, England. She was taken to her local track by her grandparents after showing promise in races at school. She continued to train with Spenborough AC and later with Mike Williams at Beckett's Park Athletics Centre and Wakefield District Harriers & AC. She continues to hold Wakefield club records for all outdoor sprint distances.
English Schools Athletics Championships
Emily first competed at the
English Schools Athletics Championships in Telford when she was aged 13. The following year she failed to qualify for the competition in Nottingham and watched from the stands. In 1996 she made a return, finishing 6th in the 200m. She went on to compete in the 200m in Sheffield in 1997 (finishing 2nd) and 1998 (finishing 5th) before moving to the 100m at Bury St Edmonds in 1999, to win the competition in a time of 12.34.
Junior career
Freeman's first domestic success came in 1997, aged 16, when she won the U17 200m at the
AAA Junior Indoor Championships in a time of 24.19, a then all time UK record. She went on to win the 100m at the AAA U20 Championships in 1999 before competing at the
1999 European Athletics Junior Championships
The 1999 European Athletics Junior Championships were held in Riga, Latvia on August 5–8.
Men's results
Women's results
Medal table
Referenceseuropean-athletics- European Athletics- GBR Athletics- GBR AthleticsHistoria Europy Juniorów ...
in Riga, Latvia.
Senior career
Moving up to Senior level, Freeman came 2nd in the 200m at the 2001 AAA Indoor Championships. 2002 then saw victory at the BUSA Athletics Championships in the 100m and 200m, along with 2nd place in the 60m at the BUSA Indoor Championships and 200m 3rd place at the AAA Championships. It also saw another 1st place in the AAA U23 Championships along with 3rd place in the English Commonwealth Games Trials 200m, followed by competing for England in the 200m in Manchester at the
2002 Commonwealth Games
The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002 were held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August, 2002. The 2002 Games were to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coin ...
.
2003 and 2004 were frustrating for Freeman, with Achilles problems ruling her out of competing. These were managed in 2005 to allow her to compete, finishing 8th in the
World University Games 100m in Izmir, Turkey and competing in the 4 × 100 m relay at the World Championships in Helsinki. 2006 saw a
European Silver Medal in the 4 × 100 m relay, 200m 2nd place in the AAA Championships and 3rd place in the 60m at the AAA Indoor Championships.
In 2007 Freeman finished 2nd in the Norwich Union World Championship Trials 200m, qualifying to compete in the
World Championships in 2007 in Osaka, Japan in the 200m. Disappointment followed however when a false start resulted in disqualification from her first individual 200m race in a World Championships. At the same competition she did however finish 4th as part of the 4 × 100 m relay team, narrowly missing out on a Bronze Medal by only 0.02 seconds.
The following year she won the 200m British Olympic Trials and competed at the
2008 Olympic Games
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
in Beijing, finishing 7th in the 200m semi-final. She also competed as part of the 4 x 100 relay team, reaching the final with a qualifying time which would have earned an Olympic Bronze Medal had the team finished the race. In an event which saw 4 DNFs and 4 DQs over the heats and finals, Team GB failed to transfer the baton from the 2nd to the 3rd leg of the race, ending in a DNF, along with Jamaica, to add to Poland's disqualification from the final. In 2008 Freeman was ranked UK number 1 in the 200m, competing (in addition to the Olympics) in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, as well as all over the UK.
2009 was even better for Freeman, competing in Germany, Portugal, France, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and all over the UK. She came 1st in the 200m GB Aviva World Championship Trials and went on to reach a World Final, finishing 7th in the 200m and running a PB in the semi-final, a time of 22.64. The same year she won Gold at the
European Team Championships European Team Championships is the name of the team sports competition between European countries organized by various European sports federations. May refer to:
* European Athletics Team Championships, former European Team Championships (ETC), ath ...
100m in a time of 11.42, the first British woman to win the event. She was ranked UK number 1 in both 100m and 200m, having retained her 200m UK National title winning by the largest margin in the race's history.
2010 was a frustrating year, with recurring Achilles issues limiting how well Freeman could capitalise on her successes of 2009. She continued to compete as much as possible, travelling to Spain, Norway and New York to do so, most notably finishing with a 5th place over 200m at the European Team Championships in Bergen and 5th place semi-final finish in the 200m at the European Championships in Barcelona.
Continuing Achilles problems ruled Freeman out of competition in 2011, 2012 and 2013, including what would have been a home Olympic Games in London in 2012.
Following recovery from injury Freeman switched to the 400m for the last season of her athletic career. She returned to fitness winning the 2014 Yorkshire Championships in a time of 55.31, retiring after that event, aged 33, to pursue a career outside athletics.
Throughout her career Freeman was coached by Brian Hall. Freeman received lottery funding from 2007 until December 2010 and was a full-time athlete until 2012.
Athlete Committees
Since 2010 Freeman has been an athlete representative on the UK Anti-Doping Athlete Committee, whose role on behalf of UKAD is to engage with athletes to ensure that their views are represented and to collect feedback on UKAD programmes.
Between November 2010 and November 2012 Freeman was an Athlete Committee Member for the
British Olympic Association.
Since retirement
Since retirement Freeman has continued to run longer distances for fun. She regularly runs at Dewsbury, Nostell Priory, Concord, Wakefield Thornes and Rother Valley
parkrun
Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of events for walkers, runners and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across six continents. Junior Parkrun (stylised as junior parkrun) ...
s. In October 2015 she ran the
Yorkshire Marathon
The Yorkshire Marathon, sponsored by the Asda Foundation, is an annual marathon road running event held in York, UK in October, first held in 2013, and organised by Run For All Events.
History
In the inaugural running of the event on 20 Oct ...
, finishing in a time of 4 hours 22 minutes 58 seconds, to fundraise for
the Disabilities Trust
The Disabilities Trust is a UK charity founded over 30 years ago in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, as The Disabled Housing Trust. The Disabilities Trust provides residential, day services, care, rehabilitation and support to meet the needs of people w ...
.
Personal bests
Personal life
In 2004 Freeman moved from London back to Yorkshire, living in
Thorpe Hesley
Thorpe Hesley is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, lying east of the M1 motorway at junction 35. The village has been included within the boundaries of Rotherham town since 1894, having previously be ...
, Rotherham. She began working for JNP Group as Graduate Engineer in 2004, and worked there until October 2007. Whilst working for JNP Group she met her now husband Philip Cantrell, whom she married in December 2009.
Business
Freeman qualified as a Personal Trainer in late 2012 and began working at Total Fitness in Wakefield with Pro Fit Personal Training the same year. She was a Pro Fit Level 5 Personal Trainer until January 2017.
Following retirement in 2014, Freeman co-founded Totally Runable, a coaching and mindset training company. Totally Runable began working with adult beginner and challenge runners, companies and charities. Since February 2016 Totally Runable has been working with schools and children, particularly girls, with the aim of improving confidence and self-esteem, both in and out of sport.
References
*
*Wakefield Harrier
Club Records
External links
*
Totally Runable website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Emily
1980 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Huddersfield
Athletes from Yorkshire
English female sprinters
British female sprinters
Olympic female sprinters
Olympic athletes for Great Britain
Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics
World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain
European Athletics Championships medalists
British Athletics Championships winners
Alumni of University College London
People educated at Heckmondwike Grammar School