Antonio 'Toni' Minichiello (born 1966) is an athletics commentator and former coach. He was coach to British athletics champion

Jessica Ennis-Hill Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill (born 28 January 1986) is a British retired track and field athlete from England, specialising in multi-eventing disciplines and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, ...

until her retirement. The pair met at the Don Valley athletics stadium when Ennis was at a summer holiday camp as a teenager. Since then Ennis has gone on to win numerous athletic medals, including the gold medal at the

London 2012 Olympic Games 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 ...

. Minichiello was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

to Italian parents who were originally from

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

, near

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. They had originally met and married in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

before moving to Sheffield, where Minichiello's father was a steelworker. Toni Minichiello was formerly married to bobsledder

Nicola Minichiello Nicola Minichiello (born Nicola Gautier on 21 March 1978) is a retired British bobsledder who competed between 2001 and 2011. She won two medals in the two-woman event at the FIBT World Championships, winning a silver in 2005 and making history ...

. Minichiello coached

Jessica Ennis Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill (born 28 January 1986) is a British retired track and field athlete from England, specialising in multi-eventing disciplines and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, ...

from the age of 13.

Awards

Minichiello won the

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award is an award given annually as part of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony each December. The award is given to the coach who was considered to have made the most substantive contribut ...

in 2012 after guiding Ennis to Olympic gold in the

Heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

at the

London 2012 Olympic games 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 also won the Coach of the Year at the UK Coaching Awards.

Lifetime ban

On 9 August 2022,

UK Athletics UK Athletics (UKA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics (sport), athletics in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for overseeing the governance of athletics events in the UK as well as athletes, their development, and athletics o ...

announced that Minichiello had been banned for life from training athletes due to sexually inappropriate behaviour, emotional abuse and bullying. An investigation had been launched after complaints were received from multiple female athletes and coaches.

References

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/dec/04/jessica-ennis-hill-coach-toni-minichiello-british-athletics https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/athletics/jessica-ennis-hill-coach-toni-minichiello-2890055 Living people 1966 births British athletics coaches English people of Italian descent Sportspeople from Sheffield {{UK-athletics-bio-stub