James Dasaolu (born 5 September 1987) is a retired British

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who specialised in the

100 metres 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 ...

. He was the 2014 European champion over the distance. In July 2013, he became the second fastest Briton of all time after running a 100 m time of 9.91 seconds in the British Championships. In 2014 he won his first major title, claiming the gold medal in the 100 metres at the

2014 European Athletics Championships The 2014 European Athletics Championships was held in Zürich, Switzerland, between 12 and 17 August 2014. It was the first time that Switzerland had hosted the European Athletics Championships since 1954. Great Britain headed the medal table, w ...

Background

Born in south London to Nigerian parents, Dasaolu did not take up sprinting seriously until he was 18 when he began a leisure management degree at

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second larg ...

Sprinting career

Early career

He began his career in competitive athletics relatively late, first competing in 2006; as a result he had a limited youth and junior career. However, having begun, Croydon Harrier Dasaolu made steady and significant improvements in his first few years; his 100 m personal best in 2006 was 10.75 seconds, then 10.33 seconds in 2007, and 10.26 seconds in 2008.Turnbull, Simon (8 June 2009)
Dasaolu breaks into world class
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''. Retrieved on 8 June 2009.

2008

The 2008 season saw Dasaolu rise up the national rankings and introduced to the

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 ...

warm weather training camp. Under the tutelage of coach Michael Khmel at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

and training with 2006 World Junior Champion

Harry Aikines-Aryeetey Harry Leslie Aikines-Aryeetey (pronounced ''Ay-yee-tey'', born 29 August 1988) is an English sprinter. A prodigious junior runner, in 2005 he was named as the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year and the IAAF's Rising Star of the Year after ...

and former European Junior Champion

Leon Baptiste Leon Baptiste (born 23 May 1985) is a retired English sprint runner who specialises in the 100 metres and 200 metres events. On the 4th of November 2021 he visited Rood End Primary School for the morning. He became the 100 m European ju ...

, Dasaolu won the 2008 England under-23 championships and reached the semi-finals at the British Olympic Trials.

2009

The beginning of the 2009 season showed further improvement for Dasaolu. At the seventh

Graziano Della Valle Graziano is both a masculine Italian given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Graziano Battistini (1936–1994), Italian professional road bicycle racer * Graziano Battistini (footballer) (born 1970), Italian fo ...

meet in Italy, he recorded a new personal best of 10.15 seconds and finished in second place overall behind Aikines-Aryeetey. Two weeks later he finished with 10.25 seconds at the

Papaflessia Papaflessia ( el, Παπαφλέσσεια) is an annual international track and field meeting that is held in Kalamata, Greece. The meeting falls within the European Athletic Association's calendar of meeting. The event caters to both men and women ...

meet in Greece, second only to European season leader

Dwain Chambers Dwain Anthony Chambers (born 5 April 1978) is a British track sprinter. He has won international medals at World and European levels and is one of the fastest European sprinters in the history of athletics. His primary event is the 100 me ...

. A 100 m win at the

European Athletics The European Athletic Association (more commonly known as European Athletics) is the governing body for athletics in Europe. It is one of the six Area Associations of the world's athletics governing body World Athletics. European Athletics has 51 ...

permit meet in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

in June placed him among the top European sprinters for the first time. His new personal best time of 10.09 seconds made him joint second, with

Simeon Williamson Simeon Oscar Williamson (born 16 January 1986) is an English bobsledder and former track and field sprinter who specialised in the 100 metres., beijing2008.cn, ret: 26 August 2008 Williamson, a London native, is the second cousin to 2008 Beijing ...

, in the season's 100 m European rankings and improved his chances for a place on the British relay team at the Berlin World Championships.

2010

The 2010 season saw Dasaolu make his senior GB debut when he represented GB at the European Championships in Barcelona after finishing second only to Dwain Chambers in the UK trials with a time of 10.23. However he disappointed at the Championships where he stumbled through his heat with a time of 10.40 and then crashed out in the semi-finals with at time of 10.31.

2012

Dasaolu was selected by UK Athletics for the 100 metres at the 2012 Olympics. He set a season's best time of 10.13 in his heat, finishing third behind winner

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt, , (; born 21 August 1986) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay. An eight- ...

to qualify for the semi-finals. He finished seventh in his semi-final with a time of 10.18.

2013

He began 2013 by winning a silver medal at the

2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at Scandinavium and Svenska Mässan in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 1–3 March 2013. Bidding process The decision to grant the event for Gothenburg was made by the European Athletics Council a ...

in 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 ...

, running a personal best of 6.48 seconds in the final, finishing centimetres behind champion

Jimmy Vicaut Jimmy Vicaut (born 27 February 1992 in Bondy, Seine-Saint-Denis) is a French sprinter who specializes in the 100 and 200 metres. His personal best of 9.86 in the 100 m is the joint second fastest time of any European athlete. Biography Vicaut ...

. On 13 July at the British trials, Dasaolu ran a personal best of 9.91, the second fastest time ever by a Briton behind

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 ...

. He was selected as a member of the British squad for the

2013 World Championships in Athletics The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013) () was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 200 ...

for the 100 metres and 4 x 100 metres relay. In the 100 metres Dasaolu advanced from the heats as a fastest loser before setting a time of 9.97 in the semi-final to qualify for a world-level final for the first time, where he finished in eighth with a time of 10.21.

2014

2014 started brightly for Dasaolu as he opened with a 6.50 in the 60 m at the annual

Glasgow International match The Sainsbury's International Match, formerly known as the Aviva International Match, was an annual indoor track and field athletics meeting which takes place in late January in Glasgow, Scotland. The televised competition is the first major ind ...

to start his indoor campaign. A time only 0.02 shy of his personal best achieved in the previous year at the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg. He would later run 6.47 at the

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

Indoor Grand Prix, improving his personal best by one hundredth of a second. In the final of the Grand Prix, Dasaolu won with a time of 6.50 but pulled up 20 m from the line after a slight tear in his thigh muscle, causing him to give up his automatic selection place for the World Indoor Championships and focus on the outdoor season instead. Dasaolu won his first major senior gold in the final of the 100 m at the

with a time of 10.06 seconds, beating out two-time defending champion

Christophe Lemaitre Christophe Lemaitre (; born 11 June 1990) is a French sprinter who specialises in the 100 and 200 metres. In 2010, Lemaitre became the first white athlete to break the 10-second barrier in an officially timed 100 m event. Lemaitre has run a su ...

2018

In November 2018 Dasaolu suffered an injury, rupturing his Achilles tendon. After raising money on his go fund me page. Dasaolu raised over £10000 for his surgery and recovery. However, eventually retiring from the sport

Personal bests

*All information taken from IAAF profile.Biography Dasaolu, James

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. Retrieved on 8 June 2009.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dasaolu, James 1987 births Living people Athletes from London English male sprinters British male sprinters Olympic male sprinters Olympic athletes of Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain IAAF Continental Cup winners European Athletics Championships winners European Athletics Championships medalists British Athletics Championships winners Black British sportspeople English sportspeople of Nigerian descent