Jeanette Boahemaa Kwakye (pronounced ''kwah-chee''; born 20 March 1983) is a sports broadcaster and retired British sprinter.

Athletics career

Kwakye won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receiv ...

in the 4x100 metres relay at the 2002 World Junior Championships, with teammates Jade Lucas-Read, Amy Spencer and Vernicha James. At the 2007 European Indoor Championships she finished fourth in the 60 metres. In the semi-final she recorded a time of 7.17 seconds, this being the fastest time by a British woman in the 60m since 1986. Kwakye, became the 2007 British Champion over 100m in a time of 11.59, beating Laura Turner (who recorded the same time) and defending champion Joice Maduaka. The next day, she also won the 200m title, after beating Emily Freeman and Donna Fraser, who took silver and bronze, respectively. In the

2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Luis Puig Palace in Valencia, Spain, March 7–9, 2008. Bid Valencia was announced the winning bidder by the IAAF on November 13, 2005 at an IAAF Council meeting in Moscow, Rus ...

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, Kwakye equalled the British 60m record of 7.13 by

Beverly Kinch Beverly "Bev" Kinch (born 14 January 1964) is an English former long jumper and sprinter. She held the UK long jump record for 29 years (1983–2012) with 6.90 metres. She is the 1983 Universiade Champion at 100 metres and the 1984 European ...

in her semi-final before breaking it with a 7.08 run to claim silver behind American Angela Williams who won in 7.06, this placing Kwakye as number 2 in the 2008 world female rankings. On 12 July 2008, Kwakye defended her British 100m title, whilst also winning the Olympic trials, and was accordingly automatically selected to compete at the

2008 Summer Olympics 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 Nat ...

. Her time of 11.26 equalled her then lifetime best.

2008 Summer Olympics

In the heats of the 100 metres, Kwakye finished in second place behind Torri Edwards, clocking a time of 11.30 seconds, allowing her to progress through to the quarter-final stage. In the quarter-final, she was beaten to the line by

Shelly-Ann Fraser Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce OD, OJ (née Fraser; born December 27, 1986) is a Jamaican track and field sprinter competing in the 60 metres, 100 m and 200 m. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest sprinters of all time. ...

and Evgeniya Polyakova, but still qualified for the semi-final by finishing in third place. In the semi-final on 17 August 2008, Kwakye finished third, with a time of 11.19. She became the first British woman to reach the 100 metres final since Heather Oakes in 1984. At these Olympics, Kwakye was also the only European athlete to appear in the final. In the final, she clocked 11.14, a personal best, to finish in sixth place, ahead of

Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (born 16 January 1976) is a former Bahamian sprint athlete who specialised in the 100 and 200 metres. Ferguson-McKenzie participated in five Olympi ...

of the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...

and Torri Edwards of the US. Great Britain reached the final of the 4x100 metres relay, and along with the Jamaican team, were favourites to claim a medal. Kwakye ran a good first bend in the final, but the British team failed to finish due to a mix-up in the changeover between Montell Douglas and Emily Freeman. Jamaica also failed to finish after a similar error between

Sherone Simpson Sherone Simpson (born 12 August 1984) is a Jamaican track and field sprint athlete.

and Kerron Stewart.

Injury

After Beijing 2008, Kwakye suffered from Achilles tendon and knee injuries, missing the 2010 athletics season. She returned to competition in 2011 and became the British 100m champion. Kwakye reached the semi-final of the Women's 100m at the 2011 World Championships, in

Daegu Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...

, South Korea. In 2012 Kwakye won the British 60m Indoor title, but failed to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games due to injury. She did not compete in 2013. Kwakye announced her retirement from competition in January 2014.

Personal life

Both of Kwakye's parents were born in the Brong-Ahafo Region of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Tog ...

. The Kwakye family moved to England in the early 1980s. Kwakye's younger brother, Louis, is also involved in National athletics. Her younger sister, Chelsea, is the co-author of ' Taking Up Space', a Penguin (Merky Books) book released in 2020. Kwakye is a graduate of

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 ...

where she attained a degree in Politics and Economics. She is close friends with singer Estelle. Kwakye was the lead trainer on the set for 2012 British film ''

Fast Girls ''Fast Girls'' is a 2012 British sports drama film directed by Regan Hall and written by Jay Basu, Noel Clarke and Roy Williams. It stars Lenora Crichlow, Lily James, Bradley James, Clarke and Rupert Graves. The film follows the story of two ...

'', training Lily James and

Lenora Crichlow Lenora Isabella Crichlow (born 4 January 1985) is a British actress. She became known for her starring roles as Maria "Sugar" Sweet in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series '' Sugar Rush'', Annie Sawyer in the BBC Three supernatural drama series '' ...

for their respective roles as athletes. She also featured in 2012 documentary film '' Personal Best''. In October 2016 Jeanette was part of a consortium involved with a take over of English

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

football team

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as D ...

. In 2017, Kwakye self-published a children's book, ''Femi the Fox''.

Broadcasting career

After retiring, Kwakye studied for an NCTJ qualification and began working for BBC Radio Berkshire, before joining

BBC Radio London BBC Radio London is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM broadcasting, FM frequency, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, ...

's sports team in 2014. Kwakye is a regular host of

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

's ''Football Daily'' podcast and covers for 5 Live Sport. She is also a regular contributor to Ian Wright's podcast, ''Wrighty's House''. Kwakye has presented various sports programmes for

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside f ...

, including the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, World swimming championships 2019, World athletics championships 2019, The Women's Football Show and reported for BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2019. She is the BBC's athletics trackside reporter. Kwakye previously presented a weekly hour long show at 1:00pm each Saturday on BBC Radio London entitled ''The Women's Sport Show''. In December 2020, Kwakye was announced as Channel 5's lead presenter for their boxing coverage. Kwakye is a keen writer and has been published by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its Masthead (British publishing), masthead was simpl ...

'' and BT Sport. Kwakye also works for the

Youth Sport Trust Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yout ...

as an Athlete Mentor on the Sky Sports ''Changing Lives'' program. She was also a reporter for the

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

children's TV Show ''Game Changers'' from 2013 until 2019. Kwakye was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to sport and sports broadcasting.

Personal bests

''Updated 26 April 2009'' All information taken from IAAF profile.Kwakye Jeanette biography

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 fo ...

. Retrieved 26 April 2009.

References

External links

* *
Jeanette's Rising Star profile on spikesmag.com''Jeanette Kwakye''
(BBC Radio London) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kwakye, Jeanette 1983 births Living people People from the London Borough of Waltham Forest Athletes from London English female sprinters British female sprinters Olympic female sprinters Olympic athletes of Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists British Athletics Championships winners Alumni of Loughborough University English people of Ghanaian descent Black British sportswomen Members of the Order of the British Empire