Dame Kelly Holmes (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British middle distance

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-de ...

. Holmes specialised in the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since th ...

and 1,500 metres events and won gold medals for both distances at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

. She set

British records British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in numerous events and still holds the records over the 600, and 1,000 metre distances. She held the British 800 metre record until 2021. Inspired by a number of successful British middle-distance runners in the early 1980s, Holmes began competing in middle-distance events in her youth. She joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

, but continued to compete at the organisation's

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 ...

events. She turned to the professional athletics circuit in 1993 and in 1994 she won the 1,500 m at the

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 ex ...

and took

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

at the

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, ...

. She won a silver and 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 ...

at the 1995 Gothenburg World Championships, but suffered from various injuries over the following years, failing to gain a medal at her first Olympics in

Atlanta 1996 The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta ...

when running with a stress fracture. She won silver in the 1,500 m 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 unpreceden ...

and bronze in the 800 m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, her first Olympic medal. Holmes won the 1,500 m 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 ...

and the 800 m bronze at the Munich European Championships that year. The 2003 track season saw her take silver in the 1,500 m at the World Indoor Championships and the 800 m silver medals at the

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, ...

and first World Athletics Final. She took part in her final major championship in 2004, with a double gold medal-winning performance at the Athens Olympics, finishing as the 800 m and 1,500 m

Olympic Champion This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports Winter Olympic sports A. Including military patrol e ...

. For her achievements she won numerous awards and was appointed

Dame Commander 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 ...

(DBE) in 2005. She retired from athletics in 2005 and has since been made an honorary colonel with the

Royal Armoured Corps The Royal Armoured Corps is the component of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 Tank and the Scimitar Reconnaissance Vehicle. It includes most of the ...

Training Regiment (RACTR). She has become a global motivational speaker, published five books, her latest being ''Running Life'', and made a number of television appearances.

Early life and army career

Holmes was born in Pembury, near

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

in Kent, the daughter of Derrick Holmes, a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

n-born car mechanic, and an English mother, Pam Norman. Her mother was 17 at the time of her birth, and seven years later she married painter and decorator Michael Norris, whom Holmes regards as her father. Holmes grew up in

Hildenborough Hildenborough is a village and rural parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is located 2 miles (3.2 km) north-west of Tonbridge and 5 miles (8 km) south-east of Sevenoaks. The village lies in the River Medwa ...

, Kent, where she attended Hildenborough CEP School, and then Hugh Christie Comprehensive School in

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

from the age of 12. She started training for athletics at the age of 12, joining Tonbridge Athletics Club, where she was coached by David Arnold and went on to win the English Schools 1,500 metres in her second season in 1983. Her hero was British middle-distance runner

Steve Ovett Stephen Michael James Ovett, (; born 9 October 1955) is a retired British track athlete. A middle-distance runner, he was the gold medalist in the 800 metres at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, and set 5 world records for 1500 metres and t ...

, and she was inspired by his success at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

. However, Holmes later turned away from athletics, joining the

at the age of 18, having left school two years earlier to work first as an assistant in a sweet shop and later as a nursing assistant for disabled patients. In the army, she became a HGV driver in the

Women's Royal Army Corps The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992, except medical, dental and veterinary officers and cha ...

(WRAC), later becoming a basic physical training instructor (PTI). Holmes then elected in June 1990 to attend the first course to be run under the army's new physical training syllabus, and passed out as a Class 2 PTI. Although militarily quite young, Holmes's athletic prowess was impressive and she was encouraged to attend the course selection for full-time transfer to the

Royal Army Physical Training Corps The Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC) is the British Army corps responsible for physical fitness and physical education and has been headquartered in Aldershot since its foundation in 1860. Its members are all Royal Army Physical Trainin ...

(RAPTC) at

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

. Holmes eventually qualified as a class 1 PTI, although she remained in the

Adjutant General's Corps The Adjutant General's Corps is a corps in the British Army responsible for many of its general administrative services, named for the Adjutant-General to the Forces (now the Commander Home Command). As of 2002, the AGC had a staff of 7,000 peo ...

after the disbandment of the WRAC in 1992. She also became British Army

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...

champion and at an athletics event, she competed in and won an 800 metres, a 3,000 metres and a relay race in a single day. She also won the heptathlon. Holmes watched the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

on television, and on seeing Lisa York in the heats of the 3,000 metres – an athlete whom she had competed against, and beaten – she decided to return to athletics. For several years she combined athletics with employment in the army, until increased funding allowed her to become a full-time athlete in 1997.

Career

2004 Athens Olympic Games

While training in 2003 for the 2004 Summer Olympics at a French training camp, Holmes suffered leg injuries and was depressed, she began cutting herself. "I made one cut for every day that I had been injured", Holmes stated in an interview with the ''News of the World'' newspaper. At least once, she considered suicide, but she eventually sought help from a doctor and was diagnosed with

clinical depression Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...

. While she could not use

anti-depressant Antidepressants are a class of medication used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain conditions, and to help manage addictions. Common side-effects of antidepressants include dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness, heada ...

s because it would affect her performance, she began using herbal

serotonin Serotonin () or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter. Its biological function is complex and multifaceted, modulating mood, cognition, reward, learning, memory, and numerous physiological processes such as vomiting and va ...

tablets. In 2005, after her achievements at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Holmes chose to talk about her

self-harm Self-harm is intentional behavior that is considered harmful to oneself. This is most commonly regarded as direct injury of one's own skin tissues usually without a suicidal intention. Other terms such as cutting, self-injury and self-mutilati ...

to show others that being a professional athlete is an extremely difficult thing to do and places the athlete under tremendous amounts of stress. Later, in September 2017, Holmes explained that "at my lowest, I was cutting myself with scissors every day that I was injured." Holmes's honesty quickly won her praise from people on Twitter. 2004 saw Holmes arrive at a major competition, the Athens Olympics, with no injury worries for just about the first time in her career. She had originally planned to compete in just the 1,500 m but a victory over

Jolanda Čeplak Jolanda Batagelj (previously known as Jolanda Čeplak until 2002, born Jolanda Steblovnik on September 12, 1976) is a Slovenian middle distance athlete. She was born in Celje and lived in Velenje until briefly moving to Monaco. She ...

before the games had many saying she should take her chance in the 800 m as well. Holmes did not announce her decision to race in both events until five days before the 800 m finals. Along with three time

World Champion 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, ...

Maria de Lurdes Mutola Maria de Lurdes Mutola ( ; born 27 October 1972) is a retired female track and field athlete from Mozambique who specialised in the 800 metres running event. She is only the fourth female track and field athlete to compete at six Olympic Games. ...

and Čeplak, Holmes was considered one of the favourites for the gold medal in the 800 m. In the final, Holmes ran a well-paced race, ignoring a fast start by a number of the other competitors, and moved into the lead ahead of Mutola on the final bend, taking the gold on the line ahead of

Hasna Benhassi Hasna Benhassi ( ar, حسنة بنحسي; born 1 June 1978) is a retired Moroccan middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metre ...

and Čeplak, with Mutola in fourth. Holmes became the seventh British woman to win an athletics gold, and the second after

Ann Packer Ann Elizabeth Packer MBE (born 8 March 1942) is an English former sprinter, hurdler and long jumper. She won a gold medal in the 800 metres and a silver in the 400 metres at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Early life In 1959 Packer won the English ...

in 1964 to win the 800 metres. In the final of the 1,500 m, again running from the rear of the field, she took the lead in the final straight, holding off World Champion Tatyana Tomashova of Russia. She thus became only the third woman in history to do the 800 m and 1,500 m double (after Tatyana Kazankina of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1976 and Svetlana Masterkova of Russia in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

), and Britain's first double gold medallist at the same games since Albert Hill in

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War in 1920: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own ma ...

. Her time of 3 minutes 57.90 seconds in the 1,500m final set a new British record for the distance. Subsequently, Holmes was given the honour of carrying the British flag at the closing ceremony of the games, on 29 August, the day after her second victory. A homecoming parade was held in her honour through the streets of Hildenborough and

on 1 September, which was attended by approximately 40,000 people. Holmes won the

BBC Sports Personality of the Year The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of just one, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Several new awards have been ...

in 2004, saying she achieved her goals after "20 years of dreaming". She also asserted the award was "the biggest sporting honour your country can give you". The tributes to her at the BBC awards ceremony were led by the six British female athletes who had previously won gold at the Olympic Games in a " Magnificent Seven"-style feature – those six being

Mary Rand Mary Denise Rand, MBE (née Bignal on 10 February 1940) is an English former track and field athlete. She won the long jump at the 1964 Summer Olympics by breaking the world record, the first British female to win an Olympic gold medal in track ...

, Mary Peters, Tessa Sanderson, Sally Gunnell and Denise Lewis.

Personal bests

* All information taken from IAAF profile and UK All time lists.

Competition record

* Note: In addition to these achievements, Holmes has also won 12 national titles.

Honours and awards

In 2010, Holmes was inducted into the

England Athletics Hall of Fame The England Athletics Hall of Fame was launched in 2008 with a panel of experts selecting a list of potential inductees for athletics fans and members of the public to vote on. The Hall of Fame honours those who have made an outstanding contribut ...

. In 2018, she was made honorary colonel of the

Training Regiment.

Dame Kelly Holmes Trust

In 2008, Holmes founded the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

, to support young athletes and help the lives of young people facing disadvantage across the UK. As part of her pledge to the charity, she participated in the Powerman UK

duathlon Duathlon is an athletic event that consists of a running leg, followed by a cycling leg and then another running leg in a format similar to triathlons. The International Triathlon Union governs the sport internationally. Distance and format ...

in 2014, one of several fundraising events she took part in.

Post-athletics career

Since 2004, Holmes has taken part in "On Camp with Kelly" athletics camps which train junior athletes, sponsored by insurance company

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

(formerly Norwich Union). In 2005, she won the

Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year The Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year is an annual award honouring the achievements of individual women from the world of sports. It was first awarded in 2000 as one of the seven constituent awards presented during the Laure ...

. The same year, she named the P&O Cruise ship MS ''Arcadia''. On 21 August, she competed in her final race in the UK, the 800 m at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix meeting in

Sheffield Sheffield is a 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 historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

. Her training schedule during the summer of 2005 had been disrupted by a recurrent

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus ...

injury, and she finished the race in eighth place, limping across the finish line and completing a lap of honour on a buggy. On 6 December 2005, Holmes announced her retirement from athletics, saying she had reassessed her future after the death of a friend, as well as citing a lack of motivation to continue. In May 2009, Holmes was named as the president of

Commonwealth Games England Commonwealth Games England (CGE) is the national Commonwealth Games Association for England. The council is responsible for supporting and managing the participation of Team England at the Commonwealth Games'. Predecessor The Commonwealth G ...

, succeeding Sir Chris Chataway, who had held the post since 1994. The organisation's chairman

Sir Andrew Foster Sir Andrew Foster (born 29 December 1944) is a British public servant who was knighted in 2001 for his services to the health and government services.

said: "Dame Kelly has been an outstanding athlete both for Team England and Great Britain. She is a truly inspirational and respected figure in the sporting world and will be a wonderful ambassador for Commonwealth Games England." On 18 March 2019, Holmes, along with

Paula Radcliffe Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE (born 17 December 1973) is a former British long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon (2002, 2003, 2005), three-time New York Marathon champion (2004, 2007, 2008), and 2002 Chicago Marath ...

and

Sharron Davies Sharron Elizabeth Davies, (born 1 November 1962) is an English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships and competed for England in the Commonwealth Games. Davies has attended 12 ...

, announced they would be writing a letter to the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

targeting trans women who compete in women's sports categories.

Television and radio

In November 2010, Holmes took part in the ITV game show '' The Cube''. In October 2011, she appeared live on

Dubai One Dubai One (formerly known as Ch33 and then One TV) is a Pan Arab English language entertainment television channel, owned by Dubai Media Incorporated. It was launched on 14 May 1994, and is currently managed by Sarah al Jarman. It airs a mix o ...

lifestyle show '' Studio One'' where she talked about her life and career after athletics. In 2013 Holmes became the face of MoneyForce, a programme run by the

Royal British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in ...

to deliver money advice to the

UK armed forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

. In early 2015, she took part in the ITV series '' Bear Grylls: Mission Survive'' and was the runner-up after a 12-day survival mission. In 2017, Holmes presented episode five of the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

television series ''Women at War: 100 Years of Service''. In December 2017, Holmes spoke about her 2003 mental health issues in an episode of '' All in the Mind'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

and in 2018 was one of the judges of the programme's awards.

Cafe 1809 and The 1809 Hub

In 2014 Holmes opened a cafe and community hub in

named Cafe 1809 after her 2004 Olympics bib number. She opened a sister branch of the cafe in

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Rochester, it is ...

in 2017, but this closed after a few months. In October 2018 Holmes announced the cafe would close the following month, before re-opening as The 1809 Hub: "a space for events, pop-ups, and community gatherings".

Personal life

In June 2022, Holmes

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

as gay in an interview with the ''

Sunday Mirror The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marke ...

'', adding that she felt "finally free". She said that she had known she was a lesbian since 1988, when she was in the army; she could not come out then as it was illegal at the time to be gay in the military. After winning two Olympic gold medals at Athens in 2004 and becoming a public figure, she feared there may still be consequences from the army if she came out after leaving, and that she may be shunned within athletics as there were no openly gay sportspeople she knew of. LGBT campaigners celebrated Holmes coming out, saying that it sheds light on the historic homophobia that can still serve as a barrier to older people coming out. Later that month, on 26 June, ITV broadcast a 55-minute documentary ''Kelly Holmes: Being Me'' in which she describes her fears of her sexuality being exposed, and meets two people who were discharged from the military for being gay. Holmes wrote "The documentary taught me so much about generational and social advancements when it comes to the LGBTQ+ world".

Artistic recognition

In 2012, Holmes was one of five Olympians chosen for a series of body-casting artworks by Louise Giblin, exhibited in London with copies being sold in aid of the charity Headfirst. In 2017 a statue of Holmes by sculptor

Guy Portelli Guy Portelli (born 13 June 1957) is a contemporary British sculptor. Life He was born in South Africa in 1957, but moved permanently to England with his parents in 1969, who had each come earlier to Britain to study as art students. He lived ...

was erected in Tonbridge.

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

* * * * * *
Kelly Holmes
at

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 real Holmes truth"
at

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Kelly 1970 births Military personnel from Kent Adjutant General's Corps soldiers Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Commonwealth Games BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners Black British sportswomen Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire English female middle-distance runners English Olympic medallists English people of Jamaican descent Lesbian sportswomen LGBT sportspeople from England LGBT track and field athletes European Athletics Championships medalists Laureus World Sports Awards winners Living people Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Great Britain Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) People from Hildenborough People from Pembury Royal Army Physical Training Corps soldiers Sporting dames Women's Royal Army Corps soldiers Women in the British Army World Athletics Championships medalists Goodwill Games medalists in athletics European Athlete of the Year winners The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year winners Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games 20th-century British Army personnel Black British military personnel