Sophie McKinna (born 31 August 1994) is a British Olympic athlete specialising in the

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

. She won silver medals at the 2011 World Youth Championships and 2013 European Junior Championships. Her indoor personal best is 18.82 metres (Birmingham 2022). At the 2019 World Championships in Doha she threw a new outdoor personal best of 18.61m to qualify for the final. By throwing over the 18.50m required she qualified for the

Tokyo Olympics Tokyo Olympics may refer to: * 1940 Summer Olympics, Games of the XII Olympiad, cancelled due to World War II * 1964 Summer Olympics, Games of the XVIII Olympiad * 2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an ...

in 2020. She competed in the event, throwing 17.81m in the qualifying round to finish in 17th place. Domestically, as of 2023 McKinna is a six-time national champion, winning both indoors and outdoors in 2019, outdoors again in 2020 and 2021, and indoors in 2022 and 2023 She is the granddaughter of the former Norwich City footballer and manager

Dave Stringer David Stringer (born 15 October 1944) is an English former footballer and manager of Norwich City. As a player, he won the fans' vote to be Norwich City player of the year in 1972, the same year that they won promotion to the First Division fo ...

. McKinna works for

Norfolk Constabulary Norfolk Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing Norfolk in East Anglia, England. The force serves a population of 908,000 in a mostly rural area of , including of coastline and 16 rivers, including the Broads N ...

as a detention custody officer.

International competitions

Personal life

McKinna comes from

Bradwell, Norfolk Bradwell is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is immediately to the west of, and largely indistinguishable from, the built-up urban area of the town of Great Yarmouth. History Bradwell's name is of Anglo ...

. She is openly lesbian. After sustaining an injury in early 2024, McKinna began working at a

Dogs Trust Dogs Trust, known until 2003 as the National Canine Defence League, is a British animal welfare charitable organization, charity and humane society which specialises in the well-being of dogs. It is the largest dog welfare charity in the United ...

centre in

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population ...

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McKinna, Sophie 1994 births Living people English female shot putters British female shot putters Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games athletes for England Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games British Athletics Championships winners Sportspeople from Great Yarmouth English lesbian sportswomen 21st-century English LGBTQ people 21st-century British sportswomen 21st-century English sportswomen