Athletics Life Stories

Running up £20,000 debt, an eight-year wait for an Olympic medal, jumping from the UK to Ireland (on ITV's This Morning weather map), best mates with Greg Rutherford, running the Premier League's COVID testing programme and becoming a successful tech entrepreneur towards floatation on the Nasdaq. This is a wide-ranging and fascinating interview with former British 400m runner Andrew Steele. Learn...

1996 and 2004 Olympian Kathy Butler takes us through a career that saw her win medals at World and European Cross Country Championships, win European Cup gold, Goodwill Games bronze and - she tells us - miss out on a third Olympics with some dubious selection shenanigans. Now as US national coach, she also discusses her role off track and the advancement of shoe technology. Learn more about your a...

Host Chris Broadbent downloads his dictaphone of delights featuring interviews with some of the biggest current stars of athletics. Includes Karsten Warholm, Mondo Duplantis, Jazmin Sawyers, Krisjan Ceh, Jakub Vadlejch, Elina Tzengko, Auriel Dongmo, Sasha Zhoya and Silja Kosonen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a visit to Stockholm's BAUHAUS-galan meeting, we took the chance to interview one of the athletes from the Sweden's golden era in the early 2000s, Olympic high jump champion Stefan Holm. He talks us through his rise through the ranks onwards to four Word indoor titles and his place as the man who has jumped the furthest above his own height ever. We also discuss his love for LEGO and an unlikel...

One of the most genuine athletes in a generation, Dean Macey was the no-frills decathlete from Essex who captivated British athletics fans at multiple major championships from 1999 to 2006. Frequently battling with injuries and niggles, he grittily fought his way to two World Championship medals and Commonwealth Games gold and just missed out on Olympic medals, finishing fourth in both Sydney and...

In the late 90s and early 2000s, Jared Deacon was a dependable cog in a highly effective British men's 4x400m medal-winning machine. He was rewarded with medals at World, European and Commonwealth level and an appearance at the Sydney Olympics. Coming from a family of eight where his father was a former sprinter and his mother a talented swimmer, sport was deep in the family DNA. His siblings all...

From being bullied at school to becoming one of the most iconic figures of the UK running scene. Steve Edwards cuts a distinctive figure at every marathon he takes part in...and it's now nearly 1000 of them. Since running his first marathon in 1981 he has gone on to accrue record after record as he logs marathon after marathon. Now he is closing in on 1000 marathons in an average finish time under...

Still no5 in the UK all-time men's marathon rankings and the last British athlete to have won and Olympic marathon medal, Charlie Spedding remains one of the great names in the UK over the classic distance. His name in the record books seemed unlikely growing up in a mining community in North East England where he would struggle academically and even in PE. He did find he had ability in endurance...

Five-times European medallist and Commonwealth medallist-turned Member of the Scottish Parliament, Brian Whittle enjoyed a sustained period on the international athletics circuit. He is still probably best known for losing a shoe whilst helping GB & NI to 4x400m gold at the 1986 European Championships. His career spanned some of the biggest moments in the mid 80s to eary 90s in the sport. He has a...

A former winner of the British Sports Book Awards, Rick Broadbent is a highly accomplished long-time sports writer for The Times. He has authored books on Jessica Ennis-Hill and Emil Zatopek, reported on four Olympic Games and seven World Athletics Championships. In this wide ranging interview and with an obvious passion for the sport, he provides a great overview on athletics' status in the curre...

David Gillick became the first Irish sprinter to win gold at a major championships for 76 years, when he won the 2005 European Indoor 400m title in Madrid. It was a title he defended two years later in Birmingham. He brought a refreshing flash of green to the sprinting lanes of major championships from a country whose athletics heritage was dominated by the middle and long distance disciplines. Hi...

Adopted at six months old and growing up in rural Wales, a route to the top of elite athletics was an improbable one. But Jamie Baulch made it to the top, becoming World Indoor Champion over 400m. Competing in the toughest eras of UK one lap running, he cut a diminutive and distinctive figure, competing at top level for a decade against the likes of Roger Black, Iwan Thomas and being guided by Col...

As befits her event of the 400m hurdles, London's Tasha Danvers has had a career that has been a huge challenge, with many barriers on the way. She became a mother at the peak of her career, suffered depression and even made a suicide attempt. But today she can look back happily and healthily on a career that brought her Olympic and Commonwealth medals from her life in Los Angeles, where she is a...

In a career that spanned the African revolution in distance running, Essex's own Rob Denmark faced some of the greatest athletes in the sport. He met the challenge and - at times - succeeded. A determined and hard-working athlete, he won Commonwealth gold, European silver and World Indoor bronze. He raced some of the sport's greats including Paul Tergat, Haile Gebrselassie and the UK's legendary t...

In a storied career Jo Pavey represented Team GB at five Olympic Games, more than any other track athlete. But it was in 2014 when she really captured the public's imagination when she won her first major title aged 40 - and as a mum of two - when she won 10,000m gold at the European Championships. One of the most down-to-earth and genuine runners of her generation, the Devon born and bred runner...

After years of dogged determination, hard work and near misses, the versatile Helen Clitheroe won her first major international aged 37 when taking 3000m gold at the 2011 European Indoor Championships. It was a just reward for the gritty competitor in her 14th year on the international scene. A double Olympian, Commonwealth bronze medallist she was a mainstay of the British team for 17 years acros...

Kate Dennison was the standard bearer for women’s pole vaulting in the UK. She set multiple national records in 2009 and 2010, taking over from Janine Whitlock as the foremost British athlete in the fledgling event and handing on the mantle to Holly Bradshaw. A world and European finalist, she is also a Commonwealth Games medallist. She competed in the same era as all-time great Yelena Isinbeyeva...

A talented junior athlete who earned an England vest at cross country, Ben Pochee was a high-quality club senior athlete, though not quite quick enough for the very elite end of the sport. But it is as an innovative event organiser where he has made a real impact on the international stage. The Night of the 10,000m PBs at Parliament Hill has become one of the absolute gems of the British sporting...

A world record holder, Commonwealth medallist and the first openly gay British track and field athlete, Tom Bosworth has a fascinating roller coaster story. In this tell-all episode we cover his international career, including two contrasting Olympic Games, world records, disappointment at London 2017. There is also plenty on his life off track, including coming out publicly and his mental health...

With his long blond locks flailing in the wind and - sometimes - ungainly style, Chris Tomlinson cut a distinctive figure on the long jump runways for a decade and more. And although he didn’t come from one of the sport’s hotbeds, the Middlesbrough born jumper competed at three Olympic Games, including a best placed fifth in Athens. He also won World Indoor silver and European bronze in a long car...

One of the leading British sprinters of the 1980s and 1990s, Paula Dunn went on to be a ground breaking leader in athletics, when she was appointed as Paralympics Head Coach at UK Athletics. It made her the first British woman to hold a Head Coach post in the sport. After taking over the role from Peter Eriksson in 2012, whom she served as no2, she led Team GB athletics to their greatest ever meda...

No British athlete has competed in more World Athletics Championships than 400m runner Martyn Rooney. With eight appearances, he holds the record jointly with Marlon Devonish. With ten senior medals from Olympic, World and European Championships, he is one of the most decorated athletes in modern times. He is also a two-time European Champion, but its possibly as the anchor leg of the 4x400m relay...

A World Junior Championship finalist aged 18, a European under 23 gold medallist aged 20, in the World’s top ten and in an elite training group alongside the world champion, the athletics world was at the feet of Jack Green. But after struggling through 2012 and crashing out in the semi-final at the London Olympics, he took leave from the sport citing depression. At the time, it was unprecedented...

A look back on some of the best bits from 2022 featuring a smorgasbord of tasty delights from Olympic heptathlon medallist Kelly Sotherton, Team GB Head Coach Charles van Commenee, European 110m hurdles champion Andy Turner, Olympic 4x100m champion Jason Gardener, European 400m hurdles winner Eilidh Doyle, European 10,000m silver medallist Chris Thompson, World 10,000m gold medallist Liz McColgan,...

Chris Thompson is one of the most popular runners on the British distance running scene. A prodigiously talented young athlete, he began earning British under 20 vests from the age of 16. He won silver at the European Cross Country Championships and beat a certain Mo Farah to win 5000m gold at the European under 23 Championships. Injury dogged his progress, but he went on to win European silver as...