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Four gold medals in two weeks of competition

making Great Britain second highest medal taker for the Athletics in the 2004 Olympics.

Also making this the best Great Britain team for many years bringing home a total of thirty medals.

This presentation will give you a look into the winners of some of the Athletics medals and show you how people such as Kelly Holmes and Tanny Grey-Thompson became Olympic Champions and glimpse in to their previous achievements.

Left to right: Marlon Devonish, Jason Gardener, Mark Lewis-Francis and Darren Campbell celebrating their Olympic Gold and the Defeat on the United States of

America

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Mark Lewis-Francis racing to victory and to make Great Britain Olympic Champions

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Kelly Holmes celebrating her first of two Olympic medals in 2004

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Kelly Holmes racing to her second Olympic Medal of the 2004 Olympics

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Tanny Grey-Thompson Racing to Victory

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Tanny Grey-Thompson showing off her Olympic Gold

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All 2004 Great Britain Olympic Medallists

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• Men’s 4x100m Winners

• Kelly Holmes

• Tanny Grey-Thompson

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Left to right: Marlon Devonish, Jason Gardener, Mark Lewis-Francis and Darren Campbell

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Medal record

Men’s athletics

Olympic Games

Gold 2004 Athens 4x100 m relay

World Championships

Silver 1999 Sevilla 4x100 m relay

Bronze 2005 Helsinki 4x100 m relay

Bronze 2007 Osaka 4x100 m relay

Disqualified 2003 Paris 4x100 m relay

European Championships

Gold 2006 Gothenburg 4 x 100 m

Bronze 2002 Munich 200 m

Bronze 2006 Gothenburg 200 m

Commonwealth Games

Gold 2002 Manchester 4 x 100 m

Silver 2002 Manchester 200 m

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Marlon Devonish (born June 1, 1976 in Coventry, England) is an English sprint athlete.He is a member of the Coventry Godiva Harriers athletics club and is coached by Tony

Lester. Early in his career he was successful at both 100 and 200 metre distances, winning English Schools and European Junior titles at both, but in recent years he has

concentrated mostly on the longer distance. He has also been a regular member of both the British and, at the Commonwealth Games, English 4 x 100 metre sprint relay teams,

to some considerable success.The most notable achievement of his career to date came at the 2004 Summer Olympics

in Athens. There Devonish, along with Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell and Mark Lewis-Francis, won a gold medal in the 4 x 100 m. relay, where the quartet defeated the

pre-race favourites, United States team, by just 0.01 seconds, in a season's best of 38.07.

At the British Championships (and team trials for the 2006 European Championships) in July 2006, Devonish became the first man since Linford Christie in 1988 to win both the

100 m and 200 m races at the event. At the championship finals, he took the bronze medal in the 200 m.

Devonish retained his 100 m title at the British Championships the following year. For the 2007 season Devonish improved his performance in the 100 m with a new personal best and competed in this event at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka rather than

the 200 m which he had previously specialised in. Devonish finished 6th in the 100 m final.

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Medal record

Men’s athletics

Olympic Games

Gold 2004 Athens 4x100 m relay

World Championships

Silver 1999 Sevilla 4x100 m relay

Bronze 2005 Helsinki

4x100 m relay

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Gardener started his career at the World Junior Championships in 1994 where he placed second in the individual 100 m and bettered this to take his first gold medal as part of the 4 × 100 m relay

team.He took another silver, this time in the 60 m, at the European Indoor Championships of 1998 but

was not chosen for the relay team which took gold.In 1999 he took bronze at the World indoors in the 60 m, breaking the British record. and later that year saw him run 9.98 seconds breaking the 10.00 second barrier for the first time in the 100 m. He

was also part of the national record breaking 4 × 100 m relay team along with Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish, and Dwain Chambers that they set in Seville, Spain running 37.73 seconds.

2000 saw Gardener go one better in the European indoor 60 m taking gold as well as breaking the national 50 m record with a time of 5.61 s. Unfortunately he became injured during the summer and

although making it to Sydney for the Olympics he did not progress through the early rounds.He retained his European indoor title in 2002 as well as a 4 x 100 m Commonwealth Games gold

medal.2003 saw another World indoors bronze despite being hampered by a hamstring injury but the

following year he bettered this to take the gold, his first world individual title ahead of the fancied Shawn Crawford of the USA.

Gardener made the squad for the 2004 Summer Olympics where he competed in the 100 m and won the gold medal in the 4x100 m relay with Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Mark

Lewis-Francis in a 38.07 seconds their season's best.In March 2007, Gardener won his fourth European Indoor 60m gold after fears that he may have to

miss defending his title as his wife, Nancy, was due to give birth.Gardener's last professional race was a 4 x 100m relay at the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace

on 3rd August 2007. His team failed to finish this race.

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4x100 m relay

2004 AthensGold

Olympic Games

Competitor for        United Kingdom

Men’s Athletics

Medal record

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Lewis-Francis burst onto the scene at an early age, but missed the 2000 Summer Olympics, instead competing at the world junior championships, in which he won gold. Lewis-Francis became

Britain's top 100m sprinter after Dwain Chambers was banned for drug use in 2003. He failed to make the final of the 100 metres sprint at the 2004 Summer Olympics, but did run the final leg of the 4x100 metres, which Great Britain narrowly won in a winning time of 38.07 seconds. The gold medal team consisted of Lewis-Francis, Marlon Devonish, Darren Campbell and Jason Gardener.

Other than Olympic and World relay success, however, he has consistently performed badly in championships.

In 2001 Lewis-Francis won his quarter-final heat in an amazing time of 9.97 seconds. This is a phenomenal time considering that he was only 19 years old at that time, but 'doubtful wind info'

lowers this performance in the mind of some. No other athlete has even come close to running as fast as Lewis-Francis did as a teenager. Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell are both exactly the same

age as Lewis-Francis, yet at the time Lewis-Francis was considered the better athlete by some margin. It was considered by many that a world record was inevitable.

Yet, astonishingly, Lewis Francis has actually become slower as he has moved into his twenties. Although athletes peak around their late 20s in the sprints, Lewis-Francis seemed to peak in his late

teens. He has turned down numerous invitations to train with the top sprinters like Justin Gatlin in America, and prefers to stay living in England on the grounds that he would get 'home-sick.'

However he did leave his home town of Birmingham in 2005 to move to Eton and train with a new coach.

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Medal record

Men’s athletics

Olympic Games

Gold 2004 Athens 4x100 m relay

Silver

2000 Sydney

200 m

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His senior international debut came at the Stuttgart World Championships in 1993, as part of the 4 x 100 m squad. However, as a result of injuries, he left athletics at the age of 21 to play football for Cwmbran Town, Plymouth Argyle F.C., Cinderford Town F.C., Weymouth F.C., UWIC Inter Cardiff F.C., and Newport County

A.F.C. amongst others. During a debate on TalkSPORT on 14th August 2006, Campbell stated this period away from athletics had also been spurred on by attempts by certain individuals to draw him in to a drugs programme. Darren Campbell is also a supporter of . Following two seasons playing football for Weymouth FC and Newport

FC, Campbell returned to athletics in 1995, and ran the 100 m in 10.34s that year. The following year, he improved his 100 m time to 10.17s, and represented Britain in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

Campbell only represented Britain in the 4 x 100 m relay, but did not receive the baton, as it was dropped before it reached him.

At the 1997 World Championships, Campbell won his first major senior medal - a bronze in the 4 x 100 m relay, and by this time was a regular feature in the British squad.

Campbell's first senior gold medals came at the 1998 European Championships in Budapest. Campbell won the 100 m individual event, setting his best time at the 100 m in the final - 10.13s, and also winning gold in the 4 x

100 m relay. At the Commonwealth Games that year, Campbell was in the winning team for the 4 x 100 m relay, however, won no individual medals.

The following year, in the 1999 World Championships, held in Seville, Campbell won the silver medal in the 4 x 100 m relay, but was eliminated from his individual event in the semi-finals. In 2000, Campbell won the man of

the match award in the European Cup following his performance in the 100 m. Campbell replaced Jason Gardener with 20 minutes notice, and won the race in a time of 10.09s (wind-assisted). He also ran in a leg in the

winning 4 x 100 m relay team.At the Olympics in Sydney, Campbell placed 6th in the 100 m final, and took a surprise silver medal in the 200 m,

as Campbell was mainly a 100 m runner, and had a previous best time of 20.49s. In the quarter-final, he took 0.29s off this to reduce to 20.13s, his fastest time at the distance in his career. This was followed by

performances of 20.23s in the semi-final and 20.14s in the final to finish second, Campbell's first senior medal at the distance. The gold medal was won by controversial Greek sprinter Konstantinos Kenteris

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Campbell was again hit by injury in 2001, missing the majority of the year's competitions. He had run 10.16s for the 100 m and 20.41s for the 200 m, and been named European Cup captain prior to the injury.After returning from injury the following year, Campbell took bronze in the individual 100 m event and gold

in the 4 x 100 m relay at the 2002 European Championships. His bronze was later upgraded to a silver after Dwain Chambers confessed to taking performance-enhancing drugs at this time. However, the relay gold was later taken from him, as Chambers was part of the quartet. He won his quarter-final in the 200 m, but

was eliminated after being disqualified for stepping outside his lane.The year also saw Campbell compete in his home town of Manchester in the Commonwealth Games. He did repeat his Olympic success in the 200 m, receiving bronze in this event. However, he anchoring the

team to gold in the 4 x 100 m relay along with squad members Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Allyn Condon, just beating Asafa Powell of Jamaica in a very tight photo finish. In 2003, at the Paris World

Championships, Campbell took bronze in the 100 m, but missed on a medal in the 200 m, finishing fourth in the final. He also ran the 2nd leg for the 4 x 100 m relay team, but later lost this medal due to Dwain

Chambers being found guilty of doping. Campbell also set his 60 m PB of 6.59s this year.In the 2004 Summer Olympics, Campbell won a surprise gold medal in the 4 x 100 m, in a team with Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis, who defeated the United States team by just 0.01s, winning in a season's best of 38.07s. However, Campbell performed less well in the 100 m and 200 m, exiting in the heat and semi-final respectively, due to not being fully recovered from a hamstring injury.He was named captain for the European Cup in 2005, however did not have a successful season, only

placing 5th in the AAA semi-final and running 10.47s (10.48w) for the 100 m and 20.9s for the 200 m. He did, however, receive an MBE in the New Year Honours.

Campbell competed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, however did not progress past the semi-final in the 200 m, and the England team were eliminated in the 4 x 100 m after a faulty baton

changeover in their heat. He did not compete individually at the European Championships in Gothenburg, but ran the second leg to help Britain to the gold medal in the 4 x 100 relay.

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Medal Record

Olympic Games

Gold 2004 Athens 800 m

Gold 2004 Athens 1500 m

Bronze 2000 Sydney 800 m

World Championships

Silver 1995 Gothenburg 1500 m

Silver 2003 Paris 800 m

Bronze 1995 Gothenburg 800 m

European Championships

Silver 1994 Helsinki 1500 m

Bronze 2002 Munich 800 m

Commonwealth Games

Gold 1994 Victoria 1500 m

Gold 2002 Manchester 1500 m

Silver 1998 Kuala Lumpur 1500 m

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Dame Kelly Holmes was born in Pembury, Kent, the daughter of Derrick Holmes, a Jamaican-born car mechanic, and an English mother, Pam Norman. Her mother, 17 at the time of her birth, married painter and decorator

Michael Norris two years later, whom Holmes regards as her father, and the couple had four more children before divorcing. Holmes grew up in Hildenborough and attended Hugh Christie Comprehensive School in Tonbridge at

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 1500 metres in her second season. Her hero was British

middle distance runner Sebastian Coe, and she was inspired by Coe's successful 1984 Summer Olympics defence of his 1,500 m crown.

However, Holmes later turned her back on athletics, joining the British Army at the age of 18, having left school two years earlier, working initially as a recreation assistant and later as a nursing assistant. In the Army, she was

initially a lorry driver in the Women's Royal Army Corps, and when that corps was disbanded in 1992 she transferred to the Adjutant General's Corps as a physical trainer, reaching the rank of sergeant. She also became British Army judo champion, and in Army athletics events once competed in the men's 800 metres at a meeting,

as it was considered that for her to run in the women's event would be too embarrassing for the other competitors. At another event, she competed in and won an 800 metres, a 3000 metres and a relay race all in a

single day.Holmes watched the 1992 Summer Olympics on television, and seeing in the heats of the 3,000 metres, an athlete whom she had competed against, and beaten, decided to return to athletics. For several years she

combined both athletics and her employment in the army until increased funding allowed her to become a full-time athlete in 1997. While training in 2003 for the 2004 Summer Olympics at a French training camp, Holmes

suffered a number of leg injuries. Falling deep into depression, she began to meditate using an English lantern "I made one cut for every day that I had been injured", Holmes stated in an interview with 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. While she couldn't use anti-depressants because it would affect her

performance, she began using herbal serotonin tablets. (In 2005, after her achievements at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Holmes chose to talk about her self-harm to show others that being a professional athlete is an

extremely difficult thing to do and places the athlete under tremendous amounts of stress.)NextBack

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

before the games had many saying she should take her chance in the 800 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 Maria Mutola 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 and Čeplak, with Mutola in fourth. Holmes became the seventh British woman to win an athletics gold, and the second after Ann Packer in 1964 to win the 800 metres.

Clearly in form, Holmes now became favourite for the her preferred event, the 1,500 metres on the 28 August. Her most difficult task now was maintaining her focus — she later revealed how after waking each morning she

had put her medal on and cried.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 and 1500 m double, after Tatyana Kazankina of the Soviet Union in 1976 and Svetlana Masterkova of Russia in 1996, the first British woman to win two Olympic gold medals, and the country's first double gold medallist at the same games

since Albert Hill in 1920. Her time of 3 minutes 57.90 seconds in the 1500 m final also 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 August 29, the day after her second victory. A home-coming parade was held in her honour through the streets of

Hildenborough and Tonbridge on 1 September, which was attended by approximately 40,000 people. This was more than double the size of crowds at the parade through London for all the Olympic medallists, and roughly equivalent to the entire population of Hildenborough and Tonbridge (although there were many visitors from

outside the local area). Holmes won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2004, saying she achieved her goals after "twenty 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, Ann Packer, Mary Peters, Tessa Sanderson, Sally Gunnell and Denise Lewis.

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Gold 1992 Barcelona 100 m

Gold 1992 Barcelona 200 m

Gold 1992 Barcelona 400 m

Gold 1992 Barcelona 800 m

Gold 1996 Atlanta 800 m

Gold 2000 Sydney 100 m

Gold 2000 Sydney 200 m

Gold 2000 Sydney 400 m

Gold 2000 Sydney 800 m

Gold 2004 Athens 100 m

Gold 2004 Athens 400 m

Silver 1992 Barcelona 4 x 100 m

Silver 1996 Atlanta 100 m

Silver 1996 Atlanta 200 m

Medal Record

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Born with spina bifida, Grey-Thompson uses a wheelchair, and is considered to be one of the most successful disabled athletes in the UK. Thompson competes in events over a

wide range of distances, first competing in the 100 m at the Junior National Games for Wales in 1984. Over her career to date, she has won a total of 16 Paralympic medals,

including 11 golds, held over 30 world records, and won the London Marathon six times between 1997 and 2002.

In 2000, she was awarded the Helen Rollason Award for her performance at the 2000 Summer Paralympics, and was appointed an OBE for services to sport. In 2001, she was given an honorary degree by Loughborough University, namely a Doctorate of Technology, having graduated from the university ten years earlier with an honours

degree in Politics and Social Administration. Also in 2001, she was given an honorary degree by Leeds Metropolitan University. She has been named the BBC Wales Sports

Personality of the Year three times — in 1992, 2000 and 2004.In preparation for her retirement from the track, she has expanded her television

presenting career on BBC Wales and S4C, as well as BBC1.In the 2005 New Year's Honours List, her continuing services to Disabled Sport were

rewarded with the honour of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.On February 28, 2007, she announced her pending retirement, with her last appearance

for Great Britain at May's Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

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