Linford Christie OBE

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Europe's greatest ever 100m sprinter, Linford became the Olympic 100m Champion after winning the Gold Medal in Barcelona in 1992. In an International career spanning seventeen years Linford competed over 60 times for his country and won more major championship medals (23) than any other British male sprinter. He was the British team captain from 1990, a year that saw him claim his second European Championships 100m title, and his first Commonwealth Games Gold, until his retirement from International Athletics in 1997.

Linford became the first man to retain the World Cup 100m crown, and in 1994 won an amazing sixth European Cup title and a third World Cup title. This total was added to in 1995 and 1996 with European Cup victories in the 100m and 200m to make him the holder of eleven titles. Unbeaten by a British athlete for eight years (until 1996) over 100m, Linford is the only European to have run below ten seconds. His fastest time, 9.87 seconds, recorded when he won the 1993 World Championship in Stuttgart, is the European record.

Amongst the numerous awards bestowed upon Linford was the prestigious 1993 'BBC Sports Personality of the Year' and 'European Athlete of the Year'.1994 proved to be another successful year, starting with a European indoor record of 6.48 seconds over 60m at Karlsruhe in March. The outdoor season started with an impressive 10.03 victory in Nurnberg and achieving his seventh AAA title when winning the 100m in 9.91 seconds in Sheffield in June, the fastest time ever run on a British track. He went on to successfully defend his European and Commonwealth titles.

Linford had a tremendous 1995 indoor season, breaking the European indoor record over 60m in a time of 6.47 seconds and in the same event in Lievin, France on 19 February, he smashed the 200m World Indoor Record in a time of 20.25 seconds. The 1995 World Championship ended with great disappointment for Linford when his hamstring tore during the 100m final. However, he came back against the best in the world in Zurich to beat the World Champion Donovan Bailey. Linford ended his season in Johannesburg with his fastest time of the year 9.97 seconds.

In 1996 Linford had a blistering start with an outdoor run in Adelaide, Australia when he clocked a time of 10.00 seconds and repeated the performance in Perth. His outdoor season saw him regularly running under 10.10 seconds. Included in these performances were his Europa Cup victories in the 100m and 200m and his eighth AAA title. For the first time in Linford's career he was disqualified from an Olympic Final after a controversial decision, which was later questioned after further studies on reaction times. As always, after any disappointment, Linford has the ability to pick himself up and look to the future.

Although semi-retired, Linford competed in a limited Indoor race season in 1997, setting the fastest 200m time in the world, when winning the 200m in Stuttgart, to add to the 60m title. The outdoor season started well, with two Grand Prix victories and captaining a victorious men's team in the Europa Cup in Munich. Linford decided to end his international career at the Europa Cup with a fine display, winning the 100m & 200m sprint events, reaffirming his dominance of European athletics over the last decade. Linford publicly announced his official retirement from the track after the World Championship in Athens 1997, confirming that his interests now lie as a coach, rather than competitor.

This switch led to success as Linford coached Darren Campbell to, amongst others, a silver medal in the 200m at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Linford was also coaching Katharine Merry at the time, who also returned from the same Olympic Games with a bronze medal in the 400m.

Now retired, but still keeping fit, Linford’s became a familiar face on television, having presented three series of ‘Linford’s Record Breakers’ on BBC1 and more recently ‘Garden Invaders’ amongst others. He has worked as a technical commentator in Athletics and has presented many sports specific programmes over the years.

Linford is now busy coaching Christian Malcolm, and is now a part of the UK athletics set up, where he is part of the Norwich Union UKA mentoring programme. In addition to this, Linford is also involved in elitementor.com, a website set up between himself, Katharine Merry and Darren Campbell, providing an online mentoring facility, run purely by World and Olympic medallists.

Aside from coaching, Linford has an active role in his own Sports Management Company “Nuff” Respect. He also spends a lot of time supporting numerous charities, particularly The Rainbow Trust. Linford has become renowned for his passion for gardening and has written a regular problem page for The Guardian as well as a guide for top Gardening gadgets.

Linford and his protégé, Darren Campbell, launched Street Athletics in June 2005 in conjunction with Manchester City Council, in an attempt to find the raw sprinting talent that is being lost to other sports and computer games. The scheme was extended to cover 4 cities in 2006, and this is set to more than double in 2007.

Feb 2007