Darren Campbell MBE

Darren Campbell MBE is unquestionably one of Britain’s most successful and well known male sprinters. During an international career spanning over a decade, Darren won individual medals at all of the Major Championships; European and World Championships, Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

With a combination of hard work and focus, Darren became the most successful British athlete at junior level winning four Gold and two Silver Medals at International Championships. Despite spending two years away from athletics playing professional football for Newport FC and Weymouth FC, Darren’s heart always lay at the track. Returning to athletics in 1995, he attended his first Olympics the following year.

Darren was known as a Championship performer, with the ability to pull out an electrifying performance when it really mattered. As a result he has a truly remarkable medal collection including, 4 European Golds, 1 Silver, 2 Commonwealth Games Golds, 1 Bronze, 2 World Championship Silvers, 2 Bronze and finally, both an Olympic Gold and Silver medal.

Since his retirement from professional athletics in 2006, Darren has worked with Aviva to pass on his experience at grassroots and elite levels. He is an ambassador for the ‘Sky Sport Living for Sport’ initiative which uses sport as a tool to re-engage young people who may be at risk of opting out of school life and also created a youth engagement programme, Street Athletics, in 2005 with his former coach Linford Christie.

Darren has worked with a number of professional Sportsmen to improve their raw speed including Mark Cueto and Andre Shevchenko. He also runs his own supplements company ‘Pro Athlete Supplementation’.

Darren’s progress through the sprinting hierarchy has resulted in him becoming the focal point of much media attention. The Olympic Gold and Silver medallist is regularly featured in the media and has made numerous appearances on TV and London’s fashion catwalks. He also took part in channel Five’s ‘Dangerous Adventures for Boys’ along side his eldest son, Aaryn. Together they took on the challenge of a lifetime learning about British motorsport and meeting Sir Sterling Moss for tips ahead of a race which saw Aaryn behind the wheel and Darren as head mechanic in the pit lane.

In August 2007 Darren worked alongside Mark Saggers on BBC Radio 5 Live during the summer Athletics debate programmes around the World Championships in Osaka.  Darren is a member of the BBC commentary team, reporting from the Beijing Olympics, World Championships in Berlin (2009) and European Championships in Barcelona. During the summer months, has a regular Athletics show on Radio 5 Live.

Darren has held sponsorship deals with Reebok, Samsung and was the face of Ben Sherman’s 2004 Olympic campaign. He has also been a Special Olympics Great Britain Ambassador since 2007.

He lives in Wales with his wife and three young children.