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. He is currently coaching some of Britain's leading international athletes, Darren Campbell, Paul Gray, Matt Elias, Tim Abeyie and Christian Malcolm.
During Team Linford's annual training trip to Lanzarote in 1999, Linford was set a challenge by his group to race the 60m under 6.60secs and surprised everybody by not only winning but setting the fastest time of the year in Stuttgart over 60m.

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