Kelly Holmes

Holmes at the 2004 Olympic Games

Dame Kelly Holmes, DBE (* April 19, 1970 in Pembury, Kent ) is a former British middle distance runner and two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Career

Your first success was Holmes celebrate at the Commonwealth Games in 1994 in Victoria, where she won the 1500 meter race. In the same year she won at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki over the same distance silver. At the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg she won bronze in the 800 meters. In 1996 and 1997 she had bad luck with injuries; she suffered a stress fracture and a ruptured Achilles tendon. Holmes won the silver medal in the 1500 meters at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, she was about 800 meters behind Maria de Lurdes Mutola third parties and Stephanie Graf. 2002 was also a successful year: At the European Championships in Munich, she was third in the 800 meters at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester she won the 1500 - meter race. In 2003, she was twice second; over 800 meters at the World Athletics Championships in Paris / Saint- Denis and at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham about 1500 meters.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, she won her biggest success, she won the 800 - meter race before Hasna Benhassi and Jolanda Ceplak there. Your training partner, the far superior Maria Mutola only was fourth. The first three were only separated by just five hundredths of a second. A few days later, Holmes won again and became Olympic champion over 1500 meters. In the same year she became the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Sportsman of the Year in the UK, was elected. After enduring injuries to the Achilles tendon she finished her career early December 2005.

Kelly Holmes had a competition weight of 55 kg at a height of 1.63 m. Besides her work as an athlete Holmes was also an athletic trainer in the British Army. Despite many injuries can break it is the most successful British middle -distance runner of all time. On 1 January 2005 Kelly Holmes was by Queen Elizabeth II as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE ) ennobled. On 12 April 2005 Holmes was godmother of the then largest UK cruise ship, the Arcadia. In the same year she was named World Sportswoman of the Year.

The University of Greenwich in 2006 awarded her an honorary doctorate.

Personal best

  • 800 m: 1:56,21 min, September 9, 1995, Monaco
  • 1000 m: 2:32,55 min, 15 June 1997 Leeds
  • 1500 m: 3:57,90 min 28 August, 2004, Athens

Awards

  • 2004: Europe's Sportswoman of the Year
  • 2004: "European Athlete of the Year Trophy" (EAA )
  • 2004 Sportsman of the Year in the UK
  • 2005: Laureus World Sports Awards - World Sportswoman of the Year
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