1900

MEN

GOLD
Alfred Tysoe - 800m and 5,000m team (discontinued)
Tysoe, a farm worker from Lancashire, started out as a successful miler and cross-country runner, winning the AAA one-mile and ten-mile titles in 1897. A year later he was a member of the winning Salford Harriers team that won the national cross-country team championship. Tysoe won the 880 yards AAA title in 1899 and 1900, when he was the world No 1 for the first time. A week after winning his national title, he crowned a glorious year with his Olympic 800 metres victory. He won a second gold medal in the long-since discontinued 5,000 metres team race. His season finished on a high point with a post-Games victory over 1,320 yards against Charles Bennett, of Finchley Harriers and the Olympic 1,500 metres champion. That would be his last race; tragically, he contracted pleurisy and died at the age of 27 on October 26, 1901, at his father's home in Blackpool.
Charles Bennett - 1,500m and 5,000m team (discontinued)
In winning the 1,500 metres in Paris, Bennett, born in Shapwich, Dorset, in 1870 and later to become a train driver at Bournemouth, became the first British athlete to win an Olympic track and field title. He had retained the national cross-country title in 1900 before coming down to the mile in time to be British champion for the Finchley Harriers by the summer. He improved his personal best time by 18 seconds to win the Olympic title in the absence of the world No 1 of that year, John Cregan, of the US, who would not compete on the Sabbath. Bennett won a second gold when he led the Great Britain team to victory in the 5,000 metres team race and added a silver medal to his collection in the 4,000 metres steeplechase. His 1900 season finished in defeat, however, when he was beaten by Alfred Tysoe, of Salford Harriers and the 800 metres Olympic champion, in a "mid-distance" 1,320 yards challenge. Bennett died in Bournemouth aged 79 on March 9, 1949.
John Thomas Rimmer - 4,000m steeplechase (discontinued), and 5,000m team (discontinued)
Rimmer, born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, in 1878, started his running career as a member of the Sefton Harriers before joining Southport Harriers, and was a fine cross-country runner, albeit never a champion. In the 4,000 metres at Paris he ran stride for stride with Bennett and Robinson, his Britain team-mates, and the three crossed the finishing line in a line. The judges awarded Rimmer the title. He collected another gold medal as a member of the 5,000 metres team race. A year later he won his first and only national athletics title, over four miles. Rimmer later worked as a policeman in Liverpool. He died there at the age of 84.

SILVER
Sidney Robinson - 3,000m steeplechase (discontinued)
Patrick Leahy - high jump
Charles Bennet - 4,000m steeplechase (discontinued)

BRONZE
Patrick Leahy - long jump
Sidney Robinson - 4,000m steeplechase

1904

MEN

SILVER
John Daly - 3,000m steeplechase

1906

MEN

GOLD
Cornelius Leahy - high jump
Born in April 1876, Leahy was one of seven Irish brothers, all of whom were great athletes. Patrick won the Olympic silver medal in the high jump and Olympic bronze medal in the long jump in 1900. But Cornelius was the most successful sibling. At the Games, the first three hours of the competition saw the bar raised by just 1cm at a time, with every competitor obliged to jump each round. Tired by this process, they asked for the bar to be raised by 5cm at a time. It was a further two hours before Leahy, who celebrated his 30th birthday the day before competition, and Lajos Gonczy, of Hungary, were the only two rivals left in the battle. Leahy cleared 5ft 9¾in at the first attempt but the Hungarian failed three times. Leahy attempted 6ft twice but declined a third effort and was awarded the gold medal. He later added a silver medal behind Peter O'Connor, his fellow Irishman, in the triple jump. Two years later he tied for the silver medal in the Olympic high jump. A year later, Cornelius and Patrick emigrated to the US. Cornelius died there in 1921, aged 45.
Peter O'Connor - triple jump
O'Connor caused controversy after his triumph by climbing the flagpole, pulling down the Union Jack and replacing it with the Irish flag. Second to him was Cornelius Leahy, winner of the high jump title. O'Connor also won a silver medal, in the long jump. O'Connor, born in Wicklow in 1874, set the world long jump record for the first time in 1900 and improved it four times the year after. His 24ft 11¾in leap in Dublin on August 5 remained on the record books for 20 years and remained an Irish all-comers record until 1968. However, at the 1906 Games, he was in constant dispute with the judges for "no-jumping", and could manage a best jump of only a foot shorter than his world record. Still, he finished second. O'Connor made up for that disappointment with victory in the triple jump over Leahy. He then retired but was back at the Games in 1932, as a judge, and 1936, as a spectator. A solicitor by profession, O'Connor died aged 83 in Waterford.
Henry Hawtrey - 5 miles
Hawtrey came to prominence in 1902, at the age of 20, when he finished second in the AAA one mile national championship in a time that equalled the British record before that had fallen to the victor, Joe Binks. Between then and 1906 Hawtrey achieved little progress. He qualified for the Games over five miles and 1,500 metres. The longer event was the first and Hawtrey had it all his own way, leading from two miles to the end of the race, which he won by 50 yards over John Svanberg, of Sweden. Hawtrey did not finish his heat of the 1,500 metres. Having been commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1900, Hawtrey was awarded the DSO and CMG for his efforts during the Great War. After the war he served in India and West Africa and was mentioned in despatches from the Afghan War of 1919. In 1931, by then a Brigadier, Hawtrey was appointed an ADC to King George V but relinquished the post upon retirement from the Army in 1934. He rejoined for action in 1939 but retired finally aged 60 in 1942. Hawtrey died on November 16, 1961, at Aldershot, Hampshire, aged 79.

SILVER
Wyndham Halswelle - 400m
John McGough - 1,500m
Alfred Healey - 100m hurdles
Peter O'Connor - long jump
Cornelius Leahy - triple jump

BRONZE
Wyndham Halswelle - 800m

1908

MEN

GOLD
Wyndham Halswelle - 400m
After winning a silver medal over 400 metres and a bronze medal over 800 metres at the 1906 Games, Halswelle, born in Mayfair in 1882, returned to Britain to win the Scottish titles over 100, 220, 440 and 880 yards all in one afternoon. In 1908, he gave warning to the world that he was on top form with a world record over 300 yards and a British record over 440 yards. The Olympic race was, however, something of a farce. Before the final, the judge warned the four rivals, Halswelle and three Americans not to jostle each other. However, in the run for home, one of the Americans forced the Briton to within a yard of the outside edge of the track. The umpires forced the race to be abandoned, Carpenter, the American blamed for the incident, was disqualified, and the final recalled. The Americans refused to race and Halswelle ran alone for his Olympic title. A military man, Halswelle was commissioned into the Highland Light Infantry in 1901. He was Captain Halswelle when he was killed by a sniper's bullet at the age of 32 on March 31, 1915, in Neuve Chapelle, France.
Arthur Russell - 3,000m steeplechase
Wearing No 1 on his vest, Russell ran at the helm of 11 British competitors in the Olympic 3,000m steeplechase, a race which was actually 3,200 metres long. Russell was AAA national champion at the event in 1904, 1905 and 1906.
Timothy Ahearne - triple jump
Ahearne won with his final jump and took the title back to Ireland, his compatriot Peter O'Connor having won in 1906. Ahearne, who also finished eighth in the long jump, returned home and leapt to within a couple of inches of O'Connor's world record, one that stood for 20 years. In 1909 he actually exceeded O'Connor's standard but the 25ft 3½in jump was disallowed because the runway was downhill. His younger brother, Dan, took the triple jump world record from him in the same year, by which time both had emigrated to the US. Timothy died there aged 83 in 1968.
Emil Voigt - 5 miles
Voigt, of German parentage and born in Manchester, was just 5ft 5in and a vegetarian, neither of which proved handicaps to his athleticism. Voigt, whose victory was comfortable, put his success down to his vegetarianism. After retiring from sport, he emigrated to Australia in 1911 and became a radio pioneer. He served for 12 years as President of the Australian Federation of Broadcasting Stations. In 1948, he moved to New Zealand and died aged 90 in Auckland on October 16, 1973.
Joseph Deakin, Arthur Robertson, Wilfred Coales - 3 x 1-mile relay (discontinued)
George Larner - 3,500m walk (discontinued), and 10,000m walk
Larner, 33, a policeman from Brighton, came out of retirement from sport to win his title. Four days later he added the 10,000 metres walk crown in a world amateur record with teammate Ernest Webb, his team-mate, second in both races. Larner had in fact not taken up walking as a sport until 1903, at the age of 28. A year later he had set nine world records and won four national titles and decided to retire to concentrate on his career in the force. After his great victories of 1908, Larner retired from walking again but took up cross-country. He made a second walking comeback in 1911 to win the national seven miles title before hanging up his boots for good. He later became a walking judge and many of his records remained unbroken by the time he died at Brighton, Sussex, just three days before what would have been his 74th birthday.

SILVER
Harold Wilson - 1,500m
Denis Horgan - shot put
Edward Owen - 5 miles (discontinued)
Ernest Webb - 3,500m walk (discontinued)
Ernest Webb - 10,000m walk (discontinued)

BRONZE
Norman Hallows - 1,500m
Leonard Tremeer - 400m hurdles

1912

MEN

GOLD
Arnold Jackson - 1,500m
Jackson, a 21-year-old Oxford undergraduate at the time of his Olympic victory, remains the youngest winner of the 1,500 metres title. Considered a novice before the final, Jackson, from Addlestone in Surrey, established a British and Olympic record of 3min 56.8sec for victory. Although he ran for Oxford in various varsity competitions he never competed in the AAA national championships, his Olympic success a true flash in the pan. During his time at Brasenose College, Oxford, proved his worth at football, cricket, hockey, golf and rowing. After his athletic career, he served with the King's Royal Rifle Corps and became the youngest Brigadier-General in the British Army, and won the DSO and three bars. He was appointed CBE for his services as a member of the British delegation to the Paris peace conference after the Great War, and in 1921 emigrated to the US. He took American nationality in 1945 but returned to England in his last years. He died in Oxford on November 13, 1972 at the age of 81.
David Jacobs, Henry Mcintosh, Victor D'Arcy, William Applegarth - 4 x 100m

SILVER
Archie Robertson - 3,000m steeplechase

BRONZE
George Hutson - 5,000m
Ernest Webb - 10,000m walk (discontinued)
William Applegarth - 200m
George Nicol, Ernest Henley, James Soutter, Cyril Seedhouse - 4 x 400m
William Cottrill, George Hutson, Cyril Porter - 3,000m (3 x 100m) relay
Frederick Hibbins, Ernest Glover, Thomas Humphreys - cross-country relay (circa 12km, discontinued)

1920

MEN

GOLD
Albert Hill - 800m and 1,500m
In 1910, Hill, then aged 21, won his first national title, over four miles. It was a further four years, however, before he made much of an impact again, finishing a close second in the 880 yards at the AAA national championships. The Great War then intervened and Hill served as a signalman with the Royal Flying Corps. He won the national one-mile title in 1919 but in 1920 decided not to defend that title in favour of racing Bevil Rudd of South Africa, over 880 yards. He lost that race, prompting selectors to say he was too old to attempt the double in Stockholm. Hill won the argument, however, and in the space of three days won his Olympic golden double. Hill later became an athletics coach. In the 1930s he emigrated to Canada, where he died shortly before his 80th birthday on January 8, 1969.
Percy Hodge - 3,000m steeplechase
Hodge, born on Guernsey in 1890, won his first national title when he was 28. In 1920 he won one of his four national AAA steeplechase titles to qualify for the Olympic Games. Having qualified fastest for the final, Hodge went on to win his crown by an impressive margin of 100 metres. Such was his balance going over the barriers that Hodge could clear hurdles holding a tray with bottle and glasses and spill not a drop. He performed the party trick at athletics events and on stage. Hodge died in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, in 1967, a day after his 77th Boxing-Day birthday.
Cecil Griffiths, Robert Lindsay, John Aisnworth-Davis, Guy Butler - 4 x 400m

GOLD
Guy Butler - 400m
Philip Baker - 1,500m
Charles Blewitt, Albert Hill, William Seagrove - 3,000m (3 x 1,000m) relay
James Wilson, Frank Hegarty, Arthur Nichols - cross-country relay (circa 12km, discontinued)

BRONZE
Harry Edward - 100m
James Wilson - 10,000m
Charles Gunn - 10,000m walk (discontinued)

1924

MEN

GOLD
Harry Abrahams - 100m
The story of Abrahams and Eric Liddell was romanticised, and not portrayed entirely accurately, in the film Chariots of Fire. Born in Bedford shortly before Christmas 1899, Abrahams was a talented athlete from a young age, winning running races and the long jump at school level. He later won several events for Cambridge at the University's annual matches against Oxford. His first international triumph came in 1920, when he won the 220 yards for England at an international against Ireland and Scotland. He set his first English record in 1923, although that was in the long jump, with a distance of 23ft 8¼in, and went on to improve that to take the national AAA title, his first domestic crown. That following winter he was coached by Sam Mussabini and made great progress in the long jump and over 100 yards, winning four events and earning selection for the Games. In the 100 metres at the Games, Abrahams beat the Jackson Scholz, the American favourite. He also raced in the 200 etres and was a member of the 4 x 100 metres relay team which took the silver medal behind the US and whose British record of 41.2sec was to stand for 28 years. In those days there were no medal ceremonies, so Abrahams received his medals in the post sometime after the Games and was surprised by a demand to pay the excess post charge; the French authorities had failed to stick enough stamps on the package. Abrahams retired from athletics in 1925 because of a leg injury. He practised as a barrister and later was appointed CBE for his work as secretary of the National Parks Commission. His passion throughout life, however, remained athletics, a sport within which he acted as administrator, journalist for the Sunday Times, broadcaster for the BBC, historian and statistician. He served as both treasurer and chairman of the British Amateur Athletic Board and in 1976, aged 76, he was elected President of the Amateur Athletic Association. He died a little over a year later on January 14, 1978, at Enfield in Middlesex.
Eric Liddell - 400m
Liddell's story, alongside that of Harold Abrahams was romanticised in the film Chariots of Fire, which contained several inaccuracies about the true lives of both runners but was nonetheless a worthy tribute to their achievements. Liddell entered the world and left it in China. Born to Scottish missionary parents in Tientsin in January 1902, Liddell showed promise as an athlete at a young age and earned international rugby and athletics caps while a student at Edinburgh University. He played on the wing for Scotland seven times but athletics was his true love and he won five successive national titles over 100 and 220 yards. He added the national 440 yards title in 1924 and, following his religious beliefs, decided that the longer two distances would be the ones he would target at the Games, given that the heats of the 100 metres were to be run on a Sunday. His first medal in Paris was a bronze in the 200 metres but it was his 400 metres effort that caught the imagination; having set a devastatingly fast early pace in the outside lane, Liddell maintained his unique running style, with head back and arms flailing, until he crossed the finish line for his first gold medal. His second came as anchor leg in the 4 x 440 yards relay in which Britain beat the US. In 1925, Liddell headed back to China and spent the rest of his short life devoted to the Christian faith. In March 1943 he was interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Weihsien, China. In appalling and brutal circumstances, he died there in captivity on February 21, 1945, a month after his 43rd birthday.
Douglas Lowe - 800m
While at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Lowe, who was born in Manchester, in August 1902, earned a Blue at soccer and athletics but he favoured track over field. Having been a schoolboy running champion, Lowe was still making his way through the senior rankings the year before the 1924 Games but by 1924 had progressed to second place at the AAA national championships behind Henry Stallard. At the Games he surprised everyone by breaking Albert Hill's British record for victory in 1min 52.4sec. He was also fourth over 1,500 metres. Oddly, it was not until 1927 that Lowe won his first national AAA title. A year later he became the first man to retain the Olympic 800 metres title. After retiring, Lowe served as honorary secretary of the Amateur Athletic Association from 1931 to 1938. He was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1928, became a bencher in 1957 and took silk in 1964. During his legal career he was Recorder of Lincoln and of the Crown Court. He died at Cranbrook, Kent on March 30, 1981, aged 78.

SILVER
Harold Abrahams, Walter Rangeley, Lancelot Royle, William Nichol - 4 x 100m
Bernard Macdonald, Herbert Johnston, George Webber - 3,000m (3 x 1,000m) relay (discontinued)
Gordon Goodwin - 10,000m walk (discontinued)

BRONZE
Eric Liddell - 200m
Guy Butler - 400m
Hyla (Henry) Stallard - 1,500m
Edward Toms, George Renwick, Richard Ripley, Guy Butler - 4 x 400m
Malcolm Nokes - hammer

1928

MEN

GOLD
Douglas Lowe - 800m
Lowe became the first man to retain the Olympic 800 metres title. See 1924.
David Burghley - 400m hurdles
Lord Burghley, later to become the 6th Marquess of Exeter, KCMG, was born at Stamford, Lincolnshire, in February 1905. He was just 19 when he competed in the 110 metres hurdles at the 1924 Olympic Games. That was the first of three Games at which he competed and it was only after 1924 that he developed into Britain's best hurdler by some margin, at one time being national record holder at all three hurdling distances. Educated at Eton, in Switzerland and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, Lord Burghley reached a peak at the 1928 Games when he won the gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles. In his time he set one world (in 1927) and seven world records, and helped the Great Britain 4 x 400 metres relay collect the silver medal at the 1932 Games, where he finished fourth in the 400 metres hurdles and fifth in the 110 metres hurdles. Elected MP for Peterborough in 1931, Lord Burghley resigned his seat in 1943 when he was appointed Governor of Bermuda. He retianed his sporting links by becoming a member of the IOC and, in 1936, President of the AAA and chairman of the BOA. After the Second World War he became president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation. Lord Burghley became the 6th Marquess of Exeter on the death of his father in 1956. The former Olympic champion died aged 76, on October 22, 1981, at the place where he was born, in Stamford.

SILVER
John "Jack" London - 100m
Walter Rangeley - 200m

BRONZE
Cyril Gill, Edward Smouha, Walter Rangeley, Jack London - 4 by 100m

1932

MEN

GOLD
Thomas Hampson - 800m
It was only after taking up a teaching post at St Albans School after graduation from St Catherine's College, Oxford, that Hampson showed his Olympic potential. In 1930 he took national AAA titles, won in an international against France and triumphed at the Empire Games to set himself up as a medal hope for the 1932 Olympic Games. At the halfway mark in the Olympic final, Hampson was 20 metres down on Phil Edwards, of Canada. However, his rival paid the price for that blistering pace and faded badly, as Hampson sailed past him and went on to win in a world record of 1min 49.7sec. He was also a member of the 4 x 400 metres relay that won the silver medal. He later qualified as an honorary senior AAA athletics coach. During the Second World War he served in the RAF and afterwards became a social welfare officer. He died on September 4, 1965, at Stevenage in Hertfordshire.
Thomas Green - 50,000m walk
Green overcame adversity to compete in Los Angeles. He had had rickets as a boy and was unable to walk until five years of age. Having lied about his age, Green was allowed to join the Army at 12 but was forced to leave at 14 after a horse fell on him. He was recalled for the First World War in 1914 and was wounded three times, the final incident, a gassing in France, forcing him back to Britain in 1917. Green raced in his first walking competition - 12 miles from Worthing to Brighton - in 1926 at the relatively late age of 32 after being encouraged to take up the sport by a war-blinded friend that he had coached for the London to Brighton walk. Green, by then a railway worker at Eastleigh Railway Works, won his first race and joined the Belgrave Harriers before winning the London to Brighton race four times. He was also a multiple winner of the Manchester to Blackpool race and the Nottingham to Birmingham race. He won his Olympic title at the age of 38. In 1930 he won the Milan 100 kilometres race and the inaugural British 50 kilometres title. At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles he overcame not only the adversity that had faced him as a boy but the searing Californian sun. Having won the crown at 38 years and 126 days, he remains the oldest winner of the event. His attempt to make the team for the 1936 Games failed when he finished fourth in the national championships at the age of 44. Green became a publican in Eastleigh after retirement from the railways. He died in the Hampshire town on March 29, 1975, a day before his 81st birthday.

SILVER
John Cornes - 1,500m
Samuel Feris - Marathon
Thomas Evenson - 3,000m steeplehase
Crew Stoneley, Thomas Hampson, David Burghley, Godfrey Rampling - 4 x 400m

BRONZE
Donald Finlay - 100m hurdles

WOMEN

BRONZE
Eileen Hiscock, Gwendolina Porter, Violet Webb, Nellie Halstead - 4 x 100m relay

1936

MEN

GOLD
Frederick Wolff, Godfrey Rampling, William Roberts, Arthur Godfrey Brown - 4 by 400m
Harold Whitlock - 50,000m walk
Despite the fact that his effort was so great that he spent some of his race vomiting, Whitlock - a 32-year-old car mechanic who was born in Hendon, Middlesex, in 1903 - ran on to set an Olympic record of 4 hr 30min 41.4sec and win by more than a minute and a half. A worthy successor to Thomas Green, his compatriot and long-time rival and the 1932 Olympic champion, Whitlock became European champion in 1938, after which the Second World War intervened. The story did not end there, however, for Whitlock made an amazing comeback in time for the Helsinki Games 16 years after his Berlin victory. By the time he appeared at the Finnish stadium he was 48 years and 218 days old, and remains the oldest athlete to represent Britain. He finished a worthy eleventh in a race in which his younger brother, George Whitlock, known as "Rex", finished fourth. Harold was an official at the 1960 Games in Rome, where Don Thomspon, his protégé, became Britain's only male track and field winner. He died at Wicklewood, Norfolk, on December 27, 1985, shortly after his 82nd birthday.

SILVER
Arthur Godfrey Brown - 400m
Ernest Harper - Marathon
Donald Finlay - 110m hurdles

WOMEN

SILVER
Eileen Hiscock, Violet Olney, Audrey Brown, Barbara Burke - 4 x 100m relay
Dorothy Odam - high jump

1948

MEN

SILVER
Thomas Richards - Marathon
John Archer, John Gregory, Alastair McCorquodale, Kenneth Jones - 4 x 100m

BRONZE
Terence Lloyd-Johnson - 50,000m walk

WOMEN

SILVER
Dorothy Manley - 100m
Manley finished just 0.3sec behind Fanny Blankers-Koen
Audrey Williamson - 200m
Williamson finished just 0.07sec behind Blankers-Koen.
Maureen Gardner -80m hurdles
Gardner clocked 11.2sec, the same time as Blankers-Koen but the judges' decision went to the Dutch legend.
Dorothy Tyler (née Odam) - high jump
Tyler cleared the same height, 5ft 6in, as the winner, Alice Coachman (US) but the American was given the gold on the basis that she cleared the height at the first attempt. Coachman went on to become the first black woman sports star to endorse a retail product: Coca-Cola.

1952

MEN

BRONZE
Emmanuel McDonald Bailey - 100m
John Disley - 3,000m steeplechase

WOMEN

SILVER
Sheila Lerwill - high jump

BRONZE
Sylvia Cheeseman, June Foulds, Jean Desforges, Heather Armitage - 4 x 100m relay
Shirley Cawley - long jump

1956

MEN

GOLD
Christopher Brasher - 3,000m steeplechase
Brasher, better known in later years for his superb work organising the London Marathon, made the steeplechase final at the 1952 Games in Helsinki. By the time he made the team again for the 1956 Games, he was still the least favourite of the three British entries to win a medal. However, the gods were with him 300 metres from home, when he broke from the pack with a ferocity that could not be matched. He was more than 10 metres ahead at the line in an Olympic and British record of 8min 41.2sec. Brasher, who was born in 1928 in Georgetown, Guyana, then faced a lengthy wait to see whether he would in fact be awarded the gold medal, after a protest was lodged claiming that he had impeded Ernst Larsen, of Norway, during the race. The protest failed and Brasher was awarded his crown. After the Games, Brasher, a graduate of St John's College, Cambridge, became sports editor of The Observer newspaper. He later became a BBC reporter on the Tonight programme.

SILVER
Derek Johnson - 800m
Gordon Pirie - 5,000m

BRONZE
Derek Ibbotson - 5,000m
John Salisbury, Michael Wheeler, Peter Higgins, Derek Johnson - 4 x 400m

WOMEN

SILVER
Anne Pashley, Jean Scrivens, June Paul (née Foulds), Heather Armitage - 4 x 100m relay
Thelma Hopkins - high jump

1960

MEN

GOLD
Donald Thompson - 50,000m walk
Thompson, born in Hillingdon, Middlesex, in 1933, collapsed exhausted with just 5,000 metres remaining of the 1956 race in Melbourne. Determined not to have the same thing happen again in 1960, he adopted an unusual training regime in the years leading up to his triumph in Rome in an Olympic record of 4 hr 25min 30sec; the only way to simulate the hot humid weather of an Italian afternoon back at his home in Cranford, Middlesex, was to train in a locked bathroom with heaters turned high, hot water running and kettles boiling. That produced conditions even more hostile than those in which he faced in Rome. He won the race by 17sec over John Ljunggren, of Sweden, winner of the 1948 title in London. Thompson, a member of the Metropolitan Walking Club, raced again at the 1964 Games, where he finished tenth. He won the London to Brighton race nine times, and with a grit unfathomable to mere mortals, he came out of retirement at the age of 57 in 1990 to finish second in the RWZ national 100-mile championship.

BRONZE
Peter Radford - 100m
Peter Radford, David Jones, David Segal, Nick Whitehead - 4 x 100m
Stanley Vickers - 20,000m walk

WOMEN

SILVER
Dorothy Hyman - 100m
Hyman finished 0.03sec behind the great Wilma Rudolph
Carole Quinton - 80m hurdles

BRONZE
Dorothy Hyman - 200m
Dorothy Shirley - high jump

1964

MEN

GOLD
Lynn Davies - long jump
Davies relied on his last qualifying jump to qualify for the final in Tokyo before going on to become the first Welshman to win an Olympic title. A PE teacher from Nantymoel, Glamorganshire, Davies put his victory, with a jump of 8m 7cm (26ft 5¾in) down to the inclement weather prevailing on his day of triumph. It was wet, cold and windy. So windy in fact, according to press cuttings from the time, that US and Russian athletes attempted to have the event run from the opposite side of the sand as that scheduled so that they would be jumping with the wind rather than against it. Their request fell on deaf ears. Davies was third going into the fifth round of the final but was encouraged by the fact that the flag flying over the stadium dropped still just as he was about to start his run-up. The wind had died down temporarily; Davies leapt 26ft 5 and ¾in, the greatest jump of his career, for the greatest result of his career. Davies also competed in the 100 metres and the 4 x 100m relay race in which the Great Britain team finished last in the final. Davies returned four years later as one of the favourites for the 1968 title. However, he came up against the legendary Bob Beamon. Davies is reported to have become downhearted after Beamon's exceptional leap to fame (29ft 2½in) and said to Beamon: "You have destroyed this event". Davies finished ninth, well below best. The second-best jump of Beamon's career was a distant 26ft 11 1/2in and some doubters of his Mexico performance believed that the wind factor had been higher that the two miles per second maximum permissible, a figure given as the precise condition at the time of Beamon's milestone. Davies recovered his composure enough to retain the Commonwealth title in 1970 but although he made the Britain team for the 1972 Olympic Games, he was injured and did not make the final. He retired in 1973, after which he became technical director of Canadian athletics. He returned to Britain in 1976 and has been a member of the BBC TV's commentary team.
Kenneth Matthews - 20,000m walk
Ken Matthews had led the 1960 race in Rome for the first 8 kilometres before collapsing. He failed to finish and had to watch as Stanley Vickers, his team-mate, went on to take the bronze medal behind Volodymyr Holubnychy, of the Soviet Union. Holubnychy, a Ukrainian, was one of the most successful walkers ever, twice winning the Olympic title over 20,000 metres, in 1960 and 1968. He finished second in 1972 and seventh at his fifth successive Games, at Montreal in 1976, but his worst Olympic medal result was a bronze behind Matthews in 1964. Matthews worked as an electrician at the nearby power station in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham. He refused to let his 1960 disappointment get the better of his athletic promise and headed for Tokyo confident of a better result. His optimism was shared by work colleagues, who stumped up the funds to pay for Sheila Matthews to make the trip to Japan and witness her husband's great sporting moment. In winning by almost two minutes, Matthews set an Olympic record of 1hr 29min 34 sec. It was a record that would stand until the 1976 Games in Montreal. According to David Wallechinsky's Olympic "bible", a victorious Matthews said after being embraced by his wife post-race: "My legs hurt me at the end of the race. They still do. But I wouldn't mind going dancing now." Oddly, he was not appointed MBE until 1978 after a campaign had been launched in support of him.

SILVER
Basil Heatley - Marathon
John Cooper - 400m hurdles
Maurice Herriott - 3,000m steeplechase
Timothy Graham, Adrian Metcalfe, John Cooper, Robbie Brightwell - 4 x 400m
Paul Nihill - 50,000m walk

WOMEN

GOLD
Ann Packer - 800m
Packer, born in Moulsford, Berkshire, in March 1942, had already won the silver medal in the 400 metres before her great moment in the 800 metres. The longer race was not her speciality and she was not a medal favourite going in to the final, even by her own estimation; she even considered skipping the final in favour of a shopping spree in downtown Robbie Brightwell, her fiancé and team-mate, was fourth in the men's 400 metres and a silver medal winner as a member of the 4 x 400m relay. Brightwell’s frustration and disappointment in the individual 400 metres had spurred Packer on. She told reporters later: "I was thinking about him and not myself, so I wasn't nervous." Packer had shown great promise as a young athlete when in 1959 she won the English Schools 100 yards title. In 1960 she won her first national title, in the long jump and made her international debut in the event. It was not until 1963 that she made an impression at world level over 400 metres and only added the 800 metres to her Olympic programme as a secondary event. In the 400 metres for which she was a favourite, she set a European record of 52sec but was edged out for the gold by Betty Cuthbert, of Australia. Then came the shock; in the 800 metres final Packer, considered an outside medal chance, kept with the pace until just before the home straight, where she put in a burst of speed that put a five-metre gap between her and the silver medal by the finishing line and brought her an Olympic and European record of 2mins 01.1sec. She retired at just 22 years of age after the Games and, together with Brightwell, whom she married, was appointed MBE in 1969.
Mary Rand - long jump
Mary Rand (nee Bignal, later Twomey) became the first British woman to win an Olympic athletics medal with her performance in Tokyo. She had entered the 1960 final as favourite having jumped the longest qualifying round. However, she had a disastrous final, running through two of the jumps, and finished ninth. Her qualifying performance would have won her the silver medal. Four years on, she again qualified favourite for the title in the final but this time fate was on her side; four of her six jumps were her longest ever, while her worst jump would have been good enough for the silver medal. Her best of the series was a world record, of 22ft 2½in, against a strong wind factor of 1.69sec per mile. After her triumph, she added a silver medal in the pentathlon and a bronze in the 4 x 100m relay. Her versality was pronounced from an early age when, after finishing runner-up in the English Schools long jump competition she was offered, and accepted, a sports scholarship at Millfield School. At 17 she set an English record in her first ever pentathlon. In 1959, now competing for the London Olympiades Athletics Club, she became the first British woman to clear 20ft in the long jump and improved her won British pentathlon record twice. She qualified for the Rome Olympic Games of 1960 and led the field into the final of the long jump. Then came the first setback of her career; her form abandoned her and she finished ninth, and not even a fourth in the 80 metres hurdles could make up for her disappointment. After the Games she married Sidney Rand, a rower, and the couple had a daughter. By the time the Tokyo Games came round, Rand was back on top form and led the qualifiers into the final, as she had four years earlier. This time, however, there was no mistake. On her fifth jump she established a world record of 22ft 2¼in (6.76m) and the title was hers. She won the Commonwealth long jump title in 1966 but injury intervened to keep here from qualifying for her third Olympic Games in 1968 and she retired from athletics. After her divorce from Rand she married the Olympic 1968 decathlon champion from the US, William Twomey. That marriage also ended in divorce.

SILVER
Ann Packer - 400m
Mary Rand - pentathlon

BRONZE
Janet Simpson, Mary Rand, Daphne Arden, Dorothy Hyman - 4 x 100m relay

1968

MEN

GOLD
David Hemery - 400m hurdles
Born in July 1944 at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, Hemery spent many of his formative years in Massachusetts, where his father worked as an accountant. The budding champion retuned to England in 1962 but was soon gone again, this time to Boston University in 1964. He set his first British high hurdles record, of 13.9sec in 1966, the year in which he became Commonwealth champion and set himself up as a medal hope for the Games in Mexico. At the Games, he lowered the British record for the third time that year over the 400 metres in the semi-finals. In the final Hemery produced an outstanding effort that took him to a world record of 48.1sec. He received his gold medal from the Marquess of Exeter, who as Lord Burghley had won the hurdles title in 1928. After retaining his Commonwealth title in 1970, he took a break from the sport, before returning for the 1972 Games, at which he won the bronze medal in the 400 metres hurdles and a silver medal as a member of the Great Britain 4 x 400 metres relay that equalled the European record to finish just behind the US. He went up to St Catherine’s College, Oxford, after the Games and was made an MBE at the end of 1968. After retirement Hemery returned to the US, where he coached athletics at Boston University. He returned to England in 1982 and has been working as a coach and coaching instructor in the years since.

BRONZE
John Sherwood - 400m hurdles

WOMEN

SILVER
Lilian Board - 400m
Sheila Sherwood - long jump

1972

MEN

SILVER
Martin Reynolds, Alan Pascoe, David Hemery, David Jenkins - 4 by 400m

BRONZE
Ian Stewart - 5,000m
David Hemery - 400m hurdles

WOMEN

GOLD
Mary Peters - heptathlon
Peters, born in Halewood, Lancashire, in July 1939 but raised in Ireland, finished fourth in 1964 and ninth in 1968. By 1972, the Belfast secretary was 33 but in the best shape of her life. Her battle with Heidi Rosendahl, the local favourite, was monumental; by the time the 200 metres run came round, the rivals were locked in the tightest clash imaginable and had Peters raced 0.1sec slower in the 200 metres she would have lost the title. As it was, she won the title in a world record of 4,801 points, 10 points (0.1sec) ahead of the German. In her time, Peters won seven national pentathlon titles and the Commonwealth title at Edinburgh in 1970. At the 1964 Games she finished fourth and was ninth at the 1968 Games. After her Commonwealth title of 1970 Peters took a year out to train with Buster McShane. Whatever she did in training that season proved decisive. After the Munich Games she went on to retain her Commonwealth title in 1974 before retiring. Peters was appointed MBE in 1973 and CBE in 1990. Still active in sports administration and fundraising, Peters has put much back into the sport since her retirement from track and field.

1976

MEN

BRONZE
Brendon Foster - 10,000m

1980

MEN

GOLD
Allan Wells - 100m
In the absence of the world’s best sprinters from the US because of the political boycott, Wells, born in Edinburgh in May 1952, made hay in Moscow. Originally a long jump and triple jump specialist, Wells took up sprinting in 1970 but it was not until 1976 that he ran the 100 metres in a time faster than 11sec. By the summer of 1978 Wells had progressed enough and bulked up physically enough to be capable of equalling Peter Radford’s 20-year-old British record over 100 metres, with 10.29sec. Six days later, he established a new standard of 10.15sec and entered the world-class sprinters club. His first leading sprint title came over 200 metres, however, at the Commonwealth Games in 1978, when he finished second over 100 metres. In Moscow, the absence of the best from the US meant that one of his biggest concerns was not the people to the left and right of him but the starting blocks; he never used them but was obliged to do so at the Games. In the heats, he proved himself capable of using the blocks by clocking a British record of 10.11sec. The final was slower, at 10.25sec but Wells got the edge on Silvio Leonard, of Cuba, to become, at 28 years of age, the oldest Olympic champion over 100 metres on the track. He also took the silver medal in the 200 metres behind Pietro Mennea, of Italy. He retained the 200 metres Commonwealth title in 1982, his victory shared with Mike McFarlane, and won the 100 metres title, and although he made the Olympic team for the 1984 Games aged 32, he was eliminated in the semi-final of the 100 metres. Wells has since retained strong links with his sport and has been a force for good in helping to encourage young talent.
Stephen Ovett - 800m
Born in Brighton, Sussex, in October 1955, Ovett showed great athletic prowess from a young age and won the European junior 800 metres title in 1973. In Olympic year, he broke the 1,500 metres world record twice on his way to extending his run of successive victories over the distance to 45 since 1977, and improved on the world record over one mile that had been held by Sebastian Coe. The rivalry between the two helped to produce a golden era for British middle-distance running. In Moscow, Ovett surprised Coe and almost everyone else except himself by winning the 800 metres, with Coe in second. But when it came to the event he was favourite to win, the tables were turned, and Coe was victor, with Ovett back in third. In 1984, Ovett made the Olympic team for a third time, having first competed at Olympic level in 1976, but finished last in the final of the 800 metres suffering from a bronchial infection that forced him to withdraw from the 1,500 metres. In 1986 at the Commonwealth Games, Ovett stepped up to 5,000 metres and won. Four years later he failed to make the Commonwealth Games team and gradually eased into retirement. The standards he set helped to raise British sights in middle-distance running.
Sebastian Coe - 1,500m
In the space of 42 days in July and August 1979, Coe lowered the world records over 800 metres, 1,500 metres and one mile. The following year he improved the 800 metres record, twice the world record over 1,000 metres twice and the one mile twice. It was an amazing run that ended dramatically when he was beaten in the 800 metres by Ovett in Moscow and collected the silver medal in an event for which he had been favourite to win. The spirit and talent of the man shone through, however, when he shook off that disappointment over 800 metres to return stronger in the 1,500 metres to take his first Olympic title and defeat Ovett, by then the world record-holder. Four years on, Coe became the first man in Olympic history to retain the 1,500 metres title. No other runner has ever won the title twice. As he had in 1980, Coe finished second in the 800 metres in 1984 to collect the same set of medals at both Games. He failed to make the team for the 1988 Games and finished sixth in the 1,500 metres at the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand in 1990 before retiring. His world records over 800 and 1,000 metres survived more than ten years. Educated at Ed Tapton Secondary Modern School in Sheffield, the Abbeydale Grange School and Loughborough University, Coe married showjumper Nicola McIrvine in 1990. He was appointed MBE in 1982 and OBE in 1990 and until 1992 was a member of the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission. Coe was elected MP for Falmouth and Camborne for the Conservatives at the 1992 general election. He served as assistant government whip under Prime Minister John Major in 1996 and was parliamentary private secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Cabinet Office in 1995 and 1996. After losing his seat in the 1997 general election, Coe was elevated to the Lords and is now private secretary to William Hague, leader of the Conservative Party and Opposition.
Daley Thompson - decathlon
Francis Morgan "Daley" Thompson, born in Notting Hill, London, in July 1958, showed great promise as an athlete at boarding school in Sussex. In 1975 he moved back to London and joined the Essex Beagles club, winning his first two decathlons that year. In 1976 he became British champion and made what would would be the first of four Olympic Games. He finished eighteenth in Montreal as the youngest competitor, at just 18, in the event and gave rivals an early glimpse at the man who would become the greatest decathlete in history. The 1980 boycott by some western nations deprived him of the toughest battle in Moscow, where he won the title easily with 8,495 points. Thompson's main rival, Guido Kratschmer, the world record-holder, of West Germany, was forced to miss Moscow because of the politics of the time. The rivals had met in May before the Games, and Thompson won the duel with a world record of 8,622 points, only to see the German take the honour away from him a month later with 8,649 points. Thompson went on to retain the title in 1984 and establish himself as the undisputed world No 1 by not only defeating Jürgen Hingsen, the then world record holder from Germany, but equalling his world standard of 8,798 points under what many consider to be the most stressful of competition conditions; the Olympic final. Thompson, offspring of a Nigerian father and Scottish mother, would later say that his involvement in sport had kept him on the rails by being an outlet for his energy and talent. In 1988, Thompson lost the bronze medal by only 22 points. His world record of 8,847 points survived both the Seoul and Barcelona Games. Dan O'Brien, of the US, broke the standard with 8,891 points a month after what was for him a disastrous Barcelona Olympic Games. Thompson set four world records, won three Commonwealth titles and was world and European champion. In 1987 he suffered his first defeat in the decathlon for nine years when he finished ninth at the world championships. Thompson nows helps to encourage young developing sporting talent in addition to his broadcasting and promotional work.

SILVER
Allan Wells - 200m
Sebastian Coe - 800m

BRONZE
Stephen Ovett - 1,500m
Gary Oakes - 400m hurdles

WOMEN

BRONZE
Heather Hunte, Kathryn Smallwood, Beverley Goddard, Sonia Lannaman - 4 x 100m relay
Lindsey MacDonald, Michelle Probert, Joslyn Hoyte-Smith, Donna Hartley - 4 x 400m relay

1984

MEN

GOLD
Sebastian Coe - 1,500m
See 1980

SILVER
Sebastian Coe - 800m
Stephen Cram - 1,500m
Michael McLeod - 10,000m
Kriss Akabusi, Gary Cook, Todd Bennett, Philip Brown - 4 x 400m
David Ottley - javelin

BRONZE
Charles Spedding - marathon
Keith Connor - triple jump

WOMEN

GOLD
Tessa Sanderson - javelin
Tessa Sanderson was born in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, in March 1956, and in 1984 became the first British woman to win an Olympic throwing title. Her parents went to Britain when she was a baby but Sanderson remained in Jamaica and was raised by her grandmother. She came to Britain at the age of nine in 1965 and after settling into school in the Midlands, doubtless a traumatic experience after the tropical warmth of Jamaica, she started to show athletic promise and joined Wolverhampton and Bilston Athletic Club. She won the first of her eight British javelin titles in 1975 and finished tenth at the 1976 Games in Montreal. A year later she threw 10 metres beyond her best to establish the second biggest throw ever at the time and in 1978 became Commonwealth champion and finished runner-up at the European championships. At the Moscow Games of 1980 disaster struck when she failed to make the final. That poor form persisted, and she lost 21 out of her first 22 contests against Fatima Whitbread, her long-term British teammate and rival, before the Games. Once in Los Angeles, the tables were turned in a most decisive fashion; Sanderson set the Olympic record of 69.56m on her first throw - and there the fight was won. Whitbread finished third behind Tiina Lillak, of Finland. Sanderson retained her Commonwealth title in 1986 and 1990. After finishing twelfth at that year’s European championships, Sanderson took a break from the sport and became something of a TV celebrity before returning in time for the 1992 Games in Barcelona, where she finished fourth. She is now both TV commentator and presenter and often involved in fundraising activities.

SILVER
Shirley Strong - 100m hurdles
Wendy Sly - 3,000m (discontinued)
This was the controversial race in which Zola Budd, racing in her adopted colours of Britain, clashed with Mary Decker, the home favourite, who tripped to the ground. Budd finished seventh and Decker was taken off the track on a stretcher.

BRONZE
Kathryn Cook (nee Smallwood) - 400m
Simmone Jacobs, Kathryn Cook, Beverley Callender (née Goddard), Heather Oakes (nee Hunte) - 4 x 100m relay
Susan Hearnshaw - long jump
Fatima Whitbread - javelin

1988

MEN

SILVER
Linford Christie - 100m
Peter Elliott - 1,500m
Colin Jackson - 110m hurdles
Elliott Bunney, John Regis, Michael McFarlane, Linford Christie - 4 x 100m

BRONZE
Mark Rowland - 3,000m steeplechase

WOMEN

SILVER
Elizabeth McColgan - 10,000m
Fatima Whitbread - javelin

BRONZE
Yvonne Murray - 3,000m (discontinued)

1992

MEN

GOLD
Linford Christie - 100m
Christie, whose best 100 metres time was 9.87sec, won 23 international championship medals including ten gold medals and 16 European gold medals, the world title, and, at the very peak of his career in Barcelona 1992, the Olympic gold medal in the blue riband event. Born in Jamaica in April 1960, Christie competed for the Thames Valley Harriers club in London throughout his international career for Britain and won 25 national titles. His services to sport were recognised in 1998 when he was appointed OBE. Christie had finished third behind Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis in the final of the 100 metres at the 1988 Games in Seoul. Then came news of Johnson’s disqualification for a positive drugs test and Lewis was rightfully elevated to winner, with Christie getting the silver medal. Christie also tested positive for a substance at the Seoul Games but the IOC accepted that the substance in his urine sample was not a performance-enhancing steroid and he was exonerated. In Barcelona he sought to prove himself once again and his triumph came in a race in which he outclassed his rivals in alarming and magnificent fashion in 9.96sec – an amazing speed for a 32-year-old. Christie later said that beating Carl Lewis, absent from the 100 metres in Barcelona, in the 1993 world championships gave him more pleasure than his Olympic victory. He made the final of the 100 metres in 1996 but was disqualified for false-starting twice.

Educated at Portsmouth University, Christie is managing director of Nuff Respect, his sports management company. He came to Britain from St Andrews, Jamaica, when he was seven, and the seven members of the family lived in two rooms in Shepherds Bush. His athletics mentor was Ron Roddan, who remained his coach throughout his career. His international breakthrough came in 1986 at the European indoor championships where he won the 200 metres. He went on to win three European 100 metres titles outdoors.

Christie, who occasionally still races in semi-retirement, tested positive for nandrolone, a naturally occurring steroid, after a competition in Stuttgart last year. The levels of the drug in his sample were said to be vastly over the legally permitted level. The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) suspended him but UK Athletics overturned that ban. Christie is still barred from competiting in international events pending a hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

BRONZE
Kriss Akabusi - 110m hurdles
Roger Black, David Grindley, Kriss Akabusi, John Regis - 4 x 400m
Stephen Backley - javelin

WOMEN

GOLD
Sally Gunnell - 400m hurdles

BRONZE
Phylis Smith, Sandra Douglas, Jennifer Stoute, Sally Gunnell - 4 x 400m relay

1996

MEN

SILVER
Roger Black - 400m
Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch, Mark Richardson, Roger Black - 4 x 400m
Jonathan Edwards - triple jump
Stephen Backley - javelin

BRONZE
Steven Smith - high jump

WOMEN

BRONZE
Denise Lewis - heptathlon
Lewis was the only British track and field woman to win a medal in Atlanta.