Denise Lewis

Denise Lewis
Personal information
Born (1972-08-27) 27 August 1972 (age 52)
West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
Height5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Sport
Country Great Britain
SportAthletics
EventHeptathlon
ClubBirchfield Harriers
Coached byCharles van Commenee, Darrell Bunn
Retired2005
Achievements and titles
Personal best6,831 pts (2000)
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2000 Sydney Heptathlon
Bronze medal – third place 1996 Atlanta Heptathlon
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 1997 Athens Heptathlon
Silver medal – second place 1999 Sevilla Heptathlon
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 1998 Budapest Heptathlon
European Cup
Gold medal – first place 1995 Helmond Heptathlon
Silver medal – second place 2003 Brixen Heptathlon
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 1994 Victoria Heptathlon
Gold medal – first place 1998 Kuala Lumpur Heptathlon

Dame Denise Rosemarie Lewis DBE (born 27 August 1972) is a British sports administrator and former sports presenter and athletics athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon.

She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was twice Commonwealth Games champion, was the 1998 European Champion, and won World Championships silver medals in 1997 and 1999. She was the first European to win the Olympic heptathlon, though Europeans, including Briton Mary Peters, had won the Olympic pentathlon precursor event.

Her personal best score for the heptathlon is 6,831 points, set at the Décastar meeting in 2000. That is a former British record and ranks her third on the all-time British lists behind double World, double Commonwealth Games champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Olympic, three-time World and European champion Jessica Ennis-Hill.[1][2] Along with these two and pentathletes Mary Rand and Dame Mary Peters, Lewis is recognised as one of Britain's greatest female multi-eventers, and the first in the line of British global champions in heptathlon.

Since retiring from athletics, she has undertaken work on television and other media work, and was a regular athletics pundit for BBC Television, including during the Olympic Games in London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. It was announced that she had stepped down from her role at the BBC on the conclusion of the athletics programme at the 2024 Games.[3]

In addition to her media work, Lewis is president of Commonwealth Games England which is the official Commonwealth Games Association for England at the Commonwealth Games and, since 2023, president of UK Athletics, the governing body for the sport of Athletics in the United Kingdom.[4]

  1. ^ "HepW Women Overall All Time to 4857". Power of 10. Archived from the original on 20 July 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  2. ^ "Senior Outdoor All time". European Athletic Association. Archived from the original on 21 March 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  3. ^ "BBC Sport Tweet". Twitter. 10 August 2024.
  4. ^ "Dame Denise Lewis elected UK Athletics president". BBC Sport. Retrieved 12 December 2023.