Kelly Sotherton

Kelly Sotherton
MBE

Personal information
Full name	Kelly Jade Sotherton
Nationality	English
Born	(1976-11-13) 13 November 1976 (age 48) Newport, Isle of Wight
Height	178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb)
Sport
Country	Great Britain
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Heptathlon Long Jump 400m
Club	Birchfield Harriers
Coached by	Aston Moore, Charles Van Commenee
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals	3rd (2004) 3rd (2008)- hept 3rd (2008)- 4x400m
World finals	5th (2005)3rd (2007)2nd (2008)
Regional finals	7th (2006) 2nd (2005/2007)
Highest world ranking	1 (Mar 2006)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 2004 Athens Heptathlon 2008 Beijing Heptathlon 2008 Beijing 4x400 m relay World Championships 2007 Osaka Heptathlon World Indoor Championships 2008 Valencia Pentathlon European Indoor Championships 2005 Madrid Pentathlon 2007 Birmingham Pentathlon 2011 Paris 4x400 m relay Representing  England Commonwealth Games 2006 Melbourne Heptathlon Representing  Isle of Wight Island Games 1997 Jersey 100 m 1997 Jersey 100 m Hurdles 1997 Jersey Long Jump 1997 Jersey High Jump 1997 Jersey 4x100m Relay 1997 Jersey 4x400m Relay 1999 Gotland 100 m 1999 Gotland Long Jump 1999 Gotland 200 m 1999 Gotland 4x100m Relay 1999 Gotland 4x400m Relay

Kelly Jade Sotherton MBE (born 13 November 1976) is a British former heptathlete, long jumper and relay runner. In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, also at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as being part of the bronze medal-winning team in the Women's 4x400m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics (again, initially finishing 5th but upgraded after various subsequent doping disqualifications). As such she is one of only five women to win multiple medals in Olympic heptathlon. She also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. Representing England, Sotherton is a one-time Commonwealth Games champion, as the heptathlon gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Indoors, Sotherton was a World silver medallist, and twice European silver medallist in pentathlon, in which she was ranked seventh all-time in 2022.

Several of Sotherton's medals arrived after other athletes had been caught doping - at the time, Sotherton's reputation was more of near misses than medal success. As the scale of her accomplishments at global level (5 global medals in four years) became clear in hindsight, Sotherton was increasingly recognised as fully part of a notable line of world class British pentathletes/heptathletes that included Olympic gold medalists Mary Rand, Mary Peters, Commonwealth Games champions Judy Simpson, and Louise Hazel and three modern champions across multiple events, Denise Lewis (Olympic, double-Commonwealth gold), Jessica Ennis-Hill (Olympic, European and triple-World gold) and Katarina Johnson-Thompson (double-World, double-Commonwealth gold), her multiple global medals and Commonwealth title between 2004 and 2008 bridging the gap between the Olympic triumphs of Lewis and Ennis-Hill.

In November 2010, she announced her decision to retire from the heptathlon, due to foot and back injuries. After considering switching to cycling,^[1] she then chose instead to focus on the 400 m winning her only National title in 2011.^[2] Sotherton's funding from UK Athletics was cut in 2011, but while she returned to heptathlon training, she failed to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics ahead of reigning Commonwealth champion Louise Hazel, World (and eventual Olympic) champion Ennis Hill or future World and Commonwealth champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Sotherton retired from elite competitive athletics for the final time shortly thereafter.^[3]