Paula Radcliffe

Paula Radcliffe
MBE
Radcliffe at the 2008 New York City Marathon
Personal information
Born (1973-12-17) 17 December 1973 (age 50)
Davenham, Cheshire, England
Height5 ft 8 in (173 cm)[1]
Weight119 lb (54 kg)[1]
SpouseGary Lough
Children2
Sport
Country Great Britain
 England
ClubBedford & County Athletic Club
Nike, Beaverton[1]
RetiredApril 2015
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals1996 5000 m, 5th
2000 10,000 m, 4th
2004 Marathon, DNF
10,000 m, DNF
2008 Marathon, 23rd
World finals1993 3000 m, 7th
1995 5000 m, 5th
1997 5000 m, 4th
1999 10,000 m,  Silver
2001 10,000 m, 4th
2005 10,000 m, 9th
Marathon,  Gold
Personal bests
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2005 Helsinki Marathon
Silver medal – second place 1999 Seville 10,000 m
World Cross Country Championships
Gold medal – first place 2002 Dublin Long race
Gold medal – first place 2001 Ostend Long race
Gold medal – first place 1992 Boston Junior race
Silver medal – second place 2001 Ostend Short race
Silver medal – second place 1998 Marrakech Long race
Silver medal – second place 1997 Turin Long race
Bronze medal – third place 1999 Belfast Long race
World Half Marathon Championships
Gold medal – first place 2003 Vilamoura Individual
Gold medal – first place 2001 Bristol Individual
Gold medal – first place 2000 Veracruz Individual
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 2002 Munich 10,000 m
European Cross Country Championships
Gold medal – first place 2003 Edinburgh Individual
Gold medal – first place 2003 Edinburgh Team
Gold medal – first place 1998 Ferrara Individual
European Cup
Gold medal – first place 2004 Bydgoszcz 5000 m
Gold medal – first place 1999 Paris 5000 m
Gold medal – first place 1998 Saint Petersburg 5000 m
Silver medal – second place 2001 Bremen 5000 m
Silver medal – second place 1998 Saint Petersburg 1500 m
Bronze medal – third place 1997 Munich 3000 m
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2002 Manchester 5000 m

Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE (born 17 December 1973) is a British former long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon (2002, 2003, 2005), three-time New York Marathon champion (2004, 2007, 2008), the 2002 Chicago Marathon winner and the 2005 World Champion in the Marathon from Helsinki. She was previously the fastest female marathoner of all time, and held the Women's World Marathon Record with a time of 2:15:25 for 16 years from 2003 to 2019 when it was broken by Brigid Kosgei.[2]

Radcliffe is a former world champion in the marathon, half marathon and cross country. She has also been European champion over 10,000 metres and in cross country. On the track, Radcliffe won the 10,000 metres silver medal at the 1999 World Championships[3] and was the 2002 Commonwealth champion at 5000 metres. She represented Great Britain at the Olympics in four consecutive games (1996 to 2008), although she never won an Olympic medal.

Her running has earned her a number of accolades including the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Laureus World Comeback of the Year, IAAF World Athlete of the Year, AIMS World Athlete of the Year (three times) and a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). She has also been nominated for World Sportswoman of the year on several occasions. In 2010, she was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Loughborough University Hall of Fame in 2015.[4][5]

She ended her competitive running career at the 2015 London Marathon.[6]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference sr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Ingle, Sean (13 October 2019). "Brigid Kosgei smashes Paula Radcliffe's world marathon record by 81 seconds". The Guardian.
  3. ^ "10,000 metres women 7th IAAF World Championships in Athletics". IAAF. 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  4. ^ "Loughborough University Hall of Fame". Loughborough University. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  5. ^ Rush, Richard (22 May 2015). "Paula Radcliffe's Loughborough Hall of Fame honour". The Loughborough Echo. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  6. ^ "'Come on Paula': Radcliffe's London Marathon is final competitive race", The Guardian, 26 April 2015