Kelly Holmes

Kelly Holmes
	;
Medal record
Representing United Kingdom
Women's athletics
Olympic Games
European Championships
World Championships

Dame Kelly Holmes, DBE (born April 19, 1970) is a retired English middle distance athlete. She won gold medals in the 800 metres and the 1500 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Early life and army career

Kelly Holmes was born in Pembury, Kent, is the daughter of Derrick Holmes, a Jamaican-born car mechanic, and an English mother, Pam Norman. Her mother, 17 at the time of her birth, married painter and decorator Michael Norris two years later, whom Holmes regards as her father, and had four more children before divorcing. Holmes grew up in Hildenborough and attended Hugh Christie Comprehensive School in Tonbridge at the age of 20.

She started training for athletics at the age of 12, joining Tonbridge Athletics Club, where she was coached by David Arnold and went on to win the English schools 1500 metres in her second season. Her hero was British middle distance runner Sebastian Coe, and she was inspired by Coe's successful 1984 Summer Olympics defence of his 1,500 m crown. However, Holmes later turned her back on athletics, joining the British Army at the age of 18, having left school two years earlier, working initially as a recreation assistant and later as a nursing assistant. In the army she was initially a lorry driver in the Women's Royal Army Corps, and when that corps was disbanded in 1992 she transferred to the Adjutant General's Corps as a physical trainer, reaching the rank of sergeant. She also became British Army judo champion, and in army athletics events once competed in the men's 800 metres at a meeting, as it was considered that for her to run in the women's event would be too embarrassing for the other competitors. At another event, she competed in and won an 800 metres, a 3000 metres and a relay race all in a single day.

Holmes watched the 1992 Summer Olympics on television, and seeing Lisa York in the heats of the 3,000 metres, an athlete whom she had competed against, and beaten, decided to return to athletics. For several years she combined both athletics and her employment in the army until increased funding allowed her to become a full-time athlete in 1997.

Initial athletics career

She won the national 800 m in 1993 and the 1500 m in 1994. She won gold at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in the 1500 metres, competing for England. (Unlike in other international competitions such as the Olympics and World & European Championships, in the Commonwealth Games the British countries compete separately).

Holmes has suffered setbacks caused by injuries. In 1996, she suffered a stress fracture and finished fourth in the Atlanta Olympics. In 1997, a slightly torn calf in training resulted in a ruptured achilles tendon which ended her in Athens World Championships in the heats, hobbling home half a lap behind her competitors.

Going into the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia on the back of just six weeks' intensive training because of a virus, she finished third in the 800 m. The winner of that race, Maria Mutola of Mozambique would later become her training partner, as Holmes moved to Africa to train and live with her.

At the 2002 European Championships in Munich, Holmes won a bronze medal in the 800 m, behind Jolanda Čeplak and Mayte Martinez. She had earlier won the 1500 m gold at that year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

2004 Summer Olympics

While training in 2003 for the 2004 Summer Olympics at a French training camp, Holmes suffered a number of leg injuries. Falling deep into depression, she began cutting herself. "I made one cut for every day that I had been injured", Holmes stated in an interview with News of the World newspaper. At least once, she considered suicide, but she eventually sought help from a doctor and was diagnosed with clinical depression. While she couldn't use anti-depressants because it would affect her performance, she began using herbal serotonin tablets. (In 2005, after her achievements at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Holmes chose to talk about her self-abuse to show others that being a professional athlete is an extremely difficult thing to do and places the athlete under tremendous amounts of stress.)

2004 saw Holmes arrive at a major competition, the Athens Olympics, with no injury worries for just about the first time in her career. She had originally planned to compete in just the 1,500 m but a victory over Jolanda Čeplak before the games had many saying she should take her chance in the 800 as well. Holmes did not announce her decision to race in both events until five days before the 800 m finals.

Along with three time world champion Mutola and Čeplak, Holmes was considered one of the favourites for the gold medal in the 800 m. In the final, Holmes ran a well-paced race, ignoring a fast start by a number of the other competitors, and moved into the lead ahead of Mutola on the final bend, taking the gold on the line ahead of Hasna Benhassi and Čeplak, with Mutola in fourth. Holmes became the seventh British woman to win an athletics gold, and the second after Ann Packer in 1964 to win the 800 metres.

Clearly in form, Holmes now became favourite for the her preferred event, the 1,500 metres on the 28 August. Her most difficult task now was maintaining her focus — she later revealed how after waking each morning she had put her medal on and cried.

Again running from the rear of the field, she took the lead in the final straight, holding off World Champion Tatyana Tomashova of Russia. She thus became only the third woman in history to do the 800 and 1500 m double, after Tatyana Kazankina of the Soviet Union in 1976 and Svetlana Masterkova of Russia in 1996, the first British woman to win two olympic gold medals, and the country's first double gold medallist at the same games since Albert Hill in 1920. Her time of 3 minutes 57.90 seconds in the 1500 m final also set a new British record for the distance.

Subsequently, Holmes was given the honour of carrying the British flag at the closing ceremony of the games, on August 29, the day after her second victory. A home-coming parade was held in her honour through the streets of Hildenborough and Tonbridge on 1 September, which was attended by approximately 40,000 people. This was more than double the size of crowds at the parade through London for all the Olympic medallists, and roughly equivalent to the entire population of Hildenborough and Tonbridge (although there were many visitors from outside the local area). Holmes won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2004, saying she achieved her goals after "twenty years of dreaming". She also asserted the award was "the biggest sporting honour your country can give you". The tributes to her at the BBC awards ceremony were led by the six British female athletes who had previously won gold at the Olympic Games in a "Magnificent Seven"-style feature - those six being Mary Rand, Ann Packer, Mary Peters, Tessa Sanderson, Sally Gunnell and Denise Lewis.

Holmes was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours List of 2004. She was presented with the honour by the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 9 March 2005, accompanied by her parents and grandfather.

On 21 August 2005, she competed in her final race in the UK, the 800 m at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix meeting in Sheffield. Her training schedule during the summer of 2005 had been disrupted by a recurrent Achilles tendon injury, and she finished the race in 8th place, limping across the finish line and completing a lap of honour on a buggy.

On 6 December 2005, Holmes announced her retirement from athletics stating she had reassessed her future after the death of a friend as well as citing a lack of motivation to continue.

In 2006, Kelly appeared in ITV's Dancing On Ice, partnering with Olympian Todd Sand.

Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Event	Result
1994	Commonwealth Games	Victoria, British Columbia, Canada	1500 m	1st
	European Championships	Helsinki, Finland	1500 m	2nd
	IAAF World Cup	London, England	1500 m	3rd
	European Cup	Birmingham, England	800 m	2nd
1995	World Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	800 m	3rd
			1500 m	2nd
	European Cup	Villeneuve d'Ascq, France	800 m	1st
1996	European Cup	Madrid, Spain	800 m	2nd
1997	European Cup	Munich, Germany	1500 m	1st
1998	Commonwealth Games	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	1500 m	2nd
2000	Summer Olympics	Sydney, Australia	800 m	3rd
2002	European Championships	Munich, Germany	800 m	3rd
	Commonwealth Games	Manchester, England	1500 m	1st
2003	World Championships	Paris, France	800 m	2nd
	World Indoor Championships	Birmingham, England	1500 m	2nd
	1st IAAF World Athletics Final -	Monte Carlo, Monaco	800 m	2nd
2004	Summer Olympics	Athens, Greece	800 m	1st
			1500 m	1st
	2nd IAAF World Athletics Final	Monte Carlo, Monaco	1500 m	1st
	BBC Sports Personality of the Year			1st