Jonathan Peter Ridgeon (born 14 February 1967) is an English former athlete who competed mainly in the 110 metres hurdles and the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Summer Olympics, Olympic Sport of athletics, athletics programme since 1900 Summer Olympics, 1900 for men and since 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 for women. On a ...

. In the 110m hurdles, he won the silver medal at the 1987 World Championships and the gold medal at the 1987 Universiade. He represented Great Britain at the

1988 Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were repres ...

and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Biography

Ridgeon was born in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. He won the 110 m hurdles at the European Junior Championship in 1985, ahead of his fellow British athlete Colin Jackson, who finished runner-up. Ridgeon then finished second to Jackson at the 1986 World Junior Championships. He represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the 110 metres hurdles event, at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. Ridgeon was an All-American for the SMU Mustangs track and field team, finishing 6th in the 110 m hurdles at the 1986 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Ridgeon won the 110 m hurdles gold medal at the 1987 Universiade (World University Games) in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

. At the 1987 World Championships in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, Ridgeon won a silver medal in the 110 m hurdles (with Jackson taking the bronze medal). Ridgeon then finished in fifth place at the 1988 Olympic Games in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

(where Jackson came second). However Ridgeon and Jackson's rivalry was comparatively short-lived, as Ridgeon began to develop injuries that led to him missing out on most major events in the following years. When Ridgeon returned to regular competition, he switched to the

, before his retiring from the sport. Ridgeon was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1998 he became a founding and managing partner of Fast Track, a sports marketing agency (the agency was sold in 2007). As well as working with Fast Track, Ridgeon has also been a TV commentator for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and BSkyB since retiring as an athlete. In 2018, Ridgeon was appointed chief executive officer of the

International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international governing body for the sport of athletics, coverin ...

(IAAF).https://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/jon-ridgeon-announced-as-iaaf-ceo-1039919249/ "Jon Ridgeon announced as IAAF CEO", Athletics Weekly, December 3, 2018.

Personal bests

* 110m H - 13.29 (Zagreb, Croatia, 15 Jul 1987) * 400m H - 48.73 (Rieti, Italy, 6 Sep 1992)

Achievements

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ridgeon, Jon 1967 births Living people English male hurdlers British male hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Great Britain Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge People from Burwell, Cambridgeshire Sportspeople from Bury St Edmunds Athletes (track and field) at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for England World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) FISU World University Games gold medalists for Great Britain World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists Medalists at the 1987 Summer Universiade SMU Mustangs men's track and field athletes