Jonathan Peacock (born 28 May 1993) is an English sprint runner... An amputee, Peacock won gold at the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

and

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

, representing

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in the T44 men's 100 metres event. He won a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.

Biography

Peacock was born in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, and grew up in the village of Shepreth. At age 5, he contracted

meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, intense headache, vomiting and neck stiffness and occasion ...

, resulting in the disease killing the tissues in his right leg, which was then amputated just below the knee. Wanting to play

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, he was directed to a Paralympic sports talent day when he asked about disability sport in the hospital that fitted his prosthetic leg. His mother would carry him to school when his very short stump was too sore to wear his prosthetic leg. Peacock refers to his stump as his "sausage leg." As a teenager, Peacock lived in St Ives, Cambridgeshire and attended St Ivo School. Peacock ran his first international race at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in May 2012. In June 2012 Peacock set a new 100 metres world record in amputee sprinting at the United States Paralympic track and field trials, recording a time of 10.85 seconds to beat the previous record held by Marlon Shirley by 0.06 seconds. This record was beaten in July 2013 at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships at the Stade du Rhône in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

when American athlete Richard Browne recorded a time of 10.83 in the T44 100m semi-finals. At the

, Peacock won the 100m T44 final with a time of 10.90 seconds, claiming the gold and the Paralympic record in the process. The win made his coach, Dan Pfaff, the only man to have coached 100m gold medalists in both the Olympics and the Paralympics; Pfaff coached Canada's Donovan Bailey, the gold medalist in the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in Atlanta. Peacock pulled out of the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships due to a sore on his stump that developed over the summer. At the

, Peacock defended his title, winning gold in the T44 100m, in 10.81 seconds. From September 2017 Peacock was a contestant on series 15 of the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

programme ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'', becoming the first amputee paralympian to compete on the show. Partnered with

Oti Mabuse Otlile "Oti" Mabuse (born 8 August 1990) is a South African talent show judge, presenter, dancer and Latin dance champion currently based in the United Kingdom. She is best known for being a professional dancer on the British television serie ...

, they were the eighth couple to be eliminated, at the show in Blackpool. Peacock appeared on the 15th Series of ''Who Do You Think You Are?'', which aired in 2018. Peacock was a late addition to the British team for the postponed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo on 21 July 2021. The other additions were David Weir, Kadeena Cox and Libby Clegg. He was part of the team to win silver in the Mixed relay, also winning an individual bronze in the men's 100m T64. He shared the medal with Johannes Floors, after the pair finished in exactly the same time. In August 2021, Peacock made a guest appearance in the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

soap opera ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which originally began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. From 2005 to 2023, episodes h ...

''. His scenes involved comforting character Sid Sumner ( Billy Price) on insecurities about his recent amputation. His television series ''Jonnie's Blade Camp'' was screened on Channel 4 in August 2021. In 2022 Peacock took part in the '' Taskmaster'' ' New Year Treat II', although he was absent from the studio segments due to illness. In 2024 he appeared as a judge for BBC's ''

Great British Menu ''Great British Menu'' is a BBC television series in which top British chefs compete for the chance to cook one course of a four-course banquet. Format Series one and two were presented by Jennie Bond, the former BBC Royal correspondent, where ...

'' which celebrated the 2024 Paris Olympics. In August 2024 he stated he was firmly ambitious and confident of preparing for his third

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disability, disabilities. There are Winter Paralympic Games, Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 ...

medal in Paris 2024. He finished fifth in the final. He was also part of the 4x100m universal relay team alongside Zac Shaw, Ali Smith (athlete) and Sammi Kinghorn which won a silver medal behind

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Personal life

Peacock's long-term girlfriend is fellow paralympian Sally Brown, from Northern Ireland.

Honours

Peacock was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to athletics.

References

External links