Katharine Merry (born 21 September 1974) is an English former sprinter. She achieved the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

at the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

and was the fastest woman in the world over 400 m in 2001, with her career best of 49.59 seconds. She also represented Great Britain at the

1996 Atlanta 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, ...

and won the

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...

at the 1993 European Junior Championships.

Career

Born in

Dunchurch Dunchurch is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Rugby, approximately south-west of central Rugby, Warwickshire, Rugby in Warwickshire, England. The civil parish, which also includes the nearby hamlet of Toft, Warwickshire, Toft, had ...

, Warwickshire, Merry had a career that spanned 20 years. A member of the

Birchfield Harriers Birchfield Harriers is an sport of athletics, athletics club, founded in 1877. Its home is at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium, England. As well as welcoming recreational runners they cater for all levels of experience up to and including Olympi ...

athletics club, at the age of 12 she topped the UK Under 13 rankings in seven different events. She was the fastest girl in the world aged 14 years, and started her international GB career aged just 13, staying on the junior team for a record six years, winning five Junior Championships and a total of six medals. She became a successful senior athlete with her

Olympic medal An Olympic medal is awarded to successful competitors at one of the Olympic Games. There are three classes of medal to be won: gold medal, gold, silver medal, silver, and bronze medal, bronze, awarded to first, second, and third place, respect ...

in Sydney in the "Race of the Games", achieving bronze behind the Australian favourite,

Cathy Freeman Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman (born 16 February 1973) is an Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. Her personal best of 48.63 seconds currently ranks her as the ninth-fastest woman of all time, set while fin ...

, in front of 112,000 people at

Stadium Australia Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Ol ...

. The following year she became World number One. She was coached by fellow Olympic medallist

Linford Christie Linford Christie (born 2 April 1960) is a Jamaican-born British former Sprint (running), sprinter and athletics coach. He is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100 metres at all four major competitions open to British athletes ...

in his

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

-based training squad, which included fellow Olympic medallist

Darren Campbell Darren Andrew Campbell, (born 12 September 1973) is a British former sprint athlete. He was the sprint coach at Wasps Rugby Club for the 2015–16 season. He competed in the 100 metres and 200 metres, as well as the 4 × 100 metres relay. ...

. She is also with Christie's sports agency, Nuff Respect. Merry still holds various UK age-record bests, including U/13

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

and several sprints, as well as the Senior UK Indoor 200 m record of 22.83 secs. She also holds World age-records, including 7.35 secs for

60 m 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name ...

indoors, when aged 14. She is third-fastest on the UK All Time 400 m list with a time of 49.59 seconds. After suffering from a

bone spur An exostosis, also known as a osteochondroma, is a benign chondrogenic lesions derived from aberrant cartilage from the perichondral ring. Exostoses can cause chronic pain ranging from mild to moderate, but rarely severe, depending on the shape, s ...

growth on her right heel bone, and two operations, Merry announced her official retirement from athletics in July 2005. She had been affected by the injury since 2001 and was struggling to get it fully healed. It had prevented her from resuming proper training, meaning she could not get back to her year 2000 form. Despite that, she still ended the 2001 season as the world's fastest female 400 m runner.

Post-athletics

Merry now works freelance in the media on radio and TV. She worked for the ''BBC Radio 5 Live'' at the Olympics in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and the Commonwealth Games in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

and was the sole field event commentator for 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 ...

coverage of the

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 ...

in 2012. At the inaugural

Invictus Games The Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event first held in 2014, for wounded, injured and sick military service personnel, both serving and veterans. The word 'Invictus' is Latin for 'unconquered', chosen as an embodiment of th ...

in 2014, Merry did live trackside interviews. For the

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth that was held on the Gold Coast, Q ...

, Merry was a television commentator for the BBC's coverage of athletic events. She also returned to ''5 Live'' to commentate on the

Paris 2024 Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. She has also worked for Sky TV,

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

and

Channel Five 5 (formerly known as Channel 5 and Five) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Param ...

. A multi-tasker, Merry now commentates, presents and hosts sporting events around the world. Merry appeared on 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 ...

gameshow '' All New Celebrity Total Wipeout'' on 25 September 2010, where she struck up a rivalry with John Regis, the man who, in her words, "ate all the pies". She "ran" the qualifier in 2:16, beating Regis by 50 seconds, and then beating him again in the next two rounds, but losing finally in the Wipeout Zone, finishing third behind Regis and eventual winner DJ JK. She won overall, 3 events to 1. She is a regular on BBC One's ''

A Question of Sport ''A Question of Sport'' (known as ''Question of Sport'' from 2021 until 2023) is a British television sports quiz show produced and broadcast by the BBC. It was the "world's longest running TV sports quiz". Following a pilot episode in December ...

'' and BBC Radio 5 Live's ''

Fighting Talk ''Fighting Talk'' is a topical sports show broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live during the English football season. The show is broadcast on Saturday mornings for an hour between 11.00 and 12.00 and is currently presented by Rick Edwards. This show is ...

''. In December 2013, Merry came third out of four contestants on ''

Celebrity Mastermind ''Celebrity Mastermind'' is a celebrity version of ''Mastermind'', a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. ''Celebrity Mastermind'' began in 2002 as a one-off special hosted by Magnus Magnusson, the original host of the main ...

'' on BBC One. Her specialist subject was

Aston Villa F.C. Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional Association football, football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English foot ...

1980–1990. Merry was inducted into the

England Athletics Hall of Fame The England Athletics Hall of Fame was launched in 2008 with a panel of experts selecting a list of potential inductees for athletics fans and members of the public to vote on. The Hall of Fame honours those who have made an outstanding contribut ...

in 2018. At the

2020 Olympic Games The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

in Tokyo, Merry became the first female in-stadium announcer at an Olympic Games. In January 2024, Merry was named by Aston Villa as a member of the ''Honorary Anniversary Board'' ahead of the club's 150th anniversary season, as well as previously becoming a AVFC Foundation Ambassador.

Personal life

Merry was based in

while training with Linford Christie, before moving to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

after retirement. Her son was born in February 2011 and her daughter in March 2014. The family lives in Birmingham, England.

International competitions

Personal bests

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merry, Katharine 1974 births Living people English female sprinters British female sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Great Britain Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Sportspeople from Rugby, Warwickshire Birchfield Harriers European Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic female sprinters 20th-century English sportswomen