Peirresha Alexandra Shakes-Drayton (born 21 December 1988) is a British retired

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 used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete. After specialising in 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 early part of her career, a knee injury at the 2013 World Championships forced Shakes-Drayton to concentrate on 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 ...

on her return to athletics. She is the 2013 European Indoor Champion in the 400 metres and won a 2012 World Indoor Championship gold medal in the 4 × 400 metres relay. She has also won silver and bronze medals in the 4 × 400 m relay at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

. In 2018, Shakes-Drayton took part in the tenth series of the ITV show ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series broadcast from 2006 to 2014 and then from 2018 to 2025. It was presented by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern. Other previous hosts include Phillip Schofield and Christine Lampard. The series ...

'', and in 2023 she participated in the seventh series of ''

Richard Osman's House of Games ''Richard Osman's House of Games'' is a British quiz show hosted by Richard Osman and produced by Banijay UK Productions subsidiary Remarkable Entertainment for the BBC. The show is played on a weekly basis, with four celebrities playing on f ...

''.

Early life and education

Shakes-Drayton was born in east London to parents from

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

and grew up in Bow, where she continues to reside. She attended Holy Family R.C. Primary School in Poplar and Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate School in

Stepney Stepney is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to ...

. She studied

sports science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sports and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally i ...

Brunel University Brunel University of London (BUL) is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. It became a university ...

, where she graduated with a 2:1.

Athletics career

Shakes-Drayton at 2010 Josef Odlozil Memorial

Shakes-Drayton came to prominence at the English Schools Championships where she set a UK junior record time in the 400 m hurdles. She made her first major international appearance at the

2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics is the 2006 version of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held from 15 August to 20 August at the Chaoyang Sports Centre in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China ...

where she finished eighth, achieving a new personal best of 57.52 seconds.future Olympics stars
'' Time Out'' (23 July 2007). Retrieved on 2009-03-13. She took the silver medal at the 2007 European Athletics Junior Championships with a time of 56.46 s, a national junior record in the event. Shakes-Drayton won the 400 m hurdles at the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

GB trials, but veteran

Tasha Danvers Tasha De'Anka Danvers (born 19 September 1977) is a British Olympic Games, Olympic bronze medallist, who finished in third place in the 400 metres hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She was born in London to two athletes, Dorrett McKoy and ...

was instead chosen to represent Great Britain, and went on to win the bronze medal. Despite the non-selection, Shakes-Drayton was considered to be a medal prospect for the next Olympics in 2012. At the 2009 British Championships in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, she finished second in the

behind reigning world champion

Christine Ohuruogu Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu (born 17 May 1984) is a British former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres, the event for which she is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion. The Olympic champion in 2008, and silver medali ...

, setting a new personal best. Further success came on the junior circuit at the

2009 European Athletics U23 Championships The 7th European Athletics U23 Championships were held between 16 and 19 July 2009 in the S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium in Kaunas, Lithuania. Complete results and medal winners were published. Men's results Women's results Medal table ...

, where she won the 400 m hurdles gold medal with a run of 55.26 seconds, another personal best. Having secured a place on the Great Britain team, she set her sights on the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15 to 23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenbu ...

, remarking: "I like people talking about me. It means I must be doing some things right. Now I have to live up to the hype because hype is pointless if you don't live up to it." She ran at the

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and reached the semi-finals of the competition. However, she finished seventh in the race with a time of 57.57 seconds and did not compete in the final. She ran a personal best of 54.91 seconds for the 400 m hurdles to win at the Memorial Primo Nebiolo in June 2010. In the absence of Tasha Danvers, Shakes-Drayton and Eilidh Child were the sole representatives for

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 ...

at the

2010 European Athletics Championships The 2010 European Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the European Athletics Championships, organised under the supervision of the European Athletic Association. They were held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, C ...

. Shakes-Drayton finished 2nd in her heat, with a time of 55.35. She then finished 3rd in her semi-final to qualify for the final in a new personal best of 54.73. In the final she finished third to win the bronze medal with a new personal best of 54.18. Perri Shakes-Drayton - 400m Match - England 6 - 2

Perri Shakes-Drayton - 400m Match - England 6 - 2

At the 2012

London Grand Prix The London Athletics Meet, formerly known as the London Grand Prix and subsequently as the Anniversary Games and London Diamond League, is an annual athletics event held in London, England. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix even ...

, the final

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

meeting prior to the 2012 London Olympic Games, Shakes-Drayton recorded another personal best for the 400 m hurdles of 53.77, a time that put her second in the world rankings for the year and also made her the second-fastest British athlete of all time in the event, behind only

Sally Gunnell Sally Jane Janet Gunnell, OBE, DL (born 29 July 1966) is a British former track-and-field athlete, who won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles. During a 24-month period between 1992 and 1994, Gunnell won every international ...

. However, in the Olympic 400 m hurdles she was unable to reach the final, finishing third in her semi-final heat. She was also part of the GB 4 × 400 m relay team which finished fifth in the final of that event. At the

2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at Scandinavium and Svenska Mässan in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 1–3 March 2013. Bidding process The decision to grant the event for Gothenburg was made by the European Athletics Council at ...

in Gothenburg, Shakes-Drayton went on to win gold in the Women's 400 m final with a Personal Best of 50.85, ahead of another Great Britain runner Eilidh Child. She was also part of the Women's 4 × 400 m team (along with Eilidh Child, Shana Cox and

) that won gold at the same championships. In 2020, she announced her retirement from her athletics career.

Personal life

Shakes-Drayton married high-jump athlete Mike Olayemi Edwards in London in June 2019. Shakes-Drayton gave birth to her first child with Edwards on 26 August 2020. Shakes-Drayton is an honorary member of

Zeta Phi Beta Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority. In 1920, five women from Howard University envisioned a sorority that would raise the consciousness of their people, encourage the highest standards of scholastic achi ...

sorority; she was inducted on July 27, 2024, at the sorority's Boulé in

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

.Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated Announces Newest Class of Honorary Members
/ref>

Personal bests

References

External links

Official website
*
Agency website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakes-Drayton, Perri Living people 1988 births People from Bow, London Athletes from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets English female hurdlers British female hurdlers English female sprinters British female sprinters Olympic female hurdlers Olympic female sprinters Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain Commonwealth Games athletes for England Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Indoor Championships winners European Athletics Championships winners European Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Indoor Championships winners British Athletics Championships winners Black British sportswomen Alumni of Brunel University London English people of Grenadian descent Sportspeople of Grenadian descent 21st-century English sportswomen