Kelly Holmes

Dame Kelly Holmes (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British middle distance athlete.

Inspired by a number of successful British middle-distance runners in the early 1980s, Holmes began competing in middle-distance events in her youth.

She joined the British Army, but continued to compete at the organisation's athletics events.

Her hero was British middle-distance runner Steve Ovett, and she was inspired by his success at the 1980 Summer Olympics.

However, Holmes later turned away from athletics, joining the British Army at the age of 18, having left school two years earlier to work first as an assistant in a sweet shop and later as a nursing assistant for disabled patients.

In the army, she became a HGV driver in the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC), later becoming a basic physical training instructor (PTI).

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 1,500 metres in her second season in 1983.

Holmes then elected in June 1990 to attend the first course to be run under the army's new physical training syllabus, and passed out as a Class 2 PTI.

Although militarily quite young, Holmes's athletic prowess was impressive and she was encouraged to attend the course selection for full-time transfer to the Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC) at Aldershot.

Holmes eventually qualified as a class 1 PTI, although she remained in the Adjutant General's Corps after the disbandment of the WRAC in 1992.

She also became British Army judo champion and at an athletics event, she competed in and won an 800 metres, a 3,000 metres and a relay race in a single day.

She also won the heptathlon.

Holmes watched the 1992 Summer Olympics on television, and on seeing Lisa York in the heats of the 3,000 metres – an athlete whom she had competed against, and beaten – she decided to return to athletics.

She turned to the professional athletics circuit in 1993 and in 1994 she won the 1,500 m at the Commonwealth Games and took silver at the European Championships.

She won a silver and a bronze medal at the 1995 Gothenburg World Championships, but suffered from various injuries over the following years, failing to gain a medal at her first Olympics in Atlanta 1996 when running with a stress fracture.

For several years she combined athletics with employment in the army, until increased funding allowed her to become a full-time athlete in 1997.

She won silver in the 1,500 m at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and bronze in the 800 m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, her first Olympic medal.

Holmes won the 1,500 m at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 800 m bronze at the Munich European Championships that year.

The 2003 track season saw her take silver in the 1,500 m at the World Indoor Championships and the 800 m silver medals at the World Championships and first World Athletics Final.

While training in 2003 for the 2004 Summer Olympics at a French training camp, Holmes suffered leg injuries and was depressed, she began cutting herself.

"I made one cut for every day that I had been injured", Holmes stated in an interview with the 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 could not use anti-depressants because it would affect her performance, she began using herbal serotonin tablets.

Holmes specialised in the 800 metres and 1,500 metres events and won gold medals for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

She set British records in numerous events and still holds the records over the 600, and 1,000 metre distances.

She held the British 800 metre record until 2021.

She took part in her final major championship in 2004, with a double gold medal-winning performance at the Athens Olympics, finishing as the 800 m and 1,500 m Olympic Champion.

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 m 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 Maria de Lurdes 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.

For her achievements she won numerous awards and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2005.

She retired from athletics in 2005 and has since been made an honorary colonel with the Royal Armoured Corps Training Regiment (RACTR).

She has become a global motivational speaker, published five books, her latest being Running Life, and made a number of television appearances.

Holmes was born in Pembury, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent, the daughter of Derrick Holmes, a Jamaican-born car mechanic, and an English mother, Pam Norman.

Her mother was 17 at the time of her birth, and seven years later married painter and decorator Michael Norris, whom Holmes regards as her father.

Holmes grew up in Hildenborough, Kent, where she attended Hildenborough CEP School, and then Hugh Christie Comprehensive School in Tonbridge from the age of 12.

In 2005, after her achievements at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Holmes chose to talk about her self-harm to show others that being a professional athlete is an extremely difficult thing to do and places the athlete under tremendous amounts of stress.

Later, in September 2017, Holmes explained that "at my lowest, I was cutting myself with scissors every day that I was injured."

Holmes's honesty quickly won her praise from people on Twitter.