Kelly Sotherton

Kelly Jade Sotherton (born 13 November 1976) is a British former heptathlete, long jumper and relay runner.

Sotherton was born in Newport, Isle of Wight on 13 November 1976.

She began her athletics career in the sports day at Caversham House Primary School in Ryde, Isle of Wight.

She was subsequently educated at Bishop Lovett Middle School, Ryde High School and Brunel University.

As a teenager, Sotherton played netball for the Isle of Wight, and won two English Schools' championships in the heptathlon.

She moved to the Midlands in 1998, to become a member of Birchfield Harriers athletics club.

She made her senior British team debut in 2002.

In the 800 m, a strong event for Sotherton, she needed to take 1.6 seconds from Klüft to see her beaten for the first time since 2002.

Sotherton set a personal best 2:12.54, but Klüft also underscored her previous mark to win by 17 points.

This was her smallest winning margin ever.

Sotherton took silver, and Karin Ruckstuhl the bronze.

In one of the best pentathlons of all time, many athletes set national records and Klüft and Sotherton rose to second and fourth on the all-time lists respectively.

Sotherton also set a Commonwealth record by 200 points.

In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, also at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as being part of the bronze medal-winning team in the Women's 4x400m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics (again, initially finishing 5th but upgraded after various subsequent doping disqualifications).

As such she is one of only five women to win multiple medals in Olympic heptathlon.

As the scale of her accomplishments at global level (5 global medals in four years) became clear in hindsight, Sotherton was increasingly recognised as fully part of a notable line of world class British pentathletes/heptathletes that included Olympic gold medalists Mary Rand, Mary Peters, Commonwealth Games champions Judy Simpson, and Louise Hazel and three modern champions across multiple events, Denise Lewis (Olympic, double-Commonwealth gold), Jessica Ennis-Hill (Olympic, European and triple-World gold) and Katarina Johnson-Thompson (double-World, double-Commonwealth gold), her multiple global medals and Commonwealth title between 2004 and 2008 bridging the gap between the Olympic triumphs of Lewis and Ennis-Hill.

She gained international recognition in 2004 when she unexpectedly won a bronze medal at the Summer Olympics in Athens behind Carolina Klüft (gold) and Austra Skujytė (silver), scoring 6424 points and finishing ahead of defending Olympic champion Lewis, who dropped out due to injury.

She was famously criticised for settling for the bronze medal instead of chasing the silver in the final event, the 800m, by her coach Charles van Commenee.

In March 2005 she competed in the European Indoor Championships, where she took silver once again behind Klüft.

At Götzis, Austria in May Sotherton was again beaten into second, behind the Swede, but she did record a personal best of 6547 points.

At the AAA's National Championship in July, Sotherton competed in four individual events and took her first senior national title, winning the long jump with a jump of 6.48 metres.

At the 2005 World Championships Sotherton had held a medal position going into the sixth event, despite some below average performances, but a disastrous javelin saw her drop out of contention.

Sotherton did manage to knock nearly 2.5 seconds off her personal best to win the final 800 m, but despite closing the overall gap on those ahead she only finished fifth.

Representing England, Sotherton is a one-time Commonwealth Games champion, as the heptathlon gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Indoors, Sotherton was a World silver medallist, and twice European silver medallist in pentathlon, in which she was ranked seventh all-time in 2022.

Several of Sotherton's medals arrived after other athletes had been caught doping - at the time, Sotherton's reputation was more of near misses than medal success.

In March 2006 Sotherton competed for England in the heptathlon at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

She took gold with a score of 6396, ahead of Kylie Wheeler of Australia (silver) and her teammate Jessica Ennis (bronze).

In August 2006 she competed for Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the heptathlon at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg.

She came seventh ahead of her teammate Jessica Ennis, after a disappointing javelin event caused her to drop from second.

She also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics.

2007 saw Great Britain host the European Indoor Championships, in Birmingham.

Klüft led after the hurdles, but Sotherton and compatriot Jessica Ennis trailed closely behind.

The high jump saw Ennis take the lead over Klüft and Sotherton, with a jump of 1.91, but Sotherton set a personal best for indoors of 1.88.

Seven points separated Klüft and Sotherton.

In the shot put, Sotherton took a two-point lead ahead of defending champion Klüft.

The long jump saw Klüft take a 24-point lead over the Briton.

In November 2010, she announced her decision to retire from the heptathlon, due to foot and back injuries.

After considering switching to cycling, she then chose instead to focus on the 400 m winning her only National title in 2011.

Sotherton's funding from UK Athletics was cut in 2011, but while she returned to heptathlon training, she failed to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics ahead of reigning Commonwealth champion Louise Hazel, World (and eventual Olympic) champion Ennis Hill or future World and Commonwealth champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Sotherton retired from elite competitive athletics for the final time shortly thereafter.