 Sebastian Coe, world-beating athlete, sports administrator, politician, businessman and successful leader of the 2012 bid.
Lord Coe, born in London on 29 September 1956, was recognised as one of the greatest middle distance runners of all time. He won 1500m Olympic gold medals in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984 and set a string of world records for 800m, 1000m, 1500m and mile.
His international athletics career spanned 14 years from 1976 to 1990, during which he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1979 and was four times voted Sportsman of the Year by Britain’s sports writers. In 1998 he received the British sports writers’ award for the most outstanding contribution to sport in the past 50 years.
In 1987 he was awarded the Prince d’Asturias Prize, Spain’s highest civil award, and was appointed a member of the French Academy of Sport. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1991.
 Sebastian Coe was chairman of the Athletes Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1981 to 1992, served on the IOC Medical Commission from 1987 to 1993 and has been a member of the IOC Sport For All Commission since 1997.
He was appointed President of the Amateur Athletic Association in 2000 and was elected to the Council of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in 2003.
He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament for the Falmouth and Camborne constituency from 1992 to 1997, was appointed a Government Whip in 1996 and became Private Secretary to Opposition Leader William Hague in 1997. He was appointed a life peer in 2000.
Having launched a chain of Sebastian Coe Health Clubs in 1994, he was appointed Chairman of the sports marketing agency Fast Track in 1999 and became a global adviser to sporting goods company Nike in 2001.
Sebastian Coe has been a regular sports broadcaster and journalist for the past 10 years and has written five books. |
