Allan Wipper Wells was born on 3 May 1952 and is a Scottish former track and field sprinter who became the 100 metres Olympic champion at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
24 Facts About Allan Wells
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In 1981, Wells was both the IAAF Golden Sprints and IAAF World Cup gold medallist.
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Allan Wells is a three-time European Cup gold medallist among many other sprint successes.
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Allan Wells remains the last male athlete without African ancestry to win the 100 metres at the Olympics.
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Allan Wells left school at age 15 to begin an engineering apprenticeship.
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Allan Wells was initially a triple jumper and long jumper and crowned Scottish indoor long jump champion in 1974.
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Allan Wells never used starting blocks, until a rule change forced him to do so for the Moscow Olympics.
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Wells attempted a final dip which had brought him victory in the 100, but he fell short, and Wells won the silver medal behind Pietro Mennea, who beat him by 0.02 s; again he set a British record of 20.21 s He went on to break a third British record, 38.62 s, with the sprint relay team that finished fourth in the final.
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Allan Wells accepted an invitation to take on the best USA sprinters of the day, among others, at a track meeting in Cologne in West Germany.
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Less than two weeks after the Moscow gold, Allan Wells won the final in Koblenz beating Americans Stanley Floyd, Mel Lattany, Carl Lewis and Harvey Glance.
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In 1981, after a successful tour of Australia and New Zealand, Allan Wells won the European Cup 100 metres, beating East German Frank Emmelmann.
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Allan Wells then demonstrated his calibre by finishing first in the "IAAF Golden sprints" in Berlin; which was the most prominent Sprint Meeting in the World that year.
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In 1982, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Allan Wells won two more Commonwealth Games titles in the 100 m, a wind assisted 10.02.
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Allan Wells shared the 200 m title with Mike McFarlane of England in a rare dead heat.
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Allan Wells reached the 100 m semi-finals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and was a member of the relay team that finished 7th in the final.
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Allan Wells was not selected for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986, as he had failed to compete at the Scottish trials.
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Allan Wells gained additional attention at Gateshead for being the first to be seen sporting the now common Lycra running shorts.
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Allan Wells was consequently selected for Stuttgart in the European championships, coming fifth in both the 100 m and 200 m finals.
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Since 1982 Allan Wells has lived in Surrey, with his wife Margot.
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Allan Wells coached the Bank of Scotland specialist sprint squad alongside another former Scottish sprinter, Ian Mackie.
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Allan Wells was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1982 Birthday Honours for services to athletics.
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Allan Wells was inducted alongside Eric Liddell and Wyndham Halswelle into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.
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Allan Wells was the first baton holder for the Queen's Baton Relay for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, carrying the baton from Buckingham Palace in London in October 2013.
24.
In July 2014, Allan Wells received, along with his wife Margot, an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Edinburgh Napier University.