77 Facts About Dwain Chambers

Dwain Anthony Chambers was born on 5 April 1978 and is a British track sprinter.

Dwain Chambers has won international medals at World and European levels and is one of the fastest European sprinters in the history of athletics.

Dwain Chambers broke the 10-second barrier twice at the 2001 World Championships.

Dwain Chambers tried other sports, including a spell with the Hamburg Sea Devils of the NFL Europa league and a rugby league trial with Castleford.

Dwain Chambers produced a ghost-written autobiography with writer Ken Scott, Race Against Me, in 2009.

Dwain Chambers is of Afro-Caribbean- Jamaican descent and has two sons with his partner Leonie Daley.

Dwain Chambers was born in Islington, and raised in Finsbury Park, London.

Dwain Chambers's ability attracted the attention of former sprinter and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Mike McFarlane, who became his coach.

In spite of this, Dwain Chambers remained some distance behind his North American counterparts.

The 2000 Sydney Olympics saw Dwain Chambers come close to the podium.

Dwain Chambers was later upgraded to fourth place after silver medallist Tim Montgomery tested positive for banned substances.

Dwain Chambers ended his season at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, and finished in first place in the absence of an injured Greene, who commentated on his European rival's victory.

Frustrated by the distance between himself and the top sprinters, Dwain Chambers decided to relocate to California to work with Ukrainian coach Remi Korchemny and nutritionist Victor Conte.

Dwain Chambers was better prepared than me and fully deserved the victory.

Dwain Chambers was the favourite for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, but Chambers faced stiff competition from British newcomer Mark Lewis-Francis who was finishing fractions of a second behind him.

Dwain Chambers won all his preliminary races and reached the final, along with Lewis-Francis and Jason Gardener, but he suffered a cramp mid-race and ended up in last place.

Dwain Chambers finished the season by equalling Linford Christie's European record at the 2002 IAAF Grand Prix Final.

Dwain Chambers received the 2002 European Athlete of the Year trophy for his achievements on the track that year.

Dwain Chambers announced that he was to part with trainer Mike McFarlane in favour of a permanent relationship with Ukrainian coach Remi Korchemny.

In spite of his close fourth and a relay silver medal, there was a sense of disappointment in the press that Dwain Chambers' record breaking claims and gold medals had not materialised.

Dwain Chambers was suspended the same day with an independent UK Athletics tribunal pending.

Dwain Chambers was banned for life from the Olympics, and stripped of the medals he had won since mid-2002, after admitting that he had taken THG from that date.

Dwain Chambers was ordered by the IAAF to pay back his earnings from the period of his athletics career that was affected by his drug abuse.

Conte claimed that rival coach Trevor Graham had revealed the drug to US testers, acting "purely out of competitive jealousy" as Dwain Chambers was challenging Graham's trainees; Montgomery and Greene.

Dwain Chambers denied that he had any knowledge that the substance he was taking was banned and claimed he was deceived by Conte over its true use.

Dwain Chambers had an unsuccessful American football try-out with the San Francisco 49ers, hoping to emulate Renaldo Nehemiah.

Dwain Chambers drifted on to the celebrity circuit, appearing on British reality television series Hell's Kitchen in May 2004.

However, Dwain Chambers had little interest in the show and soon chose to leave.

Dwain Chambers appeared in neither sporting events nor television programmes for 18 months.

Dwain Chambers began training in Jamaica in late 2005 in preparation for the athletics season.

Dwain Chambers began working with Glen Mills, coach of Caribbean sprinters Kim Collins and Usain Bolt.

Dwain Chambers's comeback was further delayed as he gave an interview with the BBC revealing he began using drugs at the beginning of 2002, not since August 2003, as he had claimed to the IAAF.

Dwain Chambers stated that his training regime with Bolt had helped him make a strong opening performance despite a long absence from competition.

Dwain Chambers lamented the effects of his drug use and noted the irony that the drugs did not do much to improve the consistency of his performances.

Dwain Chambers signed for BAFA National Leagues side Farnham Knights in 2005, After attending a series of NFL Europe training camps, he gained a contract with German NFL Europa side Hamburg Sea Devils in March 2007.

Dwain Chambers reflected on drug use in athletics in an interview with Olympic gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent for the BBC's Inside Sport programme.

Dwain Chambers claimed there would always be athletes using performance-enhancing drugs because drug testers did not keep pace with advances in science and that athletes who took drugs had an immense advantage over those who remained clean.

Dwain Chambers was roundly condemned for his comments in the interview by both the press and his former colleagues in the athletics world, including Sir Steve Redgrave, Mo Farah, and Sebastian Coe.

UK Athletics chief executive Niels de Vos initially banned Dwain Chambers from competing in the trials for the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships but, after the IAAF overruled the decision, Dwain Chambers won the event and selection.

UK Athletics stated that committee was "unanimous in its desire not to select Dwain Chambers" but were forced to by the selection criteria, saying they would have preferred to send younger athletes eligible for the Olympics.

The performance did not sway opinion: Dwain Chambers continued to encounter extensive criticism within athletics.

Dwain Chambers amassed a selection of cuttings about his fall from grace and the BALCO Scandal in order to show his son the risks of drug abuse.

Dwain Chambers' reinvention was met with a mixed reaction and the acceptance of a proven drug user on the track was not palatable to some.

Dame Kelly Holmes, and parts of the British press called for Dwain Chambers to retire from the Great Britain athletics team.

At a rugby press conference, Dwain Chambers expressed a desire to compete in the Beijing Olympics, casting doubt on his dedication to his new career.

Dwain Chambers officially registered as a player with the Rugby Football League, and Martin Offiah declared that he was prepared to mentor Dwain Chambers.

Dwain Chambers completed training with the Castleford Tigers first-team squad and made his debut in a reserve game against York City Knights, but Castleford announced that they would not be offering him a contract.

In May 2008 Dwain Chambers announced that he was challenging his Olympic ban at the High Court of Justice.

Dwain Chambers achieved the "A" Standard for the 2008 Beijing Olympics in June and won the British Olympic trials in ten seconds flat in July.

However, he lamented that a sprinter of Dwain Chambers' calibre had in effect excluded himself from the competition.

In late 2008 Dwain Chambers signed a book deal, covering his athletics career and drug usage, and stated his desire to become a sprint coach when his track career was finished.

That month Dwain Chambers appeared at a "Tackling Doping in Sport" conference and told of the damage drugs had caused to his career, health, and finances.

Dwain Chambers ceased legal action to overturn his Olympic ban and instead aimed to finish his career on a high.

Dwain Chambers intensively studied the technique of Usain Bolt to improve his own times, seeing Bolt as the new generation's Maurice Greene.

Dwain Chambers signed a statement with UK Sport, verifying that he believed the information to be true, which brought a close to the organisation's inquiries into his drug use.

Olympic gold medallist and anti-drugs campaigner Ed Moses gave his support, saying that Dwain Chambers admissions provided a useful insight, but that athletes and administrators remained in denial about the high levels of doping in athletics.

Dwain Chambers was the fastest entrant at the national championships but 2008 runner-up Simeon Williamson won the final by some distance.

Lemaitre and Dwain Chambers were seen as the only gold medal contenders for the 100 m final at the European Athletics Championships, but the event defied expectations in terms of times and placings.

Dwain Chambers was given the chance to return to the Olympic stage after the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided in favour of the World Anti-Doping Agency over the validity of British Olympic Association's Olympic ban by-law.

Dwain Chambers was named in the British squad for the 2012 London Olympics after the selectors took into account his trials win and his times from the previous year.

Dwain Chambers was drawn in the same semi-final as Usain Bolt but Chambers' run of 10.05 seconds for fourth meant he did not make the final.

Dwain Chambers began 2014 by finishing second in the 60 m at the British Indoor Championships, before going on to finish sixth in the 60 m final at the World Indoor Championships in a time of 6.52s.

Dwain Chambers' victory guaranteed him selection for the European Championships as his winning time was 10.12 secs, inside the European qualifying mark of 10.20.

Dwain Chambers won his final medal in international competition at the 2014 IAAF World Relays in May At the 2014 European Championships in August, Dwain Chambers missed out on a final individual medal by 0.02 seconds, finishing 4th in the 100m final in 10.24.

Dwain Chambers had a more active 2016, winning his heat and semi-final in the 60m at the British Indoor Championships but only managed seventh in the final.

In 2017, Dwain Chambers came third at the national indoor championships in 6.62 but was not selected for the 2017 European Indoor Championships.

In December 2018,40-year-old Dwain Chambers returned at a low-key meet in London.

Dwain Chambers then entered the national indoor championships in February 2019.

Dwain Chambers progressed from his heat, but was disqualified after a false start in the semi-final.

In February 2020, Dwain Chambers returned to the British Indoor Championships.

Dwain Chambers finished last in his semi-final after coming through the heats.

Dwain Chambers entered the 100m at the British Championships in 2021 and 2022 but failed to progress from the heats on both occasions.

Dwain Chambers went on to compete at the UK Indoor Championships in February 2024, reaching the semi-finals.

Dwain Chambers founded the Dwain Chambers Performance Academy, which aims to provide all round coaching for the next generation of sporting stars and is open for young athletes between 9 and 21.

Dwain Chambers is a public speaker and gave his first TedX in October 2023.

None of his British contemporaries have broken the ten second barrier on more than one occasion; Dwain Chambers has done so five times.

Dwain Chambers is the only athlete ever to run sub-10s 100m in three consecutive decades and is the eighth-fastest Briton of all time over 100m.