34 Facts About Kelly Holmes

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

Kelly Holmes held the British 800 metre record until 2021.

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

Kelly Holmes 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.

Kelly Holmes retired from athletics in 2005 and has since been made an honorary colonel with the Royal Armoured Corps Training Regiment.

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

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

Kelly Holmes's 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.

Kelly 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.

Kelly Holmes 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.

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

However, Kelly 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.

Kelly 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.

Kelly Holmes 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.

In 2005, after her achievements at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Kelly 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.

Kelly Holmes won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2004, saying she achieved her goals after "20 years of dreaming".

Kelly Holmes asserted the award was "the biggest sporting honour your country can give you".

In 2010, Kelly Holmes was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.

Since 2004, Holmes has taken part in "On Camp with Kelly" athletics camps which train junior athletes, sponsored by insurance company Aviva.

On 6 December 2005, Kelly Holmes announced her retirement from athletics, saying she had reassessed her future after the death of a friend, as well as citing a lack of motivation to continue.

In May 2009, Kelly Holmes was named as the president of Commonwealth Games England, succeeding Sir Chris Chataway, who had held the post since 1994.

Kelly Holmes is a truly inspirational and respected figure in the sporting world and will be a wonderful ambassador for Commonwealth Games England.

In November 2010, Kelly Holmes took part in the ITV game show The Cube.

In 2013 Kelly Holmes became the face of MoneyForce, a programme run by the Royal British Legion to deliver money advice to the UK armed forces.

In 2017, Kelly Holmes presented episode five of the BBC One television series Women at War: 100 Years of Service.

In December 2017, Kelly Holmes spoke about her 2003 mental health issues in an episode of All in the Mind on BBC Radio 4 and in 2018 was one of the judges of the programme's awards.

Since September 2022, Kelly Holmes has been a regular panelist on the ITV Loose Women talk show.

In 2014 Kelly Holmes opened a cafe and community hub in Hildenborough named Cafe 1809 after her 2004 Olympics bib number.

Kelly Holmes opened a sister branch of the cafe in Gravesend in 2017, but this closed after a few months.

In October 2018 Kelly Holmes announced the cafe would close the following month, before re-opening as The 1809 Hub: "a space for events, pop-ups, and community gatherings".

In June 2022, Kelly Holmes came out as gay in an interview with the Sunday Mirror, adding that she felt "finally free".

Kelly Holmes said that she had known she was a lesbian since 1988, when she was in the army; she could not come out then as it was illegal at the time to be gay in the military.

LGBT campaigners celebrated Kelly Holmes coming out, saying that it sheds light on the historic homophobia that can still serve as a barrier to older people coming out.

In 2012, Kelly Holmes was one of five Olympians chosen for a series of body-casting artworks by Louise Giblin, exhibited in London with copies being sold in aid of the charity Headfirst.