18 Facts About Liam Heath

Liam Heath was born on 17 August 1984 and is a British sprint canoeist.

Liam Heath is the most successful British canoeist at the Olympics with a total of four medals; he won a gold medal in the individual 200m kayak sprint event at the 2016 Summer Olympics and a bronze in the 2020 Olympics, as well as a silver in the men's double with Jon Schofield in 2016.

Liam Heath was born in Guildford, Surrey on 17 August 1984.

Liam Heath was first introduced to kayaking when he was 10 at a 'holiday fun' activity week at the Wey Kayak Club based in Guildford, and competed with GB Canoeing as a junior.

Liam Heath gave up on kayaking for the second time after failing to be selected by GB Canoeing.

At the British Canoe Union's National Canoe Sprint Championships in April 2014 Liam Heath won the K1 200m and the K2 200m titles.

At World Cup 3 in Szeged Liam Heath competed in the K2 200m only, winning silver with Schofield behind the new German pairing of Ronald Rauhe and Tom Liebscher.

At World Cup 1 in Duisburg Liam Heath was joint-3rd in the K1 200m and, with Schofield, came 7th in the K2 200m.

Liam Heath then won the gold in the K-1 200 final, making him the then most successful British canoeist at the Olympics, overtaking Tim Brabants' record of one gold and two bronze medals.

The K-2 200m event was dropped for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Liam Heath therefore focused his attention on the single Kayak events in the following seasons.

However, Liam Heath chose to remain in the South, training at Dorney Lake and Bisham Abbey with the assistance of Tim Brabants' former coach, Eric Farrell.

Liam Heath did stay in training and became a member of GB Canoeing's new K4 500m crew.

At the 2019 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships held in Szeged, Hungary, Liam Heath regained his K-1 200m title thereby qualifying Team GB to enter a boat in the Men's event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Liam Heath had to train at home due to the national lockdown announced by the government.

Liam Heath did not have the opportunity to race until the Senior Squad Selection regatta at the Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre in April 2021 at which he set a new 200m course record of 34.03 seconds.

At the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo in 2021 Liam Heath won a bronze medal in the K-1 200 metres event behind Hungary's Sandor Totka and Italian Manfredi Rizza.

Liam Heath was awarded the MBE in the Queen's 2017 New Year Honours list for services to canoeing.

Liam Heath has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of Surrey, in 2017, and Loughborough University, in 2018.