29 Facts About Linford Christie

Linford Christie is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100 metres at all four major competitions open to British athletes: the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games.

Linford Christie remains one of the most highly decorated British athletes of all-time.

Linford Christie tested positive for a banned stimulant in 1988 during the Seoul Olympics.

Linford Christie was born on 2 April 1960 in Saint Andrew, Jamaica, where he was brought up by his maternal grandmother.

Linford Christie was educated at Henry Compton Secondary School in Fulham, London and excelled in physical education.

Linford Christie joined the Air Training Corps in 1978,336 Squadron.

Linford Christie did not take up athletics seriously until he was 18.

Linford Christie's time was 9.97 seconds, a new European record by 0.03 seconds and this was only the third time that an athlete had broken the ten second barrier in the 100 metres without winning the race.

Linford Christie's achievement saw him being voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year by the British public that year.

Linford Christie retired from representative international competition in 1997, although he continued to make appearances at invitation meetings.

Linford Christie faced an International Olympic Committee disciplinary hearing at the 1988 Seoul Olympics because of an adverse drug test for the banned stimulant pseudoephedrine after he ran in the heats of the 200m.

At the 1994 European championships staged in Helsinki, where British team captain Linford Christie won his third European 100 m title, he was caught up in a doping controversy after Solomon Wariso, a 400 m runner making his international championship debut, tested positive for the stimulant ephedrine.

Wariso revealed that he had used an over-the-counter pick-you-up called "Up Your Gas", which Linford Christie had bought at a Florida pharmacy.

In 1998, less than six months before his first positive drug test, Linford Christie won a libel action against the journalist John McVicar.

McVicar had insinuated in a satirical magazine that Linford Christie's remarkable rise from 156th in the world to triumph at an age when he should have been in decline could only have been achieved through performance-enhancing drugs.

The judge ordered that McVicar should be bound by an injunction restraining him from accusing Linford Christie of taking banned substances.

In February 1999, Linford Christie competed in an indoor meet in Dortmund, Germany.

Linford Christie was found to have more than 100 times normal levels of the metabolites of nandrolone in his urine.

Linford Christie has spent less time as a public figure and has devoted most of his time to managing his company.

In 2010, Linford Christie appeared on the UK ITV television channel's I'm a Celebrity.

In recent years Linford Christie appears to have come to terms with the 'lunchbox' label, disclosing his preference for briefs rather than boxer shorts, and in 2002 becoming the "face" of Sloggi, the men's underwear brand, posing for advertising wearing only underwear.

However, in April 2006, it was announced that Linford Christie would be a senior mentor for athletes on the national team, along with former athletes Steve Backley, Daley Thompson and Katharine Merry.

The BOA has confirmed that their ban on Olympic accreditation for Linford Christie remains in place.

In 2011, Linford Christie was convicted of careless driving, after his vehicle crashed head-on into a taxi on 8 May 2010 due to driving on the wrong side of the A413 road in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire.

Linford Christie has the fourth fastest time over the distance for a European after Gardener, Ronald Pognon and the current European record holder Dwain Chambers.

On 23 September 1995, Linford Christie set a M35 world record of 9.97 in the 100 m which no longer stands.

On 25 June 1995 he set the current M35 world record in the 200 m in 20.11 seconds and on 3 January 1997 Linford Christie set the current indoor record in the M35 60 m in a time of 6.51 seconds.

Linford Christie was appointed MBE in 1990 and OBE in 1998.

In 1993 Linford Christie formed a sports management and promotions company, Nuff Respect, with sprint-hurdler Colin Jackson.