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20 Facts About Liz McColgan

1.

Liz McColgan won the gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the 1991 World Championships and a silver over the same distance at the 1988 Olympic Games.

2.

Liz McColgan was a two-time gold medalist in the event at the Commonwealth Games, 1992 World Half Marathon champion and a two-time individual medallist at the World Cross Country Championships.

3.

Liz McColgan claimed three victories at the World Marathon Majors: at the 1991 New York City Marathon, 1992 Tokyo Marathon and 1996 London Marathon.

4.

Liz McColgan joined her local athletics club, Hawkhill Harriers, aged 12 on the advice of her PE teacher Phil Kearns Coached by Harry Bennett, she soon discovered a talent for distance running and won her first UK titles aged 18.

5.

From 1987 to 1989 Liz McColgan was coached by John Anderson, including at the 1988 Olympics, after which she coached herself to the world 10,000m title and to wins in the London, New York and Tokyo marathons.

6.

Liz McColgan then met Grete Waitz, who coached her from 1992 to her retirement in 1996.

7.

Liz McColgan finished behind Annette Sergent of France but ahead of Ingrid Kristiansen.

8.

In 1988, now competing as Liz McColgan, she improved her own UK record with 31:06.99 in July to defeat Kristiansen in Oslo.

9.

Liz McColgan was defeated by the Soviet Union's Olga Bondarenko.

10.

Liz McColgan won silver in the 3,000 metres at the World Indoor Championships in 1989.

11.

Liz McColgan missed the rest of the 1990 season due to pregnancy, giving birth to her daughter Eilish in November.

12.

In March 1992, Liz McColgan struggled to a 41st-place finish at the World Cross Country Championships in Boston.

13.

Liz McColgan finished second in the London Marathons of 1997 and 1998, running her career-best time of 2:26:52 in 1997.

14.

Liz McColgan gave her medal to a youngster in the crowd after the 1997 event.

15.

Liz McColgan retired from competing in August 2001 when she fractured a bone in her foot while training for selection for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

16.

Liz McColgan completed the 2010 New York Marathon in 3:10:54.

17.

In 1987 she married Northern Irish athlete Peter Liz McColgan; they had five children together - Eilish, Martin, Eamonn, Kieran and Orla.

18.

On 18 January 2014, Liz McColgan married John Nuttall, a coach who worked as head of endurance coaching for British Athletics and later coached in Qatar, becoming step-mother to Nuttall's son, para-athlete Luke Nuttall and daughter, British international athlete Hannah Nuttall.

19.

In December 1991, Liz McColgan appeared on This Is Your Life and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

20.

Liz McColgan was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to athletics in 1992 and inducted to the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.