86 Facts About Paula Radcliffe

Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE was born on 17 December 1973 and is a British former long-distance runner.

Paula Radcliffe is a three-time winner of the London Marathon, three-time New York Marathon champion, the 2002 Chicago Marathon winner and the 2005 World Champion in the Marathon from Helsinki.

Paula Radcliffe was previously the fastest female marathoner of all time, and held the Women's World Marathon Record with a time of 2:15:25 for 16 years from 2003 to 2019 when it was broken by Brigid Kosgei.

Paula Radcliffe has been European champion over 10,000 metres and in cross country.

Paula Radcliffe represented Great Britain at the Olympics in four consecutive games, although she never won an Olympic medal.

Paula Radcliffe's running has earned her a number of accolades including the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Laureus World Comeback of the Year, IAAF World Athlete of the Year, AIMS World Athlete of the Year and a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

Paula Radcliffe has been nominated for World Sportswoman of the year on several occasions.

Paula Radcliffe was inducted into the Loughborough University Hall of Fame in 2015.

Paula Radcliffe ended her competitive running career at the 2015 London Marathon, although she later entered the 2025 editions of the Tokyo and Boston marathons.

Paula Radcliffe was born on 17 December 1973 in Davenham near Northwich, Cheshire.

Paula Radcliffe's joining the club coincided with a talented and dedicated coach, Alex Stanton, building the women's and girls' sections into one of the strongest in the country, in spite of Bedford's relatively small size.

Paula Radcliffe's father became club vice-chairman and her mother, a fun-runner, managed the women's cross-country team.

Paula Radcliffe finished fourth in the same race one year later.

Paula Radcliffe went on to study French, German and economics at Loughborough University, gaining a degree in Modern European Studies.

Paula Radcliffe's father was a keen marathon runner as a young man.

Paula Radcliffe took up the hobby again in an attempt to lose weight after giving up smoking.

Paula Radcliffe was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma at the age of 14 after blacking out whilst training.

At the age of 10 Paula Radcliffe, accompanied by her father, watched Ingrid Kristiansen run in the London Marathon, inspiring her to become an athlete.

At the 1992 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Paula Radcliffe, took the Junior title, beating Wang Junxia and Gete Wami in Boston, after recovering from a bad asthma attack in the weeks beforehand.

At the age of 19 Paula Radcliffe finished in seventh place at the 1993 World Championships.

Paula Radcliffe claimed back to back World Cross Challenge wins at Durham and Mallusk to start the 1994 season.

Paula Radcliffe missed the World Cross Country Championships with a foot injury.

Paula Radcliffe was initially misdiagnosed with the injury which forced her to miss all of 1994 and thought about quitting as the injury would not get better.

Paula Radcliffe rounded off 1996 by finishing third in a cross country race in Durham.

Paula Radcliffe became the first woman to defend the Fifth Avenue Mile title.

Paula Radcliffe had dropped out of Durham's cross country race with flu at the start of 1998, but bounced back to finish third in Dublin.

At the 1998 edition of the World Cross Country, Paula Radcliffe again won the silver medal.

Paula Radcliffe set a new world best for 5 miles on the road around Balmoral Castle.

Paula Radcliffe, who was suffering from a virus, took some time off, before returning to the cross country discipline, where she won her first senior title by taking the European Long course race.

At the World Cross Country championships, Paula Radcliffe finished with the bronze medal.

Paula Radcliffe then ran the second fastest half marathon by a British woman, finishing third on her debut at the distance at the Great North Run, despite getting into a tangle with a spectator.

At the London Grand Prix, Paula Radcliffe finished second, one second outside of her British record, in only her second track race of the season.

Paula Radcliffe returned to action by winning the BUPA Ireland five-mile race.

At the Great North Run, Paula Radcliffe ran a new European record for the half marathon, as she won the race in a time of 67 minutes and 7 seconds.

Paula Radcliffe was then selected for the 2000 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Mexico.

Paula Radcliffe won her first World title, despite suffering a panic attack when her nose tape, designed to help her breathe, fell off halfway round.

Paula Radcliffe confirmed that her last race of the year would be the Great North Cross Country.

Paula Radcliffe won back-to-back titles in the 2000 and 2001 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, winning a third title in 2003.

On 24 March, Paula Radcliffe won the Ostend, Belgium-held World Cross Country Championships 2001 title in a time of 27:49.

In 2002, Paula Radcliffe made the move up to the marathon, a decision that immediately paid off with victory at her debut in that year's London Marathon on 14 April 2002 in a world's best time for a women's only race.

Paula Radcliffe's time was the second quickest in women's marathon history behind the world record of 2:18:47 set by Catherine Ndereba, of Kenya, in Chicago.

Later that year, Paula Radcliffe set a world record time of 2:17:18 in the Chicago Marathon on 13 October 2002, breaking the previous record by a minute and a half.

Paula Radcliffe was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 Birthday Honours for services to athletics.

Paula Radcliffe thanked her husband Gary Lough, her coach Alex Stanton and her physio, Gerard Hartmann.

Paula Radcliffe set her last women's marathon world record during the 2003 London Marathon in April, with a time of 2:15:25.

Paula Radcliffe is the former world record holder for the women's road 10k in a time of 30 minutes and 21 seconds, which she set on 23 February 2003 in the World's Best 10K in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Paula Radcliffe won the 2004 New York City Marathon in a time of 2:23:10, beating Kenya's Susan Chepkemei.

Paula Radcliffe did not compete in the London Marathon in 2004, but was the favourite to win a gold medal in the marathon at the Olympic Games in Athens.

At the 2005 London Marathon, Paula Radcliffe won with a time of 2:17:42, a world's best time for a women's only race by over a minute.

The race is remembered for a notorious moment towards the end when Paula Radcliffe, hindered by runner's diarrhea and in need for a toilet break, stopped and defecated on the side of the road in view of the crowd and TV cameras which broadcast the incident live.

Paula Radcliffe took a break through the 2006 season owing to injuries and in July announced that she was expecting her first child.

Paula Radcliffe's comeback was further delayed in 2007 as a result of a stress fracture in her lower back.

Paula Radcliffe chose not to defend her world marathon crown in 2007, in order to undertake further rehabilitation, but insisted she wanted to compete in the next two Olympics.

Paula Radcliffe made her return to competitive running on 30 September 2007, taking part in the BUPA Great North Run in the UK on Tyneside.

Paula Radcliffe made her marathon return at the New York City Marathon on 4 November 2007 which she won with an official time of 2:23:09.

Paula Radcliffe withdrew from the 2008 London Marathon due to a foot injury.

Shortly after the London Marathon, it was revealed that Paula Radcliffe was suffering from an injury to her hip, preventing her from running.

Paula Radcliffe won the 2008 Great South Run in 51 minutes 11 seconds, 11 seconds off of Sonia O'Sullivan's course record.

Paula Radcliffe managed to get to fitness level for the 2008 Summer Olympics, but cramped during the marathon to the point where she had to stop running and stretch.

Paula Radcliffe resumed the race and finished in 23rd place overall.

Paula Radcliffe won the 2008 New York City Marathon, making it her third victory at the competition with a time of 2:23:56.

Paula Radcliffe did not run competitively for almost 10 months, but made herself available for inclusion in the 2009 British team for the World Championships in Athletics.

Paula Radcliffe announced that the New York City Half Marathon would be a testing ground for her fitness before the competition.

Paula Radcliffe went on to win the New York City Half Marathon in 1:09:45, two seconds off the course record.

Paula Radcliffe returned to action at the 2009 New York City Marathon but failed to notch her third consecutive victory, instead fading to fourth place with knee problems.

Paula Radcliffe called the performance "a bit of a disaster", and indicated she was suffering from a tear in one of the discs of her back.

Paula Radcliffe set the 2011 Berlin Marathon as her comeback venue to try for an Olympic qualifying time.

Paula Radcliffe used the 2012 Vienna Half Marathon to gauge her fitness and the race was set up as a battle between her and Haile Gebrselassie, with Radcliffe receiving a head start of 7:52.

Paula Radcliffe did not perform well and was comfortably beaten by the Ethiopian, while she crossed the line with a time of 72:03.

Paula Radcliffe pulled out of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London because of a foot injury.

In January 2015, Paula Radcliffe announced that she had decided to end her marathon career on 26 April 2015 by competing in the 2015 London Marathon.

In 2025, Paula Radcliffe ran her first competitive marathon in a decade, finishing the 2025 Tokyo Marathon in 2:57:22.

Paula Radcliffe registered to run in the 2025 Boston Marathon.

Paula Radcliffe finished with a time of 2:53:44, winning her category.

Paula Radcliffe has frequently made high-profile condemnations of the use of performance-enhancing drugs in athletics.

Paula Radcliffe vowed to continue her fight against drugs in sport after her high-profile actions in Edmonton.

Since the 1999 European Cup, Paula Radcliffe wears a red ribbon when competing to show her support for blood testing as a method of catching drug cheats.

Paula Radcliffe has advocated a system where first time offenders are banned for four years and any future offence for life.

However, when Ohuruogu admitted to not trying to get to the tests, Paula Radcliffe expressed her disappointment and hoped that it was a lesson learned.

When Marion Jones admitted to steroid use, Paula Radcliffe stated that it was good for the sport that Jones was caught and that they had to keep testing and that people being caught is a big deterrent to would-be cheats.

In 2015, in the wake of revelations of widespread doping in athletics, Paula Radcliffe said that, unlike some other prominent British athletes, she would not be releasing her blood-test history, and discouraged other athletes from doing so.

Paula Radcliffe was later indirectly identified as a suspected doper by MP Jesse Norman during a parliamentary inquiry into blood doping.

Shortly afterwards, her three suspect test results were leaked, though Paula Radcliffe still refused to release her complete blood-test history.

Paula Radcliffe met her husband Gary Lough, a former Northern Irish 1,500 m runner, when he was her lodger at Loughborough University.

Paula Radcliffe gave birth to her first child, daughter Isla, in 2007.

Paula Radcliffe's second child, a son, Raphael, was born in 2010.