21 Facts About Phillips Idowu

Phillips Idowu is a former World Outdoor and Indoor, European Outdoor and Indoor, and Commonwealth triple jump champion.

Phillips Idowu was a silver medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Phillips Idowu grew up in Hackney, and was a talented sportsman at school in both basketball and American football, yet he was most successful as a junior in athletics.

Phillips Idowu's success continued in 2000, when he was ranked in the top 10 triple jumpers in the world and placed sixth in the 2000 Olympic Games.

In 2012, Phillips Idowu defeated world champion Christian Taylor at a Diamond League meeting in Shanghai.

Phillips Idowu's aim was to return to form in 2004 to compete at the Olympic Games in Athens.

In March 2006, Phillips Idowu triumphed at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, winning gold.

In 2007, in the absence of world leader Christian Olsson, Phillips Idowu beat compatriot Nathan Douglas to gold in the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

On 9 March 2008, Phillips Idowu won his first world title, taking the gold medal at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain.

Phillips Idowu took silver in the men's triple jump at the 2008 Beijing Olympics behind World Champion Nelson Evora after arriving at the games as the favourite.

Phillips Idowu missed the start of the 2009 athletics season due to a knee injury.

Phillips Idowu was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours "for services to athletics".

Phillips Idowu was battling for fitness coming into the 2012 Summer Olympics in his native London, and had not jumped competitively for nearly three months.

Phillips Idowu struggled and could not make it past the qualifying round of the triple jump, ending his hopes of a medal.

However, Phillips Idowu returned to top-level international competition at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting in May 2014, after a spell of training and competition in Australia.

Aged 36 in 2014, Phillips Idowu has not competed internationally since that season.

Phillips Idowu was educated at Brunel University London, where he studied sports sciences.

Phillips Idowu is known to the public for his eccentric personality, sporting a variety of hair colours, an array of facial piercings and trademark booming laugh.

In 2013, Phillips Idowu joined Jack Dee, Dara O Briain, Greg James, Melanie C and Chelsee Healey in Through Hell and High Water, a Comic Relief challenge which involved British celebrities canoeing the most difficult rapids of the Zambezi River.

Phillips Idowu appeared in the 2013 edition of Celebrity MasterChef, being eliminated in the second round.

In 2013 Phillips Idowu was banned from driving for two years and ordered to complete 50 hours community service after being caught drink driving by police.