Sally Gunnell

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Medal record
Olympic Games
Women's Athletics
Gold 1992 Barcelona 400 m hurdles
Bronze 1992 Barcelona 4 x 400 m
Goodwill Games
Women's Athletics
Gold 1998 New York 400 m hurdles
Commonwealth Games
Competitor for England
Gold 1986 Edinburgh 100 m hurdles
Gold 1990 Auckland 400 m hurdles
Silver 1990 Auckland 100m hurdles
Gold 1994 Victoria 400 m hurdles
World Championships
Silver 1991 Tokyo 400 m hurdles
Gold 1993 Stuttgart 400 m hurdles
IAAF World Cup
Gold 1994 London 400 m hurdles
European Championships
Gold 1994 Helsinki 400 m hurdles
European Cup
Gold 1989 Gateshead 400 m
Gold 1991 Frankfurt 400 m hurdles
Gold 1993 Rome 400 m hurdles
Gold 1994 Birmingham 400 m hurdles
European Indoor Championships
Gold 1989 The Hague 400 m

Sally Jane Janet Gunnell, OBE (born July 29, 1966 in Chigwell, Essex, England) was an Olympic champion in the 400m hurdles. She has also worked as a television presenter predominantly for the BBC until January 2006.

Gunnell started out in athletics with the Essex Ladies club as an accomplished long jumper and pentathlete before turning to the sprints and hurdling and is the only woman to have held the European, World, Commonwealth and Olympic 400 metre hurdles titles at the same time.

Gunnell won the 400m hurdles at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona. She set the world record in the same event when she won gold in the 1993 World Championships. This record was broken by Kim Batten in 1995. Her defence of her Olympic title in Atlanta in 1996 was cut short as she pulled up in one of her races, injured. This seemed a particularly cruel blow as this race occurred on her 30th birthday.

In 1996 Sally worked as a Red Cross ambassador in Angola. In September 1997 Sally retired after a recurrence of an achilles tendon injury.

In 1998 Sally was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

In summer 2006, she was a celebrity showjumper in the BBC's Sport Relief event Only Fools on Horses.

She is married to fellow athlete Jonathan Bigg and has two children.

Olympic champions in women's 400 m hurdles
1984: Nawal El Moutawakel | 1988: Debbie Flintoff-King | 1992: Sally Gunnell | 1996: Deon Hemmings | 2000: Irina Privalova | 2004: Fani Halkia 


British Olympic champions in women's athletics
1964: Mary Rand (long jump) | 1964: Ann Packer (800 m) | 1972: Mary Peters (pentathlon) | 1984: Tessa Sanderson (javelin) | 1992: Sally Gunnell (400 m hurdles) | 2000: Denise Lewis (heptathlon) | 2004: Kelly Holmes (800 m & 1500 m)
In other languages