Mark Lewis-Francis

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Olympic medal record
Men's Athletics
Gold	2004 Athens	4 x 100m relay

Mark Lewis-Francis (born September 4, 1982 in Darlaston) is an English sprint athlete, regarded as the top 100m sprinter in the United Kingdom. He is an Olympic gold medalist, having been part of the 4x100m relay team at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Lewis-Francis burst onto the scene at an early age, but missed the 2000 Summer Olympics, instead competing at the world junior championships, in which he won gold. Lewis-Francis became Britain's top 100m sprinter after Dwain Chambers was banned for drug use in 2003. He failed to make the final of the 100 metres sprint at the 2004 Summer Olympics, but did run the final leg of the 4x100 metres, which Great Britain narrowly won by virtue of better baton hand-overs than the American favourites who finished second by 0.01 seconds outside the winning time of 38.07 seconds. The gold medal team consisted of Lewis-Francis, Marlon Devonish, Darren Campbell and Jason Gardener.

Other than Olympic and World relay success, however, he has consistently performed badly in championships.

In 2001 Lewis-Francis won his quarter-final heat in an amazing time of 9.97 seconds. This is a phenomenal time considering that he was only 19 years old at that time. No other athlete has even come close to running as fast as Lewis-Francis did as a teenager. Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell are both exactly the same age as Lewis-Francis, yet at the time Lewis-Francis was considered the better athlete by some margin. He was an amazing talent, and it was considered by many that a world record was inevitable.

Yet, astonishingly, Lewis Francis has actually become slower as he has moved into his twenties. Although athletes peak around their late 20s in the sprints, Lewis-Francis seemed to peak in his late teens. He has turned down numerous invitations to train with the top sprinters like Justin Gatlin in America, and prefers to stay living in England on the grounds that he would get 'home-sick.' However he did leave his home town of Birmingham in 2005 to move to Eton and train with a new coach.

Lewis-Francis tested positive for cannabis after the European Indoor Championships in Madrid, Spain on 5 March, 2005, and was stripped of the silver medal he won at that event. According to the British Olympic Association (BOA) rules, this rendered him ineligible for selection to future Olympic Games. In 2006, UK Athletics, the governing body of Athletics in the UK, accepted that cannabis had not been taken to enhance performance, and the BOA cleared him to compete in future games. [1]

[edit] External links

• IAAF profile for Mark Lewis-Francis

Olympic champions in men's 4×100 m relay
1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004
2004 Great Britain Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish & Mark Lewis-Francis

Post-war British Olympic champions in men's athletics

1956: Chris Brasher (3000 m steeplechase) | 1960: Don Thompson (50 km walk) | 1964: Ken Matthews (20 km walk) | 1964: Lynn Davies (long jump) | 1968: David Hemery (400 m hurdles) 1980: Allan Wells (100 m) | 1980: Steve Ovett (800 m) | 1980 & 1984: Sebastian Coe (1500 m) | 1980 & 1984: Daley Thompson (decathlon) | 1992: Linford Christie (100 m) | 2000: Jonathan Edwards (triple jump) | 2004: Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish & Mark Lewis-Francis (4 x 100 m relay)