Denise Lewis
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Denise Lewis |
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| Women's Athletics | |||
Competitor for  United Kingdom |
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| Olympic Games | |||
| Gold | 2000 Sydney | Heptathlon | |
| Bronze | 1996 Atlanta | Heptathlon | |
| World Championships | |||
| Silver | 1997 Athens | Heptathlon | |
| Silver | 1999 Sevilla | Heptathlon | |
| Commonwealth Games | |||
| Gold | 1994 Victoria | Heptathlon | |
| Gold | 1998 Kuala Lumpur | Heptathlon | |
| European Championships | |||
| Gold | 1998 Budapest | Heptathlon | |
Denise Lewis OBE (born August 27, 1972, in West Bromwich, England) is a British athlete who specialises in the heptathlon. Her greatest triumph was winning the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
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[edit] Athletic career
[edit] 2000 Olympics
Saturday September 23 was the date of the start of the 2000 Summer Olympics heptathlon. In the first event Lewis recorded 13.23 seconds for the 100 m hurdles to lie second behind the reigning world champion Eunice Barber who had finished in 12.97, the astonishing news was the withdrawal of reigning Olympic champion Ghada Shouaa who had pulled out after only 20 metres of her heat. This have increased her confidence but after a dreadful high jump of only 1.75 m, some way off her personal best, she free fell down the leader board to 8th place some 152 points behind Barber who had increased her lead. Fighting back in the next event the shot put recording 15.55 m Lewis leap frogged over Barber whose 11.27 m saw her now lying 8th with Natalya Sazanovich taking the lead ahead of Lewis in 2nd by just 30 points who herself lay a mere 45 points ahead of the former world champion Sabine Braun. The final event of day one was less sensational with the only major turnaround being the jump from 6th to 2nd by Natalya Roschupkina of Russia with Sabine Braun sliding down to 6th.
The scoreboard at the finish of day one being:
- Natalya Sazanovich BLR 3903;
- Natalya Roshchupkina RUS 3872;
- Denise Lewis GBR 3852;
- Urszula Wlodarczyk POL 3805;
- Yelena Prokhorova RUS 3771;
- Sabine Braun GER 3770;
- Eunice Barber FRA 3707;
- Karin Specht-Ertl GER 3697
Day two started with a close long jump Yelena Prokhorova landing marginally further than both Sazanovich and Lewis. Roshchupkina's stay near the top had been brief as she fell back down to 8th and a clearly struggling Eunice Barber having to withdraw after event five.
Event six was the javelin and Lewis pulled out a throw of 50.19 m and with her closest rivals some way further back she leapt into 1st with Sazanovich 63 points behind in 2nd with Prokhorova in 3rd a further 83 points away.
With just the final leg left, the 800 m, Lewis knew exactly what she had to do. In far from ideal conditions she kept her eye on the distances between the main contenders but Prokhorova pulled away to win the heat convincingly and when Lewis crossed the line behind Sazanovich also no one was quite sure who had won. Standing exhausted after two days of hard fought competition the athletes had to wait for the stadium announcer to declare that Denise of Great Britain was the winner to join all of the other Olympic medalists in athletics (women) with Yelena Prokhorova finishing second a mere four points ahead of Natalya Sazanovich.
Her achievement was ranked 90th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in 2002.
[edit] 2004 Olympics
Lewis came into defend her Olympic heptathlon in 2004 carrying injuries, but aiming for a bronze medal but had to pull out injured. Team-mate and training partner Kelly Sotherton took bronze.
[edit] Awards and recognition
Alongside Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe, Lewis is one of the current "golden girls" of British athletics and has twice, 1998 and 2000, been runner up in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In 1993 Lewis was put forward as a candidate in the BBC Midlands great midlander of all-time award but lost out to eventual winner Reginald Mitchell the inventor of the Supermarine Spitfire.
Her Commonwealth Record of 6831 points set on July 30 in Talence, France is currently 22nd in the all time list.
[edit] Personal bests
- 100 m hurdles - 13.13 seconds
- 200 m - 24.10 seconds
- 800 m - 2 min 12.20 seconds
- long jump - 6.69 m
- high jump - 1.87 m
- shot put - 16.12 m
- javelin - 51.13 m
- heptathlon - 6831 points
[edit] After athletics
[edit] Strictly Come Dancing
In 2004, Lewis took part in the BBC dancing competition, Strictly Come Dancing. She was partnered alongside professional dancer, Ian Waite and in the first few weeks scored the highest number of points with the judges. She didn't achieve her tongue-in-cheek ambition of a foxtrot round the dance floor with the IOC president, Jacques Rogge. She eventually got to the final and became runner up to actress Jill Halfpenny. After this, she and the two other partners from the final, got to dance at the Royal Variety Performance.
About 10 days after competing in the final of Strictly Come Dancing, Denise and Ian competed again in the Strictly Come Dancing Champion of Champions Special, where the finalists from both series of the contest, competed against each other. Denise received the most points from the judges, however she once again became the runner up of the contest, as Jill Halfpenny won overall.
[edit] Personal life
Denise has two children Lauryn and Ryan and is married to Steve Finan.
[edit] Bibliography
- Personal Best (Denise Lewis) ISBN 0-7126-7737-2
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Sporting positions | ||
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Preceded by Sabine Braun |
Women's Heptathlon Best Year Performance 1998 |
Succeeded by Eunice Barber |
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