Derek Redmond

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medal record
Men’s Athletics
Competitor for United Kingdom
World Championships
Gold	1991 Tokyo	4x400 m relay
Silver	1987 Rome	4x400 m relay

Derek Redmond (born September 3, 1965 in Bletchley) is a retired English athlete. He currently works as a motivational speaker. He was educated at Roade School, Northamptonshire, where he has a multi-use sports hall named after him.

As a 400 metres and 4 x 400 metres runner, he won gold medals at the European, Commonwealth, and World Championships. His career highlights included a fifth place finish over 400 m at the 1987 World Championships and a 1991 World Championships 4x400 m gold medal.

However, disappointment came at the 1992 Summer Olympics in the 400m race. He posted the fastest time of the first round, and won his quarter-final. In the semi-final, Redmond started well, but in the back straight about 250m from the finish, his hamstring tore. Redmond hobbled to a halt, and then fell to the ground, in extreme pain. As stretcher bearers made their way over to him, he knew he wanted to finish the race. He began to hobble along the track, with pain etched upon his face. He was soon joined on the track by his father, Jim Redmond, who had supported Derek for his whole career. Jim shocked the world by barging past security to get to his son. Shortly before the line, Jim let go of his son, and he completed the race, with a standing ovation from the crowd of 65,000. Unfortunately, since his father had helped him finish, Derek was disqualified from even listing as finishing.^[1]^[2]

After he finished his race, sitting alone under the stands, Redmond was approached by Linford Christie, the 100-meter gold-medal winner. The two British runners had never liked each other. They rarely spoke. This time, Christie put his arms around Redmond. Both men cried. "He has a heart," Redmond said. "I've changed my views of him completely." ^[3]

Redmond later became the subject of one of the IOC's 'celebrate humanity' videos. The video featured his struggle in the 1992 Olympic semi-final.

In 1994 he won the Celebrity Gladiators, and during the first four series of Gladiators (1992-1996) he served as Assistant Referee to John Anderson.

In 2008 Redmond was featured in a Visa advertisement promoting the Olympic Games. The advertisement highlights the 1992 injury. The advertisement emphasized the fact that both he finished "dead last", but that he did indeed finish with the aid of his father. However, the Olympic results list that he "Did Not Finish" and remains unranked.

Derek Redmond was formerly married to the British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies.