Diane Modahl
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Women's Athletics | |||
| Commonwealth Games | |||
Competitor for  England |
|||
| Silver | 1986 Edinburgh | 800m | |
| Gold | 1990 Aukland | 800m | |
| Bronze | 1998 Kuala Lumpur | 800m | |
Diane Modahl, née Edwards (born June 17, 1966) is an English former middle distance runner.
Originally from Manchester, of Jamaican parents, she was the Women's 800 metres champion in the Commonwealth Games of 1990. She also competed in 3 Olympic Games, in 1988 in Seoul, in 1992 in Barcelona and in 2000 in Sydney. In 1994, her career was effectively ended when she was accused of taking the performance-enhancing drug, testosterone. Sent home in disgrace from the Commonwealth Games in Canada she later received a four-year ban. Partly due to Modahl's known religious beliefs, her fellow athletes were reluctant to believe her guilty and she has always professed her innocence. She is quoted as saying "I have declared my innocence, I have never taken any banned substance".[1]
In 1995, the British Athletic Federation lifted the ban after doubts were cast on the medical findings, but it took a further year for Modahl to clear her name. The claims that she had 42 times more testosterone than normal were dismissed due to the mishandling of her urine sample in a Portuguese laboratory. She had to wait until March 1996 when the IAAF also accepted the report and cleared her to compete internationally. Later that year she returned to competition, and in 1998 won the 800m bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
In 2004, she appeared in the third series of the reality TV show, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.
[edit] References
- IAAF profile for Diane Modahl
