paula radcliffe

Paula Jane Radcliffe (December 17, 1973) is an English long-distance runner and is currently the World Record holder for the women's marathon, which she set during the 2003 London Marathon, with a time of 2:15.25.

Background Info

Paula Radcliffe was born in Northwich, Cheshire and studied modern languages at Loughborough University. Radcliffe is not known for her sprint finish, and so to win a race must attack and leave her competitors behind, as was seen in the 10,000 metres at the 2000 Olympic Games when she finished fourth despite leading for 24 laps out of 25. She also holds the world records for 10, 20 and 30km on roads. She twice won gold at the World Cross-Country championships (in 2001 and 2002), and in December 2003 became European Cross-Country champion for the second time, the only woman to have achieved this feat in the event's ten-year history. Forced out of the Paris World Athletics Championships because of injury in 2003, her greatest moment on the track has been European gold at 10,000m in 2002. She has proved herself an incredible runner at distances as low as 5000m, too, running 14:31.42, just three seconds behind the world record, to win gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. She was awarded an MBE in June 2002, and later in the year became the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

2004 Athens Olympics

Radcliffe was the favourite to win the gold medal in the marathon at the 2004 Olympic Games. However, she suffered an injury to her leg just two weeks prior. Being just a few weeks away from the Olympics, it was a race for fitness and after days of intensive physiotherapy and treatment, the injury still wasn't shifting. Eventually the pain stopped, but to keep the swelling at bay she was put on a strong course of anti-inflammatories. Unfortunately, because of the high dosage, these had an adverse effect on her stomach and food was being passed through her without being absorbed. Therefore, she had no energy or carbohydrates in her system before embarking on the race, but she didn't want to give in. After 10km of the race, she began getting stomach cramps and her body had started to break itself down during the race in order to use up whatever energy she had left. At the 36km mark, she literally had nothing left in her body to give and was forced to withdraw, utterly devastated. Five days later, she started in the 10,000m but still suffering from the effects of the marathon, was forced to retire with 8 laps remaining. At the time of this race, her stomach had recovered but it was her ankle injury which gave her problems in this race, as it couldn't withstand the tempo needed in which to run a fast-paced race. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't a matter of dehydration - tests afterwards showed that her body was fully hydrated. It was simply a case of complete energy expenditure. She made a strong comeback in her next competitive marathon, winning the 2004 New York Marathon in a time of 2 hours 23 minutes 10 seconds after a close finish during which she took a decisive lead over Kenya's Susan Chepkemei only at the very end.

Anti Doping

Her athletic ability and commitment to training are accompanied by a strong belief in playing by the rules. She has frequently made high-profile condemnations of performance-enhancing drugs in athletics, most famously at the World Athletics Championships in Edmonton in 2001 when Radcliffe and team-mate Hayley Tullett held up a sign protesting against the reinstatement of Russian athlete Olga Yegarova, after Yegarova had tested positive for the banned substance EPO. Radcliffe also wears a red ribbon when competing to show her support for blood testing as a method of catching drugs cheats.