British Women Athletes

Jessica Ennis-Hill is a British retired track and field athlete. She specialized in multi-eventing disciplines and 100 meters hurdles. In 2012, she won an Olympic gold in the heptathlon. She was introduced to sports as a young girl and immediately took an interest in athletics. She has won several other titles as well in addition to her Olympic gold. 

Kelly Holmes is a retired English middle-distance athlete who specialized in the 800 meters and 1,500 meters events. She won gold medals for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Beginning her career with the British Army, she turned to professional athletics in 1993. She took part in her final major championship in 2004. 

Paula Radcliffe is a retired distance runner, credited with winning the London Marathon and the New York Marathon three times each. Born into an athletic family, she emerged as a running talent by the time she was in her teens, winning the world junior cross-country title at the age of nineteen, eventually. She held the Women's World Marathon Record from 2003 to 2019.

Christine Ohuruogu is a British athlete who has won an Olympic gold medal, two World Championships, and a Commonwealth gold medal in the 400m event. She also has an Olympic silver medal and a couple of bronze medals under her belt. In 2016, she became the second British track and field athlete to win Olympic medals at three consecutive Games.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is an English heptathlete whose performance at the 2018 Commonwealth Games earned her a gold medal. She also won the gold at the 2019 World Championships. Katarina Johnson-Thompson holds the British record for the women's pentathlon with 5,000 points. A highly talented athlete, Katarina Johnson-Thompson also holds the British records for high jump in both outdoors and indoors.

Mary Peters is a Northern Irish former athlete who specialized in the pentathlon and shot put. She was athletic from a young age and received encouragement from her father to pursue her passion. She represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the Summer Olympics in 1972 and won the gold medal in the women's pentathlon.  

Denise Lewis is a British sports commentator and former athlete. She won the heptathlon gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and became the first European to win Olympic gold in the heptathlon. A two-time Commonwealth Games champion, Lewis also won silver medals in the 1997 and 1999 World Championships. She was also the 1998 European Champion. 

Stefanie Reid is a track and field para athlete. She represented Canada at the 2008 Paralympic Games, where she won a bronze medal. She then represented Great Britain at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games, winning a silver medal in both the events. Stefanie Reid has also won a gold medal at the 2014 European Championships and 2017 World Championships.

With her 2007 World Youth Championship win, former junior gymnast and sprinter Asha Philip became first British female athlete to earn a global 100m title. A double mini trampoline world junior champion, she also boasts of a drama degree. She has won relay bronze medals in the Rio and Tokyo Olympics.

Winner of 16 Paralympic medals, including 11 golds, Tanni Grey-Thompson is a former wheelchair racer, who won the London Marathon six times and held more than 30 world records. Also a successful television personality and patron of numerous charities, she was created a Life Peer in 2010 and made Baroness Grey-Thompson of Eaglescliffe in Stockton-On-Tees.

Former track and field athlete Fiona May initially represented the UK and then Italy in long jump. She has two Olympic silver medals to her credit and is a three-time World Champion. Her daughter, Larissa Iapichino, too is an athlete, who specializes in hurdles and long jump.

British adventurer Sarah Outen became the first female and the youngest person to complete a solo rowing expedition across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. She has set 3 Guinness World Records, penned books such as Dare to Do, and inspired others through her motivational speeches.

Apart from winning a Commonwealth Games gold, middle-distance runner Lisa Dobriskey also has a World Championship silver in her kitty. Before the London 2012 games, she recovered from severe blood clots in her lungs. In her Olympic debut in Beijing in 2008, she finished fourth, missing a medal narrowly.

British-born sprinter Charlotte Wingfield showed her interest in sports when she began beating the boys at her school in racing. Unable to gain British representation in the sport, she relied on her father’s Maltese heritage and got a Maltese citizenship. She eventually represented Malta in the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Triathlete, Olympian, and former swimmer Jodie Swallow is a two-time ITU Long Distance World Champion. She once moved to Switzerland to train to gain a place in the 2012 London Olympics. Though she likes mountain biking for training, she calls herself a homebody and often spends her days relaxing at home.