Famous Scottish Athletes

Eilish McColgan is a British middle-distance athlete. She competes in the 3000 meters steeplechase and 5000 meters. She represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games and the 2016 Olympic Games. She won the Great South Run in Portsmouth in 2018. She has a degree in mathematics and accountancy from the University of Dundee. 

Alastair Denniston was a Scottish code breaker and hockey player. He was deputy head of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) from 1919 to 1942. As a member of the Scottish Olympic hockey team in 1908, he won a bronze medal. He worked as a code breaker during the war years. He taught French and Latin following his retirement. 

Olympic silver medalist Liz McColgan had apparently started training at age 12. The former British track and field athlete secured her first major win representing the University of Alabama at the NCAA Indoor Mile Championship. She is also two-time Commonwealth winner, apart from being a one-time world champion.

Jemma Reekie is lauded for her meteoric rise in the Scottish running circuit. The 2017 European Junior champion scored a double win at the 2019 European U-23 Championships. She holds multiple British indoor records and was placed fourth in the 800m category in her Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo games.

Scottish runner Laura Muir scripted history by becoming the first athlete to earn 2 golds at 2 consecutive events at any European Indoor Championship. Not known to many, she is also a trained vet. She also won a silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Surprisingly, her clean diet bars coffee.

A physical therapist, masseur, and sports official, Jock Semple became a global villain of sorts after he attacked marathon runner Kathrine Switzer, attempting to rip off her numbers, at the 1967 Boston Marathon. Semple believed the Marathon specified women weren’t allowed, whereas Switzer claimed the rules mentioned no gender.