Sebastian Coe, Baron Coe
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The Right Honourable Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, OBE (born 29 September 1956) is a British athlete, and Conservative Party politician. He was the head of London's winning bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Coe won four Olympic medals and set eight world records in middle distance track events. His rivalries with fellow Britons Steve Ovett and Steve Cram dominated middle-distance racing for much of the 1980s.
Coe was born in West London, but was brought up in Sheffield attending Tapton and Abbeydale Grange schools. He joined athletics team Hallamshire Harriers at the age of 12, and quickly became a middle-distance specialist.
He was coached by his father, Peter Coe, who designed workouts specifically for his son.
Coe studied economics and social history at Loughborough University and won his first major race in 1977 - an 800-metre event at the European indoor championships in San Sebastián, Spain.
He first ran against Ovett in a schools cross country race in 1972. Neither won, nor did they in their first major encounter in the European Championships Prague in 1978 in an 800 metre race. The next year in Oslo, Norway, Coe set his first world records (in the 800-metre and mile races). Later that year, he set the world 1500 metre record in Zurich, Switzerland. The most famous races between Ovett and Coe were in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, where each won the other's speciality, Ovett the 800 metres, and Coe the 1500 metres, handing Ovett his first defeat at either one mile or 1500 metres in three years and 45 races.
Coe set world records in the 800 metre and 1,000 metre races in 1981. His world record of 1:41.73 in the 800-metres remained unbeaten until August 1997 when it was tied and then broken by Wilson Kipketer.
Coe returned to the Olympics in 1984. He took silver in the 800-metres and gold in the 1500-metres. The latter made him the only person to win the distance twice.
One scene in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire (though filmed in Eton College not Trinity) recreates a race in which the runners attempt to round the perimeter of the Great Court at Trinity College, Cambridge in the time it takes the clock to double strike the hour at midday or midnight. Many have tried to run the 367 metres around the court in the 43 seconds that it takes to strike 12 o'clock. Known as the Great Court Run, students traditionally attempt to complete the circuit on the evening of the Matriculation Dinner. The only people believed to have actually completed the run in time are Lord Burghley in 1927 and Sebastian Coe when he beat Steve Cram in a charity race in October 1988.
Coe was appointed an MBE in 1982 and an OBE in 1990.
Coe became Member of Parliament for Falmouth and Camborne in 1992, for the Conservative Party, but lost his seat in the 1997 general election. He was created a life peer in 2000 as Baron Coe, of Ranmore in the County of Surrey.
When London announced its bid to hold the 2012 Olympics, Coe became an ambassador for the effort and a member of the board of the bid company. With the May 2004 resignation of chairman Barbara Cassani, Coe became the chairman for the latter phase of the bid. As Coe was a well-known personality in Olympic sport, it was felt he was better suited to the political schmoozing needed to secure the IOC's backing. Coe's presentation at the critical IOC meeting in July 2005 was viewed by commentators as being particularly effective, and the bid won the IOC's blessing on July 6.
In May 2004 at the High Court, Lord Coe failed to stop two Sunday newspapers publishing details of a woman's claims of a ten-year affair in which she became pregnant by him and had an abortion.
Personal bests
| DISTANCE | MARK | DATE |
| 400m | 46.87 | 1979 |
| 800m | 1:41.73 | 1981 |
| 1000m | 2:12.18 | 1981 |
| 1500m | 3:29.77 | 1988 |
| Mile | 3:47.33 | 1981 |
| 2000m | 4:58.84 | 1982 |
See also
External links
- Sebastian Coe Profile: Made In Sheffield
- Guardian profile of Sebastian Coe
- Sebastian Coe has revamped London's bid for the 2012 Olympics
- Sebastian Coe promises Olympics to remember
- Sebastian Coe greatest race: the 2012 Olympics
- Why London won the games: The Sebastian Coe factor
| Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Olympic Champions in Men's 1500 m |
|---|
|
Teddy Flack | Charles Bennett | Jim Lightbody (twice) | Mel Sheppard | Arnold Jackson | Albert Hill | Paavo Nurmi | Harry Larva | Luigi Beccali | Jack Lovelock | Henry Eriksson | Josy Barthel | Ron Delany | Herb Elliott | Peter Snell | Kip Keino | Pekka Vasala | John Walker | Sebastian Coe (twice) | Peter Rono | Fermín Cacho | Noureddine Morceli | Noah Ngeny | Hicham El Guerrouj |
| Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Post-war British Olympic champions in men's athletics |
| 1956 Chris Brasher (3000 m steeplechase) | 1960 Don Thompson (50 km walk) | 1964 Ken Matthews (20 km walk) | 1964 Lynn Davies (long jump) 1968 David Hemery (400 m hurdles) 1980: Allan Wells (100 m) | 1980 Steve Ovett (800 m) | 1980 & 1984 Sebastian Coe (1500 m) | 1980 & 1984 Daley Thompson (decathlon) | 1992 Linford Christie (100 m) | 2000 Jonathan Edwards (triple jump) | 2004 Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish & Mark Lewis-Francis (4 x 100 m relay) |
| Preceded by: Steve Ovett |
BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1979 |
Succeeded by: Robin Cousins |
