Iwan Gwyn Thomas is a Welsh sprinter who represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Olympic Games in the 400 metres, and Wales at the Commonwealth Games. Thomas is a former European, Commonwealth Games and World champion.
Mara Rosalind Yamauchi is a British long-distance track and road running athlete. She currently holds the third fastest time by a British woman over the marathon, behind former world-record holder, Paula Radcliffe.
The Cardiff Half Marathon is an annual half marathon race held in the Welsh capital city of Cardiff, taking place in October. The event was established in 2003, initially alongside the Cardiff Marathon, however, due to the increasing popularity of the Half Marathon, the Marathon distance was dropped after 2006. The race was originally organised by the children’s charity Barnardo’s. Now organised by Run 4 Wales, the race has grown to accommodate up to 27,500 runners.
Sport in Wales plays a prominent role in Welsh culture. Like the other countries of the United Kingdom, Wales enjoys independent representation in major world sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup and in the Rugby World Cup, but competes as part of Great Britain in some other competitions, including the Olympics.
Sport in Cardiff is dictated by, amongst other things, its position as the capital city of Wales, meaning that national home sporting fixtures are nearly always played in the city. All of Wales' multi-sports agencies and many of the country's sports governing bodies have their headquarters in Cardiff and the city's many top-quality venues have attracted world-famous sport events, sometimes unrelated to Cardiff or to Wales.
Gareth Warburton is a Welsh middle-distance runner originally from Caernarfon. He specializes in the 800 metres. Warburton finished fourth in the 800m at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He has represented Great Britain on numerous occasions. He was also a member of the Great Britain team at the London Olympics in 2012. He was selected as part of the Welsh squad for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, however he was suspended shortly before the start of the Games after he was charged with a violation of anti-doping rules. In January 2015 UK Anti-Doping accepted that his positive test was due to taking a contaminated supplement and that he had not knowingly cheated, and gave him a six-month suspension, which was covered by the time he had been suspended since the Commonwealth Games. He is the current Welsh record holder for the 800m.
Eilish McColgan is a Scottish middle- and long-distance runner. She is the 2022 Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres champion with the Games record, and 5000 metres silver medallist. McColgan is a four-time European Championships medallist, winning silver medals for the 5000 m in 2018 and 10,000 m in 2022, bronze in the 5000 m in 2022, and a bronze for the indoor 3000 metres in 2017. She is the European record holder for the 10 km road race, and the British record holder for the 5000 m, 10,000 m, 5 km and half marathon. She also holds the European best in the 10 miles on the roads.
Athletics has a long history in Wales, with many events recognised today codified during the Victorian period. The first amateur athletic clubs in Wales were formed in the 1870s, while the first championships began in the early 20th century. Wales began competing as a country in international athletic events in the 1920s and has since produced a notable number of world class sportspeople including many medal winning Commonwealth, World, Olympic, Paralympic and European champions. Wales competes in the Commonwealth Games under its own flag but at the Olympic Games, Welsh athletes compete alongside those of Scotland, England and Northern Ireland as part of a Great Britain team.
Sally Peake is a British track and field athlete who specialises in the pole vault. She has a personal best of 4.40 m for the event, which is a Welsh record. She was the silver medallist in the pole vault at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Lauren Louise Price is a Welsh professional boxer, former amateur boxer and former kickboxer and footballer. While representing Wales in the amateur sport she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, becoming the first Welsh woman to win a Commonwealth Games boxing medal. Four years later she surpassed this achievement by winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, followed by a gold at the 2019 World Championships. While representing Great Britain, she won gold medals at the 2019 European Games and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Kevin Seaward is a Northern Irish marathon runner from Belfast and an assistant headteacher at a school in Leicestershire. Seaward was part of the Ireland team at the 2016 Summer Olympics and achieved 64th place with a time of 2:20:06, and holds a personal best in the event with a 2:10:09 that he ran at the 2020 Seville Marathon.
Mica Moore is a British women's sprinter and bobsleigher. She competed for Wales in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, and competed in the 2-women bobsleigh event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Anna Hursey is a Welsh table tennis player. She is thought to be the youngest person to represent Wales at senior level in any sport, having been aged just 10 when she competed for Wales in a European Championship qualification match against Kosovo in 2017.
Melissa Courtney-Bryant is a British middle- and long-distance runner. She won the bronze medal in the 1500 metres at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and bronze for the 3000 metres at the 2019 and 2023 European Indoor Championships.
Cardiff parkrun is a parkrun event that takes place every Saturday morning at 9am in Cardiff, Wales. The parkrun was the first in Wales and has become the second largest in the UK. The run was started on 16 Feb 2008 and celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2018 with its largest ever attendance.
Jess Piasecki is a British long-distance runner. She competed in the senior women's race at the 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships held in Aarhus, Denmark. She finished in 36th place.
Clara Evans is an elite British long-distance runner who has represented Great Britain and Wales. She is a member of Pontypridd Rodents Athletics Club and the Welsh Endurance Squad.
Natasha Cockram is a Welsh marathon runner.
Adele Nicoll is a British shot putter, discus thrower and bobsledder. She has won multiple Welsh Athletics Championships events, and won the shot put event at the 2022 British Athletics Championships. She came second in the 2021–22 Bobsleigh World Cup event in Sigulda, Latvia alongside Mica McNeill. Nicoll was a reserve for the 2022 Winter Olympics, and competed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Hannah Brier is a British sprinter who won the 200 metres event at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships. She competed at the 2014 and 2022 Commonwealth Games.
