Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nickname | Lizzie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Manila, Philippines | 4 October 1994||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | Great Britain & N.I. England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | 3000 metres steeplechase | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal bests | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bird (born 4 October 1994) [1] is a British athlete who specializes in the 3000 metres steeplechase. She won the silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and bronze medals at the 2022 and 2024 European Athletics Championships.
Bird is the current British record-holder in the 3000 m steeplechase with a time of 9:04.35. She is a three-time (2021, 2022 and 2024) British national champion.
Bird began running in St Albans, and her first club was Hertfordshire Phoenix Athletic Club. [2] She studied at Princeton University, graduating in Public and International Affairs in 2017. She was an NCAA Honorable Mention All-America honoree in the steeplechase in 2015 and was a four-time NCAA Regional qualifier. Bird was a two-time Ivy League champion in the steeplechase and part of the 4x800 m team that won a conference title in 2017 as well as being the Ivy League cross country champion in 2015. [3]
Bird competed in the women's 3000 m steeplechase event at the 2019 World Athletics Championships and did not advance from the heats clocking a personal best of 9:30.13. [4]
Having qualified for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in her specialist event, she reached the final after finishing fifth in her heat. [5] In the final Bird broke the national record with a time of 9:19.68, placing ninth. [1]
In July 2022, she did not qualify for the final at the World Athletics Championships held in Eugene, Oregon in a time of 9:23.17. About three weeks later, Bird won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022 in a personal best of 9:17.79. [1] She set new lifetime best and a British record of 9:07.87 at the Monaco Diamond League five days later. [6] Also in August, she earned a bronze at the European Athletics Championships in Munich, clocking 9:23.18. [1]
She won a second European bronze medal in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome. [7] Bird was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics [8] where she finished seventh setting a new national record time of 9:04.35. [9]
Bird studied for a master's degree in International Studies at the University of San Francisco between 2017 and 2018 but deferred a place at law school in Boulder, Colorado in order to focus on the 2020 Summer Olympics. She has been involved in advocacy and support for human rights organisation Detention Action. [2]
Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova is a Russian runner. She is a former specialist in the 3000 metres steeplechase, and won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She later moved up to marathon and won the Olympic bronze medal in that event at the 2012 London Games.
Elizabeth Hall is a former international British athlete competing as a 3000m cross country runner and steeplechaser.
Emma Jane Coburn is an American middle-distance runner who specializes in the 3000-meters steeplechase. She holds the distinction of being a world champion, world silver medalist, Olympic bronze medalist, three-time Olympian and 10-time US National Champion in the steeplechase.
Minori Hayakari (早狩実紀) is a Japanese track and field athlete who specialises in the 3000 metres steeplechase. Her personal best of 9:33.93 minutes is the Japanese record and she has won straight Japanese national titles since the first event in 2005, taking her sixth title in 2011.
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.
Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal is a Norwegian middle-, long-distance and steeplechase runner. She is a European Championships gold medallist in half marathon, silver medallist in 5000 metres and bronze medallist in 10,000 metres and 3000 metres steeplechase. Grøvdal is a four-time Olympian and represented Norway at the 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.
Luiza Gega is an Albanian middle- and long-distance runner who specialises in the 3000 metres steeplechase since 2016.
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Laura Muir is a Scottish middle- and long-distance runner. She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist in the 1500 metres, having previously finished seventh in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Muir won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships, and has three other top five placings in 1500 m finals at the World Athletics Championships, finishing fifth in 2015, fourth in 2017 and fifth in 2019. She is a two-time European 1500 m champion from 2018 and 2022 as well as the 2022 Commonwealth Games 1500 m champion and 800 metres bronze medallist.
Daryll Saskia Neita is a British sprinter. She won a silver medal in the 200 metres at the 2024 European Championships along with bronze in the 100 metres at the 2022 European Championships, 2022 Commonwealth Games and in the 60 metres at the 2023 European Indoor Championships. She has also won several medals as part of Great Britain 4 × 100 m relay teams, including an Olympic silver medal in 2024 and bronze medals in 2016 and 2021, World Championships silver medals in 2017 and 2019 and European gold in 2018.
Beatrice Chepkoech Sitonik is a Kenyan long-distance runner who specialises in the 3000 metres steeplechase. She won gold medals at the 2019 World Championships and 2018 African Championships and silver medal at the 2023 World Championships. In the 1500 metres, Chepkoech took silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 2015 African Games. She is the world record holder for the 3000 m steeplechase with a time of 8:44.32 set in 2018 in Monaco. With that mark she became the first woman to break the 8:50 and 8:45 barriers in the event.
Peruth Chemutai is a Ugandan steeplechase runner. She won the gold medal in the women's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, becoming the first Ugandan woman ever to win an Olympic medal. She added a silver medal in this event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Laviai Nielsen is a British sprinter specialising in the 400 metres.
Winfred Mutile Yavi is a Kenyan-born Bahraini female athlete who specialises in the 3000 metres steeplechase. Currently the second fastest athlete in history at the distance with a personal best of 8:44.39, she won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, setting a new Olympic record. Yavi hails from Ukia, Makueni County. She won the gold medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships beating Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya and finished fourth at both the 2019 and 2022 World Athletics Championships. Yavi won the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games. She took bronze in the 1500 metres, gold in the 5000 metres and gold for the 3000 m steeplechase at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships.
Amy-Eloise Neale OLY is a British middle- and long-distance runner. She won the gold medal in the 3000 metres at the 2021 European Indoor Championships.
Elinor Purrier St. Pierre, better known as Elle Purrier St. Pierre, is an American track and field athlete who specializes in middle-distance and long-distance running. She won a gold medal in the 3000 meters at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow. Purrier is a two-time Olympian for the United States, making the final in the 1500m at both the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.
Nadia Battocletti is an Italian female middle- and long-distance runner. She won the gold medal in the 5000 m and 10000 m races at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Battocletti won a silver medal in the 10,000 m and placed fourth in the 5000 m race.
Phil Norman is an English athlete specialising in the 3000 metres steeplechase.
Mark Pearce is a British long distance runner. In 2021 he became the British champion in the 3000 metres steeplechase.
Eilish Flanagan is an Irish long distance runner. She competed in the 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2020 Olympics.