Jonathan Mark England OBE (born 29 April 1959 [1] ) is a British sports administrator. He was awarded an OBE in 2017 for services to Sport. [2]
England was born in Ystalyfera in South Wales (Neath Port Talbot). He moved to Hong Kong when he was seven, attending Glenealy Junior School, and the Island School.
On his return to the UK, he attended Kenilworth Grammar School (became Kenilworth School), and South Warwickshire College of Further Education (since 1993 Stratford-upon-Avon College) in Stratford-upon-Avon.
He studied economic history at the University of Leeds, graduating in 1981. He then undertook a Diploma in Management Studies (DMS) in recreation at the University of North London, followed by a master's degree in leisure and tourism from the same university.
He has worked with the Sports Council (now called UK Sport) and Sport England.
He was chef de mission of Team GB at the 2016 Olympics, being appointed on 29 April 2014. [3] He was also chef de Mission for Team GB for the 2015 European Games (the inaugural European Games), and a deputy chef de Mission at six previous Olympic games.
He was awarded the OBE for services to Sport in the 2017 New Year Honours having led the Great Britain Olympic Team to its most successful Olympic Games in modern history.
In April 2018, the British Olympic Association announced that he would be chef de Mission for the 2020 Olympics in Japan. [4]
In March 2022, it was confirmed that he had been appointed to serve as British chef de mission for a third consecutive Olympic Games at Paris 2024. [5]
On 19 September 2019, Commonwealth Games England announced that he had been appointed Chef de Mission for the England team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. [6]
In 1989 he married Stephanie Culham in Farnham, Surrey, with whom he has three sons. The marriage ended in divorce after 15 years in 2004. In 2008 England started a relationship with his partner Helen Other with whom he has three further sons.
Warwickshire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire to the south, and Worcestershire and the West Midlands county to the west. The largest settlement is Nuneaton and the county town is Warwick.
David Francis Gerrard is a sports administrator, sports medicine specialist, and former Olympic Games swimming representative from New Zealand.
Aileen McGlynn is a Scottish paralympic tandem champion cyclist, tandem piloted until 2009 by Ellen Hunter but most regularly piloted by Helen Scott.
Kate Louise Richardson-Walsh, is an Olympic Gold and Bronze Medal winning English field hockey player. She was capped a record 375 times for her country and was the England and Great Britain Captain for 13 years.
Helen Richardson-Walsh, is an English hockey player who plays as a midfielder. She has been a member of both the England and the Great Britain women's field hockey teams since 1999, and was a member of the Great Britain team who won gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Christina Tracy Boxer-Cahill is a retired female middle distance athlete from England. She represented Great Britain at three Olympic Games, in Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988 and trained at Aldershot, Farnham & District AC. In Seoul, she finished fourth in the 1500 metres final. She also won a gold medal in the 1500 m at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. In 1979, she became the first British woman in history to run the 800 metres in under two-minutes.
Max Antony Whitlock is an English artistic gymnast. With fourteen medals and six titles in Olympic and World Championships, Whitlock is the most successful gymnast in British history. He is also the most successful pommel horse worker in Olympic Games history, with two gold medals and one bronze.
Andrew William Pozzi is a retired British hurdling athlete. He was the 2018 indoor World Champion at 60 metres hurdles. He was the 2012 UK 60m and 110m Champion and holds the record for the fastest ever time run by a UK junior hurdler. The record time, 13.29 seconds, was set on 3 July 2011 in Mannheim, Germany at the Bauhaus Junior Gala.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England between 28 July and 8 August 2022. It was the third and seventh time England and the United Kingdom hosted the Commonwealth Games, respectively.
Emily Diamond is a British track and field athlete, who competes in the 200 metres and 400 metres. Diamond came to prominence in her breakout season of 2016 when, following her first win at the British Championships over the 400 metres distance, she collected a gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2016 European Athletics Championships as part of the Great Britain team, followed by a bronze in the same discipline at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Madeleine Clare Hinch, is an English former field hockey player who played as a goalkeeper for Tilburg HC and England and Great Britain national teams.
Benjamin Proud is an English competitive swimmer, representing Great Britain at the Olympic Games, the FINA World Aquatics Championships and LEN European Aquatics Championships, and England at the Commonwealth Games. Proud specialises in sprint freestyle and butterfly races, specifically the 50-metre distance in both. He is the 2022 World Champion in the 50 metre freestyle, his second long course world title. He is the 2017 world champion in the 50-metre butterfly. He is only the third male swimmer to be simultaneously short-course and long-course World Champion at 50 metre freestyle, after César Cielo and Florent Manaudou.
Adam George Peaty is an English former competitive swimmer who specialises in the breaststroke. He won the gold medal in the 100 metre breaststroke at the 2016 Summer Olympics, the first by a male British swimmer in 24 years, and retained the title at the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2021, the first British swimmer ever to retain an Olympic title.
Sophie Charlotte Bray, is an English international field hockey player who played as a forward for England and Great Britain.
Lily Isabelle Owsley, in Bristol, England is an English field hockey player who plays as a midfielder or forward for Dutch club hdm and the England and Great Britain national teams.
James George Guy is an English competitive swimmer who specialises in freestyle and butterfly. Guy has won multiple gold medals at each of the major international meets available to him, including for Great Britain at the Olympic Games (3), the World (5) and European Championships (7), and for England in the Commonwealth Games (2). In addition to further medals in those events, he has also reached the podium at both the World and European short-course championships. With 45 major medals at international championship meets, 19 at global level, he is one of the most decorated swimmers in British history.
Dominick "Dom" Adam Cunningham is an English-born elite artistic gymnast representing Ireland since 2022, having previously represented Great Britain and England. He won a team gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and the Individual Floor Gold at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow.
Michael Gunning is a Jamaican-British competitive swimmer who is best known for participating in the 200 metre butterfly event. He competed in the 200 metre butterfly and the men's 200 metre freestyle event in both the 2017 World Aquatics Championships and 2019 World Aquatics Championships.
Anna Hopkin is a British swimmer. She won gold as part of the British team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in mixed 4 × 100 metre medley relay, setting a new world record time.
Thomas William Darnton Dean is a British competitive freestyle swimmer. He is a triple Olympic gold medallist, winning gold individually in 200 metre freestyle at the 2020 Summer Olympics and as part of a team in 4 × 200 m freestyle relay at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics.