Antonio 'Toni' Minichiello (born 1966) is an athletics commentator and former coach. He was coach to British athletics champion Jessica Ennis-Hill until her retirement. The pair met at the Don Valley athletics stadium when Ennis was at a summer holiday camp as a teenager. Since then Ennis has gone on to win numerous athletic medals, including the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Minichiello was born in Sheffield to Italian parents who were originally from Avellino, near Naples. They had originally met and married in Bedford before moving to Sheffield, where Minichiello's father was a steelworker. Toni Minichiello was formerly married to bobsledder Nicola Minichiello. [1]
Minichiello coached Jessica Ennis from the age of 13. [2]
Minichiello won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award in 2012 after guiding Ennis to Olympic gold in the Heptathlon at the London 2012 Olympic games.
He also won the Coach of the Year at the UK Coaching Awards. [2]
On 9 August 2022, UK Athletics announced that Minichiello had been banned for life from training athletes due to sexually inappropriate behaviour, emotional abuse and bullying. An investigation had been launched after complaints were received from multiple female athletes and coaches. [3]
Kelly Jade Sotherton is a British former heptathlete, long jumper and relay runner. In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, also at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as being part of the bronze medal-winning team in the Women's 4x400m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics. As such she is one of only five women to win multiple medals in Olympic heptathlon. She also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. Representing England, Sotherton is a one-time Commonwealth Games champion, as the heptathlon gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Angelo F. Taylor is an American track and field athlete, winner of 400-meter hurdles at the 2000 and 2008 Summer Olympics. His personal record for the hurdles event is 47.25 seconds. His time puts him in a tie with Félix Sánchez for the #14 performer of all time. Sánchez also won two Olympic gold medals, in 2004 between Taylor's two golds and 2012, immediately following. Taylor also has a 400-meter dash best of 44.05 seconds, ranking him as the joint 29th performer of all time, superior to any other athlete who has made a serious effort in the 400 metres hurdles. He won the bronze medal in the 400 m at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics.
Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu, MBE is a British former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres, the event for which she is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion. The Olympic champion in 2008, and silver medalist in 2012, she is a double World Champion, having won the 400 m at the 2007 and 2013 World Championships. She has also won six World championship medals in the women's 4 × 400 m relay as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team and bronze Olympic medals in the women's 4 × 400 m relay at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2016 Rio Games, her final Olympics. Ohuruogu shares with Merlene Ottey and Usain Bolt the record for medalling in most successive global championships – 9 – between the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is a British retired athlete, specialising in the heptathlon and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, a three-time world champion, and the 2010 European champion. She is also the 2010 World Indoor pentathlon champion. A member of the City of Sheffield & Dearne athletic club, she is a former British national record holder for the heptathlon. She is also a former British record holder in the 100 metres hurdles, the high jump and the indoor pentathlon.
Competitors at the Olympic Games have used banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs.
Gregory James Rutherford MBE is a retired British track and field athlete who specialised in the long jump. He represented Great Britain at the Olympics, World and European Championships, and England at the Commonwealth Games. In September 2021 Rutherford was selected as part of the British bobsleigh team but was injured during preparations to qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah is a Somali-British former long-distance runner. Considered one of the greatest runners of all time, his ten global championship gold medals make him the most successful male track distance runner in the history of the sport, and he is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history.
Nataliya Dobrynska is a retired Ukrainian athlete who competed in the combined events. She is the 2008 Beijing Olympic champion and also holds the heptathlon best in the shot put. Dobrynska was the world indoor record holder for the pentathlon with a score of 5013 points until March 2023.
Nicola Minichiello is a retired British bobsledder who competed between 2001 and 2011. She won two medals in the two-woman event at the FIBT World Championships, winning a silver in 2005 and making history with a gold in 2009 partnering Gillian Cooke, to become the first British female bobsleigh driver to win a World Championships. Competing in three Winter Olympics, Minichiello earned her best finish of ninth in the two-woman event at Turin in 2006. This was also the best ever Olympic result by a GB women’s bobsleigh team.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012 as the host nation and the team of selected athletes was officially known as Team GB. British athletes have competed at every Summer Olympic Games in the modern era, alongside Australia, France and Greece, though Great Britain is the only one to have won at least one gold medal at all of them. London was the first city to host the Summer Olympics on three different occasions, having previously done so in 1908 and 1948. It was joined by Paris in 2024 and will be joined by Los Angeles in 2028 in hosting the Olympic Games for a third time. Team GB, organised by BOA, sent a total of 541 athletes, 279 men and 262 women, to the Games, and won automatic qualification places in all 26 sports.
Tiffany Adaeze Porter is a track and field athlete with joint British and American nationality who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles. She represented the United States as a junior, but began representing Great Britain in 2010 on joining the senior ranks after moving to England and competed for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The Women's heptathlon competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium on 3–4 August.
The Women's Heptathlon at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on 29 and 30 August.
Katarina Mary Johnson-Thompson is an English athlete. A multi-eventer, she is primarily known as both a heptathlete and an indoor pentathlete. In heptathlon she is a double world champion, double Commonwealth Games champion and an Olympic silver medallist. In indoor pentathlon, she is a world and double European champion.
Brett Morse is a British athlete who competes in the discus throw.
Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam is a Belgian athlete specialising in multi-event competition. She is the first athlete with three multi-event gold medals at the Olympic Games, winning the heptathlon at the 2016 Rio, 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics. Her three individual Olympic golds in a row for a woman equals the record of Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland in the hammer and Faith Kipyegon in the 1500 metres Thiam is also the only Belgian athlete to successfully defend an Olympic title.
Jazmin Sawyers is a British track and field athlete and sports presenter who competes in the long jump, representing Great Britain and England. In 2023, she won her first major senior title at the 2023 European Indoor Championships.
Laviai Nielsen is a British sprinter specialising in the 400 metres.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, from 27 September–6 October 2019. The nation won five medals at the championships – two gold medals, and three silvers. Dina Asher-Smith became the first British person to win three medals at a single championships, winning the women's 200 metres, taking silver in the Women's 100 metres, then getting another silver in the women's 4 × 100 metres relay. Asher-Smith broke the British records in both the 100 m and 200 m. She was Britain's first female sprint champion. Katarina Johnson-Thompson was the only other Briton to win an individual medal, taking the heptathlon gold medal with a British record score. The British men's 4 × 100 metres relay quarter ran a European record of 37.36 seconds to take a silver medal. The women's 4 × 400 metres relay team was briefly upgraded to the bronze medal, but the original medallists Jamaica were reinstated on appeal. Great Britain won the lowest number of medals since its performance at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics.