Kelly Holmes

In 2018, she was made Honorary Colonel of the Royal Armoured Corps Training Regiment.

In 2017, Holmes presented episode 5 of the BBC One television series Women at War: 100 Years of Service.

In December 2017, Holmes spoke about her 2003 mental health issues in an episode of All in the Mind on BBC Radio 4 and in 2018 was one of the judges of the programme's awards.

In early 2015, she took part in the ITV series Bear Grylls: Mission Survive and was the runner-up after a 12-day survival mission.

In 2013 Holmes became the face of MoneyForce, a programme run by the Royal British Legion to deliver money advice to the UK Armed Forces.

In 2012, Holmes was one of five Olympians chosen for a series of body-casting artworks by Louise Giblin, exhibited in London with copies being sold in aid of the charity Headfirst.

In 2010, Holmes was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.

In November 2010, Holmes took part on the ITV game show The Cube. In October 2011, she appeared live on Dubai One lifestyle show Studio One where she talked about her life and career after athletics.

In May 2009, Holmes was named as the president of Commonwealth Games England, succeeding Sir Chris Chataway, who had held the post since 1994. The organisation's chairman Sir Andrew Foster said: "Dame Kelly has been an outstanding athlete both for Team England and Great Britain. She is a truly inspirational and respected figure in the sporting world and will be a wonderful ambassador for Commonwealth Games England."

In 2008, Holmes founded the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, a registered charity, to support young athletes and help the lives of young people facing disadvantage across the UK. As part of her pledge to the charity, she participated in the Powerman UK duathlon in 2014, one of several fundraising events she took part in.

On 16 September 2007, Holmes presented the weekly round-up of sports news on the BBC London News as an apparent substitute for regular presenter Mark Bright; she was introduced by anchorwoman Riz Lateef without explanation.

In 2005, she won the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year. The same year, she named the P&O Cruise ship MS Arcadia. On 21 August, she competed in her final race in the UK, the 800 m at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix meeting in Sheffield. Her training schedule during the summer of 2005 had been disrupted by a recurrent Achilles tendon injury, and she finished the race in eighth place, limping across the finish line and completing a lap of honour on a buggy.

On 6 December 2005, Holmes announced her retirement from athletics, stating she had reassessed her future after the death of a friend, as well as citing a lack of motivation to continue.

She took part in her final major championship in 2004, with a double gold medal-winning performance at the Athens Olympics, finishing as the 800 m and 1500 m Olympic Champion. For her achievements she won numerous awards and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2005. She retired from athletics in 2005 and has since been made an honorary Colonel with the Royal Armoured Corps Training Centre. She has become a global motivational speaker, published five books, her latest being Running Life and made a number of television appearances.

2004 saw Holmes arrive at a major competition, the Athens Olympics, with no injury worries for just about the first time in her career. She had originally planned to compete in just the 1500 m but a victory over Jolanda Čeplak before the games had many saying she should take her chance in the 800 m as well. Holmes did not announce her decision to race in both events until five days before the 800 m finals.

Subsequently, Holmes was given the honour of carrying the British flag at the closing ceremony of the games, on 29 August, the day after her second victory. A home-coming parade was held in her honour through the streets of Hildenborough and Tonbridge on 1 September, which was attended by approximately 40,000 people. Holmes won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2004, saying she achieved her goals after "twenty years of dreaming". She also asserted the award was "the biggest sporting honour your country can give you". The tributes to her at the BBC awards ceremony were led by the six British female athletes who had previously won gold at the Olympic Games in a "Magnificent Seven"-style feature — those six being Mary Rand, Ann Packer, Mary Peters, Tessa Sanderson, Sally Gunnell and Denise Lewis.

Since 2004, Holmes has taken part in "On Camp with Kelly" athletics camps which train junior athletes, sponsored by insurance company Aviva (formerly Norwich Union).

While training in 2003 for the 2004 Summer Olympics at a French training camp, Holmes suffered leg injuries and was depressed, she began cutting herself. "I made one cut for every day that I had been injured", Holmes stated in an interview with the News of the World newspaper. At least once, she considered suicide, but she eventually sought help from a doctor and was diagnosed with clinical depression. While she could not use anti-depressants because it would affect her performance, she began using herbal serotonin tablets. In 2005, after her achievements at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Holmes chose to talk about her self-harm to show others that being a professional athlete is an extremely difficult thing to do and places the athlete under tremendous amounts of stress. Later, in September 2017, Holmes explained that "at my lowest, I was cutting myself with scissors every day that I was injured." Holmes's honesty quickly won her praise from people on Twitter.

Holmes eventually qualified as a sergeant class 1 PTI, although she remained in the Adjutant General's Corps after the disbandment of the WRAC in 1992. She also became British Army judo champion and once competed in the men's 1500 metres at the Army Championships, as it was considered that for her to run in the women's event would be embarrassing for the other competitors. At another event, she competed in and won an 800 metres, a 3000 metres and a relay race in a single day. She also won the heptathlon.

Holmes watched the 1992 Summer Olympics on television, and on seeing Lisa York in the heats of the 3000 metres – an athlete whom she had competed against, and beaten – she decided to return to athletics. For several years she combined athletics with employment in the Army, until increased funding allowed her to become a full-time athlete in 1997.

However, Holmes later turned her back on athletics, joining the British Army at the age of 18, having left school two years earlier, working initially as a shop assistant in a sweet shop and later as a nursing assistant for disabled patients. In the Army, she was initially a HGV driver in the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC), later becoming a basic physical training instructor (PTI). Holmes then elected in June 1990 to attend the first course to be run under the Army's new Physical Training syllabus, and successfully passed out as a Class 2 PTI. Although militarily quite young, Holmes' athletic prowess was impressive and she was encouraged to attend the course selection for full-time transfer to the Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC).

Inspired by a number of successful British middle distance runners in the late early 1980s, Holmes began competing in middle distance events in her youth. She joined the British Army, but continued to compete at the organisation's athletics events. She turned to the professional athletics circuit in 1993 and in 1994 she won the 1500 m at the Commonwealth Games and took silver at the European Championships. She won a silver and a bronze medal at the 1995 Gothenburg World Championships, but suffered from various injuries over the following years, failing to gain a medal at her first Olympics in Atlanta 1996 when running with a stress fracture. She won silver in the 1500 m at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and bronze in the 800 m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, her first Olympic medal.

Dame Kelly Holmes, DBE (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British middle distance athlete.

Along with three time World Champion Maria de Lurdes Mutola and Čeplak, Holmes was considered one of the favourites for the gold medal in the 800 m. In the final, Holmes ran a well-paced race, ignoring a fast start by a number of the other competitors, and moved into the lead ahead of Mutola on the final bend, taking the gold on the line ahead of Hasna Benhassi and Čeplak, with Mutola in fourth. Holmes became the seventh British woman to win an athletics gold, and the second after Ann Packer in 1964 to win the 800 metres.