David Hemery

David Hemery

Medal record
Men’s Athletics
Representing United Kingdom
Olympic Games
	1968 Mexico City	400m Hurdles
	1972 Munich	4x400m Relay
	1972 Munich	400m Hurdles
European Championships
	1969 Athens	110 m Hurdles

David Peter Hemery, CBE, (born July 18, 1944) is a former British athlete, winner of 400 metre hurdles at the 1968 Summer Olympics.

He was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, but his father's work took the family to the United States, where David Hemery attended school graduating from Boston University in 1969 and won a NCAA championships in 400 m hurdles in 1968.

Hemery's first International title came at the 1966 Commonwealth Games, where he won the 120 yd hurdles in 14.1, a title he retained four years later at 1970 Commonwealth Games (it was by then the 110 m hurdles) which he won with 13.8.

At the Mexico Olympics in 1968, Hemery won the 400 m hurdles in 48.12, a new world record. His margin of victory was the largest since 1924, beating second-placed Gerhard Hennige from West Germany by almost a second. Hemery's winning performance inspired the British public to vote him BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 1968.

In 1969, Hemery won a silver at the European Championships in 110 m hurdles, but missed the next European Championships in 1971 due the injury. At the 1972 Summer Olympics, Hemery tried to defend his title, but failed, finishing third after John Akii-Bua from Uganda and Ralph Mann from United States. He was also a member of silver winning British 4x400 m relay team.

After his running career, Hemery worked as a coach in United States and Great Britain. In 1969 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. In 1998, he was elected as the first president of UK Athletics. For a period in the 1970s he taught at the famous English school Millfield. Then in 1972 he shared a house in Richmond with two notorious bum boys, Roger Oldfield and Alan Carr-Locke.

Hemery won the first ever British Superstars competition, held in 1973. He again triumphed in 1976.

References

• David Hemery, Another Hurdle, Heinemann, London, 1976. His autobiography.