Steve Ovett

Steve Ovett
Steve Ovett (# 388) at the 1984 Olympic Games
Full name	Stephen Michael John Ovett
nation	United Kingdom
birthday	October 9, 1955
place of birth	Brighton ,  England
job	TV host
Career
discipline	800 meter run , 1500 meter run
Best performance	1: 44.09 min (800 m), 3: 30.77 min (1500 m)
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 0 × 1 × European championships 1 × 2 × 0 × Commonwealth Games 1 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Moscow 1980 800 m bronze Moscow 1980 1500 m  European championships gold Prague 1978 1500 m silver Rome 1974 800 m silver Prague 1978 800 m  Commonwealth Games gold Edinburgh 1986 5000 m
last change: August 26, 2015

Steve Ovett OBE (actually: Stephen Michael John Ovett ; born October 9, 1955 in Brighton ) is a former British medium and long-distance runner who was Olympic champion in the 800-meter run .

Life

At the European Championships in Rome in 1974 , he won silver over 800 meters. Two years later, at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal , he was fifth in the 800 meters and reached the semifinals over 1500 meters . At the European Championships in Prague in 1978 , he won silver over 800 and gold over 1500 meters. In the same year he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year , Sportsman of the Year in Great Britain.

In the following years he was the great competitor of his compatriot Sebastian Coe . Although Coe and Ovett were the dominant middle distance athletes of their time, they only met in seven races between 1972 and 1989, five of them at international championships. In Grand Prix races they avoided each other and limited themselves to taking world records and world best times from each other in long-distance duels. Both belonged to the British Milers' Club , which had set itself the goal of keeping the standard in the middle distance in Great Britain high. Ovett's training was particularly influenced by Frank Horwill's ideas .

At the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow , Ovett won the gold medal over 800 meters ahead of the favored Coe, while the latter took the gold medal on Ovett's special course, the 1500 meters, and Ovett ran here on the bronze rank. Between 1980 and 1983 Ovett set five world records over 1500 meters and in the mile run . At the World Championships in Helsinki in 1983 , he was fourth over 1500 meters.

At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles , Ovett finished eighth over 800 meters despite severe asthmatic complaints caused by the smog in Los Angeles . Although he took part in the final over 1500 meters, he had to stop the race because of breathing difficulties. At the 1987 World Championships in Rome , he started over 5000 meters and finished tenth. Then he slowly let his sporting career end.

Ovett now lives with his family in Australia and works as a track and field commentator for the Canadian television station CBC . His brother Nick Ovett competed in luge at two Olympic Games .

Personal bests

• 800 m: 1: 44.09 min, August 31, 1978, Prague
• 1000 m : 2: 15.91 min, September 6, 1979, Koblenz
• 1500 m: 3: 30.77 min, September 4, 1983, Rieti
• 1 mile: 3: 48.40 min, August 26, 1981, Koblenz
• 2000 m : 4: 57.71 min, July 7, 1982, Oslo
• 3000 m : 7: 41.3 min, September 23, 1977, Wattenscheid
• 5000 m: 13: 20.06 min, 30 June 1986, Belfast
• 10 km road run : 28:16 min, December 4, 1983, London

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Arnd Krüger : Many roads lead to Olympia. The changes in the training systems for middle and long distance runners (1850-1997), in: N. Gissel (Hrsg.): Sportliche Leistungs im Wandel. Hamburg 1998: Czwalina, pp. 41-56.
2. ^ Butcher, Pat (2005). The Perfect Distance: Ovett and Coe - The Record Breaking Rivalry. Phoenix Press. ISBN 0-7538-1900-7 .

Web links

Commons : Steve Ovett  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Steve Ovett in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Athlete portrait at The Power of Ten
• Steve Ovett in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )