Sebastian Coe
Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, , often referred to as Seb Coe, is a British sports administrator, former politician and retired track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including 1500 metres gold medals at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. He set nine outdoor and three indoor world records in middle-distance track events – including, in 1979, setting three world records in the space of 41 days – and the world record he set in the 800 metres in 1981 remained unbroken until 1997. Coe's rivalries with fellow Britons Steve Ovett and Steve Cram dominated middle-distance racing for much of the 1980s.
Following Coe's retirement from athletics, he was a Conservative member of parliament from 1992 to 1997 for Falmouth and Camborne in Cornwall, and became a Life Peer on 16 May 2000.
Coe headed the successful London 2012 Olympic bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics and became chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. In 2007, he was elected a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, and re-elected for another four-year term in 2011. In August 2015, he was elected president of the IAAF.
In 2012, Coe was appointed Pro-Chancellor of Loughborough University where he had been an undergraduate. Subsequently, in 2017, he was appointed as Chancellor. He is also a member of Loughborough University's governing body. He was one of 24 athletes inducted as inaugural members of the IAAF Hall of Fame. In November 2012, he was appointed chairman of the British Olympic Association. Coe was presented with the Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in December 2012.
At the 2024 Millrose Games, Coe was awarded The Armory's Presidents Award.
Early life and education
Coe was born on 29 September 1956 at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, Hammersmith, London. His father was athletics coach Peter Coe and his mother, Tina Angela Lal, was of half Indian descent, born to a Punjabi father, Sardari Lal Malhotra, and an English/Irish mother, Vera.When he was less than a year old, Coe and his family moved to Warwickshire, where he later attended Bridgetown Primary School and Hugh Clopton Secondary School in Stratford-upon-Avon. The family then moved to Sheffield where he attended Tapton School, a secondary modern school, at Crosspool which became a comprehensive school while he was there and Abbeydale Grange School. He joined Hallamshire Harriers at the age of 12, and soon became a middle-distance specialist, having been inspired by David Jackson, a geography teacher at Tapton School who had been a cross-country runner. Coe was coached by his own father and represented Loughborough University and later Haringey AC, now Enfield and Haringey Athletic Club when not competing for his country.
Coe studied Economics and Social History at Loughborough University, where he met George Gandy, the university's strength and conditioning coach, whose already well-established exercises for Loughborough Students RUFC strengthened and conditioned Coe. Coe won his first major race at the 1977 European indoor championships 800 metres in San Sebastián, Spain.
His mother, Tina Angela Lal, died in London, in 2005, aged 75. His father, Peter Coe, died on 9 August 2008, aged 88, while Coe was visiting Beijing.
Athletics career
Coe first caught the public's attention on 14 March 1977 when he competed in the 800 m at the European Indoor Championships in San Sebastián, front-running the entire race and winning in 1:46.54, just short of the world indoor record. He ran in the Emsley Carr mile on 29 August 1977, outsprinting Filbert Bayi of Tanzania in the home straight and winning in 3:57.7. Eleven days later, on 9 September 1977, he ran the 800 m at the Coca-Cola Games at Crystal Palace in a time of 1:44.95, beating Andy Carter's 1:45.12 to claim his first UK national outdoor record.Coe's 1978 season continued to show his progression in the middle distances, though he raced only sparingly, as in early June he had suffered a serious ankle injury whilst out on a training run. On 18 August 1978, he ran the 800 m at the Ivo Van Damme Memorial meeting in Brussels, where he far outclassed the field and stormed home in a time of 1:44.25, another UK national record.
He first ran against his great rival Steve Ovett in a schools cross country race in 1972. Neither won, nor did either win in their first major encounter, on 31 August 1978, in the 800 m at the European Championships in Prague. Ovett took second, breaking Coe's UK record with a time of 1:44.09, and Coe finished third; the race was won by the East German Olaf Beyer. According to Pat Butcher, Coe's father and coach Peter Coe had encouraged him to run as fast as he could from the start. The early pace was indeed exceptionally fast: Coe ran 200 m in 24.3, 400 m in 49.32, and 600 m in 1:16.2; he then slowed and finished third in 1:44.76. A few weeks later, Coe reclaimed the UK record at Crystal Palace, setting an all-comers' mark of 1:43.97 which ranked him second in the world that year. On 1 October 1978, Coe displayed to the world for the first time his phenomenal natural endurance by winning the Loughrea 4-Mile road race in Ireland in 17:54, defeating the likes of Eamonn Coghlan and Mike McLeod, and breaking Brendan Foster's course record of 18:05. All this off a season which had been focussed on 800 m, with only one race at 1500 m or the mile. This was a warning to the world's top milers of what was to happen the following summer.
The next year, 1979, Coe set three world records in 41 days. He set the first two in Oslo, Norway, at 800 m and the mile, then broke the world 1500 m record with his 3:32.03 in Zurich, Switzerland, becoming the first person to hold these three records at the same time. He easily won the 800 m at the European Cup in Turin in August, covering the last 200 m in 24.1, and anchored the British 4 × 400 m relay team with the quartet's fastest split, 45.5. He was voted Athlete of the Year by Athletics Weekly and Track and Field News and was ranked number one in the world at 800 m and 1500 m; no other athlete since has ranked number one at these distances in the same year.
In 1980, Coe broke Rick Wohlhuter's world record for 1000 m with a time of 2:13.40. He held all four middle-distance world records—the 800 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, and mile—simultaneously for one hour until Ovett broke his mile record. In the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Ovett and Coe each won the other's speciality: Ovett the 800 m and Coe the 1500 m. Coe took second in the 800 m after running what he described as "the worst tactical race of my life", while Ovett took third in the 1500. It was Ovett's first defeat at one mile or 1500 m in three years and 45 races. Coe covered the last 400 m in 52.2 and the last 100 m in 12.1 seconds, the fastest-ever finish in a championship final at this distance.
Coe began 1981 with an indoor world record of 1:46.0 for 800 m at Cosford in February. On 10 June, he set a world 800 m record in Florence; his 1:41.73 remained unbeaten until August 1997. As of 2025, his time still stands as the UK record and puts him in a tie with Nijel Amos for the eighth fastest man ever at the distance. A month afterwards he set another world record with 2:12.18 for 1000 m, which was to last 19 years and to this day has only been bettered once. At this time, Coe was more than 1.7 seconds faster than anyone in history at both distances. Between these two record-breaking runs he won the Europa Cup 800 m semifinal, running the last 100 m in 11.3, and achieved a personal best of 3:31.95 at 1500 m, despite dreadful pacemaking by US 800 m runner James Robinson, who passed 400 m in 51.5. In August, Coe won the gold medal over 800 m at the European Cup final with a blistering last 200 m in 24.6 and last 100 m in 11.9. He then bettered the standard for the mile twice, first with 3:48.53 in Zürich and then with 3:47.33 in Brussels, on either side of Ovett's world record in Koblenz. His 3:47.33 remained on the all-time top-10 list until 31 May 2014.
Coe ended the season with gold over 800 m at the World Cup in Rome in September with 1:46.16, and remained undefeated at both 1500 m/mile and 800 m for the entire season, as he had in 1979. Track & Field News and Athletics Weekly magazines voted Coe Athlete of the Year, an honour he had also won in 1979. Although he had a short season in 1982 because of injuries in June and July, Coe still managed to rank number one in the world in the 800 m and to participate in a world-record 4 × 800 m relay. Coe, Peter Elliott, Garry Cook and Steve Cram ran a time of 7:03.89, which would remain the world record for 24 years. Coe's leg was the fastest of the day, a solo 1:44.01. Heavily favoured for the 800 m at the 1982 European Championships in Athletics in Athens, he unexpectedly finished second; the next day British team doctors revealed that he had been suffering from glandular fever. Coe decided to withdraw from the 1500 metres in those championships.
Coe began 1983 with world indoor records at 800 m in Cosford, England and 1000 m in Oslo, but he spent much of that year battling health problems, including a prolonged bout with toxoplasmosis. He missed the inaugural IAAF World Championships in Athletics. The disease was severe, and he spent several months in and out of hospital. He returned to competition in 1984 and was selected at 800 m and 1500 m for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, despite having been narrowly beaten by Peter Elliott in the AAA Championships. In the 800 m he took silver behind Joaquim Cruz of Brazil, but in the 1500 m final—his seventh race in nine days—he took the gold in an Olympic record of 3:32.53. He ran the last 800 m of the race in 1:49.8, the last lap in 53.2, and the last 100 m in 12.7. He remains the only man to win successive Olympic 1500 m titles.
Coe had planned to have a somewhat quiet season in 1985, partly because of the intensity of the previous year's efforts to get himself ready in time for the Olympics, as well as a planned move up to 5000 m, which never materialised. He suffered a recurrence of a back problem which had plagued him on and off since 1980; this caused him to miss several weeks of midseason training. He nevertheless managed to run some fast times towards the end of the season, but he lost his mile world record to Cram, who beat him in Oslo. In 1986, Coe won the 800 m gold medal at the European Championships in Stuttgart, beating Tom McKean and Cram with a stunning last 200 m of 24.8 and 100 m of 12.4. It was his only 800 m title at an international championship. He took the silver in the 1500 m behind Cram, the mile world record holder proving too strong in the homestretch. He then ran his personal best over 1500 m with a 3:29.77 performance in Rieti, Italy, becoming the fourth man in history to break 3:30 at the distance. For the fourth year in his career, he was ranked No. 1 in the world at 800 m, and he was in the top two for 1500 m for the fifth time.
Coe sustained a foot injury in 1987 after winning an 800 m and running a 4 × 400 m leg for his club, Haringey, and was out for the entire season. The following year he was not selected for the British 1988 Olympic Games team after he failed to advance from the heats of the 1500 m at the Trials in Birmingham. He had shown good early season form, but he picked up a chest infection after a spell of altitude training. The Daily Mirror ran a campaign and the president of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, unsuccessfully tried to have the rules changed in Coe's favour. It was said that India was willing to include him on its national team on account of his mother's Indian heritage.
Coe had a final good season in 1989, when, in his 33rd year, he won the AAA 1500 m title, was ranked British number one for both 800 m and 1500 m, ran the world's second-fastest 800 m of the year, and took the silver medal at the World Cup over 1500 m. He retired from competitive athletics in early 1990, after having to bow out of the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand with yet another chest infection. He ended his career having run sub-1:44 for 800 m in eight different years.