Christine Ohuruogu

For Christine Ohuruogu, success as an athlete has all been about timing. The London-born daughter of Nigerian immigrants had been an age group netball champion as a teenager, and only decided to focus on her abilities as a sprinter after she won the bronze medal at the European Junior Championships in 2003. The next year, Ohuruogu won the British Olympic Trials got as far as the semi-finals of the 400m at the Athens Olympics.

The next year, won the 400m silver medal at the European Under-23 Championships, and finished second in the British national championships, qualifying her for the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki. Though she failed to advance to the final, anchored the British team to a bronze medal in the 4x400m relay.

Ohuruogu’s 2006 season would be one of extreme highs and lows. She began the year with a runner-up finish in the 200m at the British Indoor Championships, and then a series of wins in Australia over 400m, culminating with her victory over Olympic and World Champion Tonique Williams-Darling at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. It was Ohuruogu’s first international championship. Midway through the outdoor season that summer, just as Ohuruogu was looking to be the odds on favorite for a gold medal at the European Championships, it was revealed that she had missed her third random drug test and would be forced to sit out competition for a year.

Devastated, but undaunted, Ohuruogu trained without racing for an entire calendar year, until she was eligible again in early August 2007. She returned to racing just in time to qualify for the British squad for the World Championships, and hurridly began her season with wins at both 200m and 400m at the Scottish Championships, and then a victory over 400m at a warm up meet held just outside Nagai Stadium on the eve of the IAAF World Championships in Osaka. From her first competition back, Ohuruogu’s times improved with each race and each round of the 400m leading up to the final at the World Championships. There, Ohuruogu surprised many as she won the gold medal in a lifetime best of 49.61 seconds. Ohuruogu broken the 50 second barrier for the first time in her career, and had broken her previous personal best more than half a second. More importantly, Ohuruogu’s first global title was especially rewarding for someone who could have easily quit the sport in the face of hardship and adversity. It’s a record of perseverance and performance that Ohuruogu’s hopes will guide her to another gold this summer in Beijing.