Linford Christie (born 2 April 1960) is a Jamaican-born British former sprinter and athletics coach. He is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100 metres at all four major competitions open to British athletes: the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. He was the first European athlete to break the 10-second barrier in the 100 m and held the British record in the event for close to 30 years. He is a former world indoor record holder over 200 metres, and a former European record holder in the 60 metres, 100 m and 4 × 100 metres relay.
He remains one of the most highly decorated British athletes of all time. By the end of his track career Christie had won 24 medals overall, more than any other British male athlete before or since. In 1993 he was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Christie tested positive for a banned stimulant in 1988 during the Seoul Olympics. In 1999 he was suspended for two years by the IAAF after the banned substance nandrolone was found in a test, although he had been effectively in retirement since 1997.
As a coach, two of his charges, Darren Campbell and Katharine Merry, went on to win Olympic and World medals.
Early life and education Christie was born on 2 April 1960 in Saint Andrew, Jamaica, where he was brought up by his maternal grandmother. At the age of seven he joined his parents, who had emigrated to Acton, London, England, five years before. He was educated at Henry Compton Secondary School in Fulham, London and excelled in physical education. He competed in the very first London Youth Games in 1977 for the borough of Hammersmith & Fulham.Hall of Fame Retrieved on 2013-02-19. He also joined the Air Training Corps in 1978, 336 (Hammersmith) Squadron. He did not take up athletics seriously until he was 18.
Professional athletics career Christie's early track career was not particularly promising. A comparatively slow starter, he failed to make the Great Britain team for the 1984 Summer Olympics, not even being included in the sprint relay squad. It was not until some years after he had begun to work in earnest on his running technique under the coaching guidance of Ron Roddan in 1979 that he fulfilled his potential.
In 1986, he was the surprise winner of the 100 m at the European Championships and finished second in the same event at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, behind Ben Johnson. At the 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome, Christie came fourth in the 100 m, but was later awarded the bronze medal, when winner Johnson was disqualified after admitting years of steroid use.
At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Christie won the 100 m silver behind Carl Lewis after Johnson, who set a world record in 9.79 seconds, was again disqualified following a positive drug test. Christie's time was 9.97 seconds, a new European record by 0.03 seconds and this was only the third time that an athlete had broken the ten second barrier in the 100 metres without winning the race.
In 1992, Christie became the third British athlete to win the Olympic 100 m, after Harold Abrahams and Allan Wells, winning the title ahead of Frankie Fredericks of Namibia at the Barcelona Olympic Games. In the absence of his great rival Lewis, Christie ran 9.96 s in the final, and at the age of 32 years 121 days became the oldest Olympic 100 m champion by four years and 38 days.
In 1993, he became the first man in history to hold the Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles in the 100 m as he was victorious at the Stuttgart World Championships in his fastest ever time of 9.87. The time stood as the British record until 2023. His achievement saw him being voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year by the British public that year.
The following year, in 1994, he defended his Commonwealth title in Victoria in his second fastest ever 100 m time of 9.91.
Defending his Olympic title in 1996, Christie was disqualified in the final after two false starts. He said: "The first one I knew I did, but on the second one I felt I reacted perfectly to the gun. I have never been disqualified from a race before in my life. What a place to do it." His reaction time was 0.086 seconds. Under IAAF rules, sprinters are not allowed to start from their blocks faster than 0.1 seconds.
Christie retired from representative international competition in 1997,Christie: Legend under fire BBC Sport (4 August 1999) Retrieved on 2009-01-20 although he continued to make appearances at invitation meetings.
Doping allegations and ban Early allegations Christie faced an International Olympic Committee disciplinary hearing at the 1988 Seoul Olympics because of an adverse drug test for the banned stimulant pseudoephedrine after he ran in the heats of the 200 m. He escaped sanction after the committee voted by a margin of 11 to 10 and gave Christie "the benefit of the doubt."Christie takes the stand BBC Sport (21 November 2000) Retrieved on 2009-01-20 Christie argued that he had taken it inadvertently when drinking some ginseng tea.
At the 1994 European championships staged in Helsinki, where British team captain Christie won his third European 100 m title, he was caught up in a doping controversy after Solomon Wariso, a 400 m runner making his international championship debut, tested positive for the stimulant ephedrine. Wariso revealed that he had used an over-the-counter pick-you-up called "Up Your Gas", which Christie had bought at a Florida pharmacy.
In 1998, less than six months before his first positive drug test, Christie won a libel action against the journalist John McVicar. McVicar had insinuated in a satirical magazine that Christie's remarkable rise from 156th in the world to triumph at an age when he should have been in decline could only have been achieved through performance-enhancing drugs. The jury found in Christie's favour by a 10–2 majority. The judge ordered that McVicar should be bound by an injunction restraining him from accusing Christie of taking banned substances. The modest £40,000 damages awarded were outweighed by the legal costs that Christie incurred to bring the case. After the judgment, McVicar called Christie "The Judy Garland of the 100 metres", referring to the emotion that Christie had displayed before the court.
Positive drugs test and ban from athletics In February 1999, Christie competed in an indoor meet in Dortmund, Germany. A routine in-competition drug test found the banned substance nandrolone. After a six-month delay, a disciplinary hearing was convened by the British Athletic Federation which found Christie to be not guilty. But the IAAF overruled and confirmed a two-year suspension. He was found to have more than 100 times threshold levels of the metabolites of nandrolone in his urine. Various explanations were offered to explain the result.Professor Ron Maughan, University of Aberdeen. Contamination of supplements: an interview with professor Ron Maughan by Louise M. Burke PubMed Retrieved 2009-01-20Moorcroft backs medical research BBC Sport (2 August 2000) Retrieved on 2009-01-20 "You think that's an awful lot," says Professor Ron Maughan one of the UK Athletics anti-doping panellists who worked on Christie's case, "but the amounts are so small, they would have absolutely no physiological effect, but they would trigger a doping test.". BBC Sport (20 July 2024) The IAAF rejected the explanations and gave Christie a two-years ban from athletics, despite UK Athletics feeling that there was reasonable doubt whether the drug had been taken deliberately, a decision which ignored the usual drug testing principle of "strict liability".British trio rocked by doping bans BBC Sport (21 August 2000) Retrieved on 2009-01-20
Several alternative theories have been proposed that might explain Christie's positive test. Nandrolone is a long-acting anabolic steroid, and is well known in athlete circles to be detectable in blood and urine screenings for long periods; ranging from 6 to 18 months. Sceptics of Christie's positive, and other Nandrolone sanctions in the late 1990s, have cited this detection window as a major deterrent to using the drug at any point during training or competition periods. Around this time pro-hormones like 19-norandrostenedione, Androstenedione, and 1-Testosterone, among others, abounded in the American supplement market, and were not yet codified as 'anabolic agents' under the Federal Controlled Substances Act.
Christie has always denied any wrongdoing. "If I took drugs there had to be a reason to take drugs. I had pretty much retired from the sport." Furthermore, he denied that his physique was gained through drug use and promoted an anti-steroid approach: "It does not follow that all athletes who are big take drugs ... Only by testing all athletes will the sport be kept clean of drugs."
Fallout following positive drugs test Following his positive drugs test and ban from athletics, Christie was banned for life from the British Olympic Association, who announced that Christie would not be accredited for any future Olympic Games, in accordance with their regulations.
Retirement Following the two-year ban, Christie worked as a presenter on the BBC programmes Record Breakers and Garden Invaders, and also had a contract with BBC Sport. He has spent less time as a public figure and has devoted most of his time to managing his company.Record Breakers at IMDB In 1990 he made his acting debut in the BBC programme Grange Hill.Grange Hill at IMDB Later he appeared in another BBC programme Hustle. In 2010, Christie appeared on the UK ITV television channel's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! show, subsequently becoming the sixth person to be eliminated, on 30 November 2010.
During the McVicar case, Christie raised another of his grievances with the media – insinuating comments about the figure-hugging running suits that Christie wore in his races. The term Linford's lunchbox had been coined by The Sun newspaper in reference to the noticeable bulge of Christie's genitalia in his Lycra shorts. He said "Linford's lunchbox is one of my grievances with the media. I don't like it ... Nobody ever goes on about Sally Gunnell's breasts ... I think it is disgusting, I don't like it at all."L. Christie & T. Ward, Linford Christie: An Autobiography (1990, updated 1996 as To Be Honest With You) In court, the judge Mr Justice Popplewell, amused some by tactlessly asking Christie to explain the phrase, asking "What is 'Linford's lunchbox?'" Christie's anger at this unwanted attention led to his "newspaper print" running suit, although he has deliberately drawn attention to his body on occasions: he has remarked that "A lot of people have looked at my physique and two things can come into their mind – admiration and envy."L. Christie & J. Nicholson, A Year in the Life of Linford Christie (1996) He also appeared shirtless and flexing his muscles on the BBC youth series Reportage in 1988. In the 21st century, Christie appears to have come to terms with the "lunchbox" label, disclosing his preference for briefs rather than boxer shorts, and in 2002 becoming the "face" of Sloggi, the men's underwear brand, posing for advertising wearing only underwear.Showing his undies is no hard Sloggi for Linford. Swindon Advertiser (12 June 2002) Retrieved on 2009-01-20Brooke, Simon (30 January 2003) Real men wear thongs The Times; Retrieved on 2009-01-20