Adam Gemili

Adam Gemili
Adam Ahmed Gemili (born 6 October 1993) is a British sprinter. He is the 2014 European champion at 200 metres, three-time European champion in the 4 x 100 metres relay, and part of the Great Britain team that won gold at the 2017 World Championships in the same event. He has finished fourth in the 200 m at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and fourth and fifth in separate editions of the World Championships in the same event.
He was the first British athlete and the first sprinter of either North African or Middle Eastern descent to run both the 100 m in less than 10 seconds and the 200 m in less than 20 seconds. He was also the first man of North African, Arab or Iranian heritage to break the 10-second barrier in the 100 metres.
A silver medalist in the 100 metres and 4 × 100 m relay in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Gemili is also a former World Junior champion at 100 m and European Under-23 champion at 100 m and 4 × 100 m relay. He is a three-time national champion in the 200 m.
Early life and background
Adam Gemili is of Iranian and Moroccan descent, which he considers to be "a very weird background for a sprinter." At the age of eleven, he attended Dartford Grammar School. Gemili also attended Barking and Dagenham College where he studied for a BTEC Extended Diploma in Sport, and hoped to attend university at some point. After the 2012 Olympics he started studying Sports and Exercise Science with Human Biology at the University of East London, where he wrote his dissertation on the effect of particular warm-up exercises on sprinting performance.
Gemili is a member of Blackheath and Bromley Harriers Athletic Club, and also a former football player for Dagenham & Redbridge and Thurrock F.C. having spent seven years in the youth academy at Chelsea.
Sprinting career
2011-15
Gemili won a silver medal over 100 m at the 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. He also helped the British squad to a silver medal in the 4 × 100 m relay. At the National Junior Athletic League Finals, Gemili won the 200 m in 20.98 s, which was the fastest time by a European junior in 2011.
Gemili ran an Olympic qualifying time for the 100 m and won the Sparkassen Gala in Regensburg, Germany on 2 June 2012, just over three weeks prior to the British track trials for the 2012 London Olympics. He beat his previous best time of 10.23 s in the heats, running a time of 10.11 s and then ran a time of 10.08 s in the final. That mark was the second fastest 100 m ever run by a British junior, behind only Dwain Chambers (10.06 s). At the time of his victory, James Dasaolu was the only one other British athlete to have met the Olympic qualifying time for the men's 100 m. Gemili was selected for the British 2012 Olympic 4 × 100 m relay team on 3 July 2012.
On 11 July 2012, Gemili finished first in the 100 m at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, winning the gold medal in a time of 10.05 seconds, breaking the championship record originally established by Darrel Brown in 2002. Besides breaking the British national junior record, Gemili's time ranked second among European juniors (behind Christophe Lemaitre's 10.04 s) and sixth all-time among all juniors, behind only Brown, Jeffery Demps, Marcus Rowland, D'Angelo Cherry and Lemaitre.
Gemili competed at the 2012 London Olympics where he, after a poor start, came third in the semi-final in a time of 10.06 s, 0.04 s short of qualifying for the final.
He qualified to run the 200 m at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow. Having set a personal best in the first round, in the semi-final Gemili ran a time of 19.98 s, making him only the second British athlete, after John Regis, the third teenager (after Usain Bolt and Alonso Edward), and the ninth European athlete, to break 20 seconds in the event. 2013 was his first season training for the event. He thus qualified for his first major final where he finished fifth with a time of 20.08 s.
Gemili won his first senior medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games coming second to Jamaica's Kemar Bailey-Cole in the 100 m final in a time of 10.10 s. Two weeks later, Gemili took his first senior title, winning the 200 m at the 2014 European Athletics Championships, in an equal personal best of 19.98 s (−1.6 m/s).
2015-19
On 31 May 2015, he broke the 10-second barrier in the 100 m for the first time in his career, with a run of 9.97 seconds; however, the wind speed (+3.7 m/s) was above the legal wind limit. Two months later, on 7 July at the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham, he became the 100th man in history to break the 10-second barrier legally, again clocking 9.97 seconds (+2.0 m/s); however, he fell as he crossed the line, picking up a hamstring injury which would cause him to miss the 2015 World Championships.
Gemili qualified for the men's 200 m final at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He, Christophe Lemaitre, and Churandy Martina hit the finish line together. The photo finish revealed Lemaitre to be the bronze medalist, with only six thousandths of a second separating the three runners; Gemili finished fourth.
He was overlooked for individual selection for the 2017 World Championships, following early season injury, but was included in the 4 x 100 m relay team. Racing both heats and final, he won a historic gold medal as a member of the British quartet in a national and European record, lifting the team to third on the all-time list behind USA and Jamaica. The final was also notable as Usain Bolt's last race; third at the changeover, he pulled up injured and was unable to finish.
Gemili qualified for both the individual 100 m and 200 m at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. He was eliminated in the 100 m at the semi-final stage, missing out on qualification for the final via a photo finish. He narrowly missed out on a medal in the 200 m final, leading the race coming off the bend but ultimately finishing in fourth place. He ran the first leg of the men's 4 × 100 m relay, winning a silver medal behind the United States in a new European record time of 37.36 seconds.
Off track, in November 2019 Gemili led a group of 20 British athletes including Mo Farah, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Laura Muir who threatened to take legal action against the British Olympic Association regarding the interpretation of the International Olympic Committee's Rule 40 contained in guidelines which had been recently issued by the association. Rule 40 restricts use of Olympic-related terms in marketing by non-approved sponsors: the athletes argued that the BOA's interpretation of the rule was too restrictive regarding how they could promote their individual sponsors. In March 2020 the athletes reached an agreement with the BOA which would allow athletes more opportunities to promote their sponsors during and immediately before and after the Games. In July 2020, Gemili was announced as a board member of the track and field athletes' union, the Athletics Association.
Football career
Formerly a football player, Gemili played as a defender for Football League Two team Dagenham & Redbridge, and joined Thurrock on loan at the end of August 2011, where he made 12 appearances in the Isthmian League until 30 November.
He was previously a youth player at Chelsea from the age of eight onwards for seven years, and spent a year at Reading. His time had been split between athletics and football; he said of his potential dual careers in 2012, "I hope this year could be a turning point in helping me decide which sport to focus on, but it does depend on what I run this year."
In 2012, Gemili switched full-time to athletics.
Achievements
International competitions
1Time from the heats; Gemili was replaced in the final.
Circuit wins, and National championships
Diamond League
2016: London Anniversary Games (4x100m relay)
2018: London (4x100m relay)
2020: Stockholm BAUHAUS-galan (200m)
British Athletics Championships
200 metres: 2016, 2019, 2021
References
External links
1993 births
Living people
Footballers from Greater London
English men's footballers
Men's association football defenders
Athletes from London
English male sprinters
British male sprinters
Olympic male sprinters
Olympic athletes for Great Britain
Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England
Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain
World Athletics Championships winners
World Athletics Championships medalists
European Athletics Championships winners
European Athletics Championships medalists
European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winners
World Athletics U20 Championships winners
British Athletics Championships winners
Chelsea F.C. players
Reading F.C. players
Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players
Thurrock F.C. players
National League (English football) players
English people of Iranian descent
English people of Moroccan descent
Alumni of the University of East London
Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games