Denise Lewis

* Denise
* Series 2

**Denise Lewis**OBE (born August 27, 1972) is a retired English track and field athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon. She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Lewis was honoured as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2001 New Year Honours. Since retiring from athletics, she has undertaken various television and media work and is now a regular athletics pundit for BBC Television, including during London 2012 and Rio 2016.

## Early Life

Born in West Bromwich, to Jamaican-born parents, Lewis grew up in Pendeford, Wolverhampton and was educated at The Regis School in Tettenhall, later to become The King's School (Church of England). A £1 million sports hall was later built there and named in her honour.

## Athletics Career

### **2000 Olympics**

The first day of the 2000 Summer Olympics heptathlon was September 23. In the first event, Lewis recorded 13.23 seconds for the 100 metres hurdles to be in second place behind the world champion, Eunice Barber, who had finished in 12.97 seconds. Ghada Shouaa, the 1996 Olympic champion, pulled-out after only 20 metres of her heat.

After a poor performance in the high jump of only 1.75 m, some way off her personal best, Lewis was in eighth place, 152 points behind Barber who had increased her lead. In the third event, the shot put, Lewis recorded a distance of 15.55 m, placing her second. 30 points behind Natallia Sazanovich and 45 points ahead of former world champion Sabine Braun. Barber's distance of 11.27 m put her in eighth place.

In the final event of the day, the 200 metres, Lewis recorded a time of 24.34 seconds. Sabine Braun's time placed her in sixth position. A strong run by Natalya Roshchupkina moved her from sixth position to second, pushing Lewis into third place.

At the end of the first day, the points scored were:

1. Natallia Sazanovich, BLR: 3903
2. Natalya Roshchupkina, RUS: 3872
3. Denise Lewis, GBR: 3852
4. Urszula Wlodarczyk, POL: 3805
5. Yelena Prokhorova, RUS: 3771
6. Sabine Braun, GER: 3770
7. Eunice Barber, FRA: 3707
8. Karin Specht-Ertl, GER: 3697

The first event on the second day was the long jump. Lewis' best jump was 6.48 m, marginally behind Yelena Prokhorova and  Sazanovich. Eunice Barber, struggling with injury, withdrew after this event. In event six, the javelin, Lewis achieved a throw of 50.19 m. With her closest rivals some way further back she moved into first place, with Sazanovich 63 points behind in second place and Prokhorova in third a further 83 points behind.

In the final event, the 800 metres, Lewis ran with the lower part of her left leg bandaged due to a calf and Achilles tendon injury, aiming to stay close enough to the race leaders to maintain her points advantage. Prokhorova won the race convincingly and when Lewis crossed the line behind Sazanovich it was not, at first, clear if Lewis' time of 2:16:83 was enough to retain first place. After the individual points had been circulated, it was announced, that Lewis had won with a total of 6584 points. Prokhorova was second was 6531 (53 points behind Lewis) and Sazanovich was third with 6527 (4 points behind Prokhorova).

### **2004 Olympics**

At the 2004 Olympics, Lewis was suffering from a number of injuries and withdrew from the competition after the long jump. Teammate and training partner Kelly Sotherton took bronze.

### **Personal Bests**

* 100 m hurdles - 13.13 seconds
* 200 m - 24.10 seconds
* 800 m - 2 minutes, 12.20 seconds
* High Jump - 1.87 m
* Long Jump - 6.69 m
* Shot Put - 16.12 m
* Javelin - 51.48 m
* Heptathlon - 6831 points Talence, France 2000

### **Awards and Recognition**

In the 2001 New Year Honours, Lewis was promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), having already been appointed MBE in the 1999 New Year Honours.

In 2000, she was also presented with the Freedom of the City of Wolverhampton. In 2010, Lewis was inducted into the Wolverhampton Sporting Hall of Fame, while in 2011, she was then inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame. In 2013, Lewis was honoured at the annual Wolverhampton Famous Sons & Daughters Awards ceremony. In 2014, she was presented with an honorary degree from the University of Wolverhampton.

With Dame Kelly Holmes, Christine Ohuruogu and Paula Radcliffe, Lewis enjoys acclamation as one of the "golden girls" of British athletics and, in 1998 and 2000 has been runner up in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In 2003, Lewis was put forward as a candidate in the BBC Midlands great midlaner of all-time award but lost out to eventual winner Reginald Mitchell the inventor of the Supermarine Spitfire.

Lewis was voted "Sportswoman of the Year" by the Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) in 1997, 1998 and 2000, a joint-record three times, while also being named as runner up in 1996. She was selected as "Female Athletic of the Year" by the British Athletics Writers' Association (BAWA) four times, in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000. Lewis won the Sunday Times "Sportswoman of the Year" a record three times, in 1994, 1998 and 2000.

At the inaugural British Ethnic Diversity Sports Award (BEDSA) in 2015, Lewis became the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Her British and Commonwealth record of 6831 points was set on July 30, 2000 in Talence, France. As of 2013, she ranks 15th in the Heptathlon all-time list.

In 2002, Lewis' Olympic victory was ranked 90th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.

In 2010, Lewis was made a Patron of the Jaguar Academy of Sport.

## Television Career

### **Punditry and Presenting**

Since 2009, Lewis has acted as a pundit for BBC Sport's athletics coverage and she has covered major live events including the 2009 World Athletics Championships, 2010 Commonweatlh Games, 2012 Summer Olympics, 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2016 Summer Olympics.

On February 2, 2015, Lewis guest hosted an episode of The One Show with Matt Baker.

Lewis has also been a presenter on various non-sports television programmes. In July 2015, Lewis co-hosted Right on the Money, a daytime series, alongside Dominic Littlewood on BBC One. The programme returned for a second series in July 2016. From July 22, 2011, Lewis hosted a children's reality television show Camp Orange. She is a presenter of the BBC's Secret Britain (Series 3 onwards) which introduces lesser-known aspects of the British countryside.

### **Strictly Come Dancing**

In 2004, Lewis took part in the BBC dancing competition, Strictly Come Dancing. She was partnered with professional dancer Ian Waite and was in the first few weeks scored the highest number of points with the judges. She eventually reached the final and was runner-up to actress Jill Halfpenny. After this, Lewis and the two other partners from the final danced at the Royal Variety Performance.

About 10 days after competing in the Strictly Come Dancing final, Lewis and Waite competed again in the Strictly Come Dancing Champion of Champions Special, where finalists from the first two series competed against each other. Lewis received the most points from the judges, but once again became runner-up of the contest to Halfpenny.

On November 7, 2016 it was announced that she alongside Pamela Stephenson, Melvin Odoom, Frankie Bridge, Ainsley Harriott and Gethin Jones will be participated in the 2016 Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special being partnered with Anton du Beke.

### **Guest Appearances**

In 2009, she revisited the role for the BBC's Let's Dance for Comic Relief in 2009, reaching the final stages.

On November 29, 2009, Lewis appeared on an episode of All Star Family Fortunes. In July 2011, she appeared on a celebrity edition of the BBC One gameshow Pointless with her father-in-law, Tom O'Connor.

In 2012, Lewis took part in a celebrity edition of The Cube on ITV.

In 2013, Lewis competed in the six-part entertainment show Your Face Sounds Familiar on ITV. In March 2014, Lewis appeared on an episode of Big Star's Little Star with her son Ryan.

In March 2015, it was announced that Lewis would take part in ITV's Give a Pet a Home a series which works alongside the RSPCA in Birmingham.

## Personal Life

Lewis was married to Belgian 200 metre-sprinter Patrick Stevens up until 2005. They have one daughter together. In 2006, Lewis married Steve Finan O'Connor, former manager of the UK pop group All Saints and son of comedian Tom O'Connor. The couple have three children together.