Sebastian Coe
Sebastian Coe
Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, CH KBE FRIBA, often referred to as Seb Coe or Lord Coe, is a British politician and former track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Lord Coe won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. He set eight 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...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth29 September 1956
ask champion choose good great helps
Ask me what makes a champion runner, and I will tell you it helps to have the great good sense to choose your parents carefully.
athletics great load
The great thing about athletics is that it's like poker sometimes: you know what's in your hand, and it may be a load of rubbish, but you've got to keep up the front.
age condition cope great mentally olympics physically
During my first Olympics in 1980, at the age of 23, I was physically in great condition but mentally too inexperienced to cope comfortably in the pressure cooker of an Olympic year.
athletics background ended great inspired join loved olympic ordinary people saw secondary tv
I had a very ordinary background in Sheffield; I went to a secondary modern, but I saw something on TV in 1968 that inspired me to join an athletics club, and 12 years later, with great coaching and the support of people who loved me a lot, I ended up at an Olympic Games.
commission delighted evaluation great insight members
I am particularly delighted that so many of the members of the evaluation commission are on this team. They already have a great insight about our plans, aspirations and visions.
chance given olympic spoke
In 1981, I spoke at the Olympic Congress. I was scandalised that I was the first athlete to be given that chance. But I made the most of it.
games sports
In all Games, there is always a tendency, particularly in the lead up to the Games when there isn't much sport to talk about, to write about things that are not sport.
everybody good outlet people recognises sports
Everybody recognises that giving young people competitive outlet through sport is a very good thing.
biggest fragility inability people
The biggest fragility in a project is often just the inability to be able to explain to people why you are doing it, and when you're going to do it, and what's going to happen.
joined
I joined the local athletics club when I was 12, that's what I did. I did it of my own volition.
people sector types
I'm probably one of the few people who can say I did all three types of state sector schooling.
five sure system
I'm not sure there are enough coaches in the system that can take young talent and consistently get them into the top five in the world.
momentum people seriously taken
The international people tell us that we are taken seriously and that there is a momentum.
marginal power
There is nothing so marginal as a party that has been in power for 18 years and slides into opposition. You influence nothing.