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Adam Ahmed Gemili (born 6 October 1993) is a Britishsprinter. He is the 2014European champion at200 metres, three-time European champion in the4 × 100 metres relay, and part of the Great Britain team that won gold at the2017 World Championships in the same event. He has finished fourth in the 200 m at the2016 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 the10-second barrier in the 100 metres.[3][4][5]
A silver medalist in the100 metres and 4 × 100 m relay in the2014 Commonwealth Games, Gemili is also a formerWorld Junior champion at 100 m andEuropean Under-23 champion at 100 m and 4 × 100 m relay. He is a three-time national champion in the 200 m.
Gemili’s mother was born inIran, his father is aMoroccan who moved to Britain in his late teens.[6] At the age of eleven, he attendedDartford Grammar School.[7] Gemili also attendedBarking and Dagenham College where he studied for aBTEC Extended Diploma in Sport, and hoped to attend university at some point.[8] After the 2012 Olympics he started studying Sports and Exercise Science with Human Biology at theUniversity of East London,[9] where he wrote his dissertation on the effect of particular warm-up exercises on sprinting performance.[10]
Gemili is a member ofBlackheath and Bromley Harriers Athletic Club, and also a former football player forDagenham & Redbridge andThurrock F.C. having spent seven years in the youth academy atChelsea.[8][11]
Gemili won a silver medal over 100 m at the2011 European Athletics Junior Championships inTallinn,Estonia.[12] 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.[13]
Gemili ran an Olympic qualifying time for the 100 m and won the Sparkassen Gala inRegensburg, Germany on 2 June 2012,[14] just over three weeks prior to the British track trials for the2012 London Olympics.[7] 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,[15] behind onlyDwain 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.[12] Gemili was selected for theBritish 2012 Olympic 4 × 100 m relay team on 3 July 2012.
On 11 July 2012, Gemili finished first in the100 m at the2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, winning the gold medal in a time of 10.05 seconds, breaking the championship record originally established byDarrel Brown in 2002.[16] Besides breaking the British national junior record, Gemili's time ranked second among European juniors (behindChristophe 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 the2012 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.[17][18]
He qualified to run the 200 m at the2013 World Championships in Athletics inMoscow. 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, afterJohn Regis, the third teenager (afterUsain Bolt andAlonso Edward), and the ninth European athlete, to break 20 seconds in the event.[19] 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.[20]
Gemili won his first senior medal at the2014 Commonwealth Games coming second to Jamaica'sKemar Bailey-Cole in the100 m final in a time of 10.10 s.[21] Two weeks later, Gemili took his first senior title, winning the 200 m at the2014 European Athletics Championships, in an equal personal best of 19.98 s (−1.6 m/s).
On 31 May 2015, he broke the10-second barrier in the 100 m for the first time in his career, with a run of 9.97 seconds, but the wind speed(+3.7 m/s) was above the legalwind limit.[22] Two months later, on 7 July at theDiamond 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). He fell as he crossed the line, picking up a hamstring injury which caused him to miss the2015 World Championships.[23][5][24]
Gemili qualified for themen's 200 m final at the2016 Rio Olympics. He, Christophe Lemaitre, andChurandy Martina were separated by six thousandths of a second. Thephoto finish showed Lemaitre to be the bronze medalist, with Gemili in fourth.[25]
He was overlooked for individual selection for the 2017 World Championships, following early season injury, but was included in the 4 × 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 asUsain Bolt's last race; third at the changeover, he pulled up injured and was unable to finish.[26]
Gemili qualified for both the individual 100 m and 200 m at the2019 World Athletics Championships inDoha, Qatar. He was eliminated in the 100 m at the semi-final stage, missing out on qualification for the final via a photo finish.[27] 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.[28] 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.[29]
Off track, in November 2019 Gemili led a group of 20 British athletes includingMo Farah,Katarina Johnson-Thompson andLaura Muir who threatened to take legal action against theBritish Olympic Association regarding the interpretation of theInternational Olympic Committee'sRule 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.[30] 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.[31] In July 2020, Gemili was announced as a board member of the track and field athletes' union, the Athletics Association.[32]
Formerly afootball player, Gemili played as adefender forFootball League Two teamDagenham & Redbridge,[8] and joinedThurrock on loan at the end of August 2011, where he made 12 appearances in theIsthmian League until 30 November.[33]
He was previously a youth player atChelsea from the age of eight onwards for seven years, and spent a year atReading.[8][15] 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."[34]
In 2012, Gemili switched full-time to athletics.[35]
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | European Junior Championships | Tallinn, Estonia | 2nd | 100 m | 10.41 |
| 2nd | 4 × 100 m relay | 39.48 | |||
| 2012 | World Junior Championships | Barcelona, Spain | 1st | 100 m | 10.05CR |
| – (f) | 4 × 100 m relay | DNF | |||
| Olympic Games | London, United Kingdom | 3rd (sf) | 100 m | 10.06 | |
| – (h) | 4 × 100 m relay | DQ | |||
| 2013 | European U23 Championships | Tampere, Finland | 1st | 100 m | 10.20 |
| 4th | 200 m | 20.51 | |||
| 1st | 4 × 100 m relay | 38.77 | |||
| World Championships | Moscow, Russia | 5th | 200 m | 20.08 | |
| – (f) | 4 × 100 m relay | DQ | |||
| 2014 | Commonwealth Games | Glasgow, Scotland | 2nd | 100 m | 10.10 |
| 2nd | 4 × 100 m relay | 38.02 | |||
| European Championships | Zürich, Switzerland | 1st | 200 m | 19.98 | |
| 1st | 4 × 100 m relay | 37.93 | |||
| 2016 | European Championships | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 1st | 4 × 100 m relay | 38.17 |
| Olympic Games | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 4th | 200 m | 20.12 | |
| 5th | 4 × 100 m relay | 37.98 | |||
| 2017 | World Relays | Nassau, Bahamas | – (f) | 4 × 100 m relay | 38.321 |
| World Championships | London, United Kingdom | 1st | 4 × 100 m relay | 37.47 | |
| 2018 | Commonwealth Games | Gold Coast, Australia | – (f) | 100 m | DNS |
| European Championships | Berlin, Germany | 5th | 200 m | 20.10 | |
| 1st | 4 × 100 m relay | 37.80 | |||
| 2019 | World Relays | Yokohama, Japan | 3rd | 4 × 100 m relay | 38.15 |
| World Championships | Doha, Qatar | 11th (sf) | 100 m | 10.13 | |
| 4th | 200 m | 20.03 | |||
| 2nd | 4 × 100 m relay | 37.36AR | |||
| 2021 | Olympic Games | Tokyo, Japan | 47th (h) | 200 m | 158.58 |
| 2022 | World Championships | Eugene, OR, United States | 28th (h) | 200 m | 20.60 |
| 3rd | 4 × 100 m relay | 38.491 | |||
| Commonwealth Games | Birmingham, United Kingdom | 12th (sf) | 200 m | 20.97 | |
| 2023 | World Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 4th | 4 × 100 m relay | 37.80 |
1Time from the heats; Gemili was replaced in the final.
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Men's European Athletics Rising Star of the Year 2014 | Succeeded by |
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World U20 Champions in men's100 metres | |
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European Athletics Championships champions in men's200 metres | |
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European Athletics Championships champions in men's4 × 100 metres relay | |
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European Athletics U23 Championships champions in men's100 metres | |
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European Athletics U23 Championships champions in men's4 × 100 metres relay | |
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| |
† denotes athletes who took part in heats only |
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