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| Born | Elizabeth Lynch (1964-05-24)24 May 1964 (age 61) Dundee, Scotland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 45 kg (99 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Great Britain Scotland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | 10,000 metres Marathon 3000 metres | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Dundee Hawks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Elizabeth NuttallMBE (néeLynch, formerlyMcColgan; born 24 May 1964) is a British formermiddle- andlong-distance runner. She won the gold medal in the10,000 metres at the1991 World Championships and a silver over the same distance at the1988 Olympic Games. McColgan earned a silver in the3000 metres at the1989 World Indoor Championships. She was a two-time gold medalist in the event at theCommonwealth Games,1992 World Half Marathon champion and a two-time individual medallist at theWorld Cross Country Championships. She claimed three victories at theWorld Marathon Majors: at the 1991New York City Marathon, 1992Tokyo Marathon and 1996London Marathon.
McColgan's 10,000 metres best of 30:57.07 set in 1991, moved her to second on the world all-time list at that time and stood as theScottish record until 2022, when it was broken by her daughterEilish McColgan. Hermarathon best of 2:26:52 set in 1997, stood as the Scottish record until 2019.
Born Elizabeth Lynch,[1] she grew up in theWhitfield area ofDundee[2] and was a pupil ofSt Saviour's RC High School.
She joined her local athletics club, Hawkhill Harriers, aged 12 on the advice of her PE teacher Phil Kearns[3][4] Coached by Harry Bennett, she soon discovered a talent for distance running and won her first UK titles aged 18.[3] Following Bennett's death, McColgan coached herself in preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986.[3] From 1987 to 1989 McColgan was coached byJohn Anderson, including at the 1988 Olympics, after which she coached herself to the world 10,000m title and to wins in the London, New York and Tokyo marathons. She then metGrete Waitz, who coached her from 1992 to her retirement in 1996.[3]
McColgan first attendedRicks College, where she competed in track and won anNJCAA national cross country title.[5] She missed the 1984-1985 season due to academic ineligibility and then transferred to theUniversity of Alabama to run in theNCAA system.[6]
Running for theAlabama Crimson Tide track and field team, McColgan won themile run at the1986 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships race in a time of 4:37.73, withTina Krebs ofClemson University second. However, on the weekend of May 10-11, 1986, McColgan and two other Alabama athletes were reported to have accepted prize money against NCAA rules for placing at a10K run inTupelo, Mississippi.[7][8] McColgan was initially cleared in that incident due to returning the prize check before it was cashed, but later that month an investigation found she had competed in other road races compromising her amateur status, and was disqualified from NCAA events as her mile championship title was vacated.[9][10] Her coach John Mitchell quit his job in the wake of the findings.[11][6]
At the1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, as Liz Lynch, she took the gold medal in the10,000 metres, finishing nearly 12 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor and giving the host country its only gold medal in athletics.[12] In 1987, she won a silver medal at theWorld Cross Country Championships inWarsaw representing Scotland (Great Britain would not send a unified team to the World Cross until 1988). She finished behindAnnette Sergent of France but ahead ofIngrid Kristiansen. In September, she improved the UK 10,000m record to 31:19.82 while finishing fifth at theWorld Championships in Rome, in a race won by Kristiansen.
In 1988, now competing as Liz McColgan, she improved her own UK record with 31:06.99 in July to defeat Kristiansen in Oslo. Almost three months later, she ran 31:08.44 to win an Olympic silver medal in the inaugural women's 10,000 metres at theSeoul Olympics. She was defeated by the Soviet Union'sOlga Bondarenko. McColgan won silver in the3,000 metres at theWorld Indoor Championships in 1989. In January 1990, she became the only Scot to successfully defend a Commonwealth title at the1990 games inAuckland,New Zealand, when she again took the gold in the 10,000 metres, as well as bronze in the 3,000 metres.[2] She missed the rest of the 1990 season due to pregnancy, giving birth to her daughter (future Olympic athlete)Eilish in November.Nike dropped her the moment she told them she was pregnant.[13]
Just six weeks after her daughter Eilish was born, she contested an international 5 km race in Florida and won a bronze medal at the1991 World Cross Country Championships. In June 1991, she ran her lifetime best for the 10,000 m with 30:57.07 in Hengelo, becoming only the third woman to run under 31 minutes, moving to second on the world all-time list behind Kristiansen and narrowly ahead of Bondarenko. This stood as the Scottish record until it was broken by Eilish in 2022.[14] In August 1991, she won gold in the 10,000 metres at theWorld Championships in Tokyo, Japan.[15] In November of that year at theNew York City Marathon, her firstmarathon, she won with a time of 2:27.23, breaking the record for a debut marathon by three minutes.[16]
In March 1992, McColgan struggled to a 41st-place finish at theWorld Cross Country Championships in Boston. Then, in the summer, she finished fifth in the 10,000m final at theBarcelona Olympics. In September, she won the inauguralWorld Half Marathon Championships, where she also helped the British team claim the silver medal in the team competition. Two months later, she won theTokyo International Women's Marathon.
After more than two years struggling with injuries, McColgan finished fifth in the 1995 London Marathon and sixth in the 10,000m final at the1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. In 1996, she won theLondon Marathon in a time of 2 hours, 27 minutes and 54 seconds, before finishing 16th in the marathon at theAtlanta Olympics. She finished second in the London Marathons of 1997 and 1998, running her career-best time of 2:26:52 in 1997. She gave her medal to a youngster in the crowd after the 1997 event.[17]
McColgan retired from competing in August 2001 when she fractured a bone in her foot while training for selection for the2002 Commonwealth Games.[18] However, she returned in 2004 to win the Scottish Indoor Championships 3000 metres (in 9:31). In 2007, she ran the London Marathon, finishing 25th in 2:50:38. She also completed the 2010 New York Marathon in 3:10:54. In 2017, she completed the inauguralStirling Scottish Marathon in 3:18:32.
In 1987 she married Northern Irish athletePeter McColgan; they had five children together -Eilish, Martin, Eamonn, Kieran and Orla. The couple separated in November 2010 and finalised their divorce in March 2013.[19][20] On 18 January 2014, McColgan marriedJohn Nuttall[21] (1967–2023), a coach who worked as head of endurance coaching forBritish Athletics and later coached inQatar, becoming step-mother to Nuttall's son, para-athleteLuke Nuttall and daughter, British international athleteHannah Nuttall.[22]
McColgan's eldest daughter, Eilish, is also a distance runner. Eilish broke her mother's Scottish 10,000 metre record in 2022,[14] and emulated her mother by winning the10,000 metres at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
In December 1991, McColgan appeared onThis Is Your Life[citation needed] and was votedBBC Sports Personality of the Year.[23] She was appointed aMember of the Order of the British Empire for services to athletics in1992[24] and inducted to theScottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.[25]
| Awards and achievements | ||
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| Preceded by | BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1991 | Succeeded by |
| Sporting positions | ||
| Preceded by | Women's 5,000 m Best Year Performance 1987–1988 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Zevenheuvelenloop Women's Winner (15 km) 1994 | Succeeded by |
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Commonwealth Games champions in women's10,000 metres | |
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