Marilyn Chinwenwa Okoro is a British track and field athlete.
Education
She finished third in the 800 metres at both the 2007 and 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final. She represented Great Britain at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and finished sixth (1:5953 mins) in the semi-finals. She attended Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, and on 26 June 2007 graduated from the University of Bath with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and French, then starting her first season as a full-time athlete.
Career
She was on the bronze winning 4 × 400 m relay at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. She speaks four languages (English, French, Spanish and Igbo) and sings in the jazz band The Felonius Monks. Marilyn suffered an injury plagued 2009 outdoor season, though she battled through the pain barrier to finish a very credible 8th in the World Championships 800 m final in Berlin.
Okoro was also included in the squad for the 4 × 400 m, but was not selected in the line-up to run in the final.
There has been some criticism that the Lee Valley track produces more injuries than championship performances. Marilyn has had a limited race schedule in 2010, but returned to a degree of form when taking bronze at the United Kingdom championships.
Subsequently Okoro was selected to challenge for a medal in the 800 m alongside Jenny Meadows and Jemma Simpson at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona. She finished 4th in her semi-final, therefore did not progress to the final.
Okoro recovered from that disappointment to run the second leg in the 4 × 400 bronze medal winning quartet alongside Nicola Sanders, Lee McConnell and Perri Shakes-Drayton, clocking 52.0 seconds for her legal
She also ran in the heat running 51.8 seconds. Vicki Barr replaced Shakes-Drayton in the heats. Okoro has been criticised heavily for her front running tactics, most notably by United Kingdom Athletics head coach Charles Van Commenee, who described Okoro"s performance in the 800 m at the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships as "naive and unprofessional".
Following her non-selection for the 800 m event at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Okoro accused Van Commenee of being "a bit of a bully."
Marilyn changed coaches during 2013, and then made the decision to move to the United States of America to be coached by legendary American middle-distance runner Johnny Gray at the University of Central Florida.